FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES Perhaps the most notable geographic trait of the United This variety has affected the origin development and economies States and Canada the two countries that make up the majority of the continent of North America is that there isn’t a single trait Their shared area is marked by huge variety in landforms and other physical characteristics climate and precipitation of both countries The richness of the land’s resources has made the United States and Canada two of the wealthiest countries in the world They have other things in common as well including a democratic background language and many aspects of culture to dry deserts the geography of these two countries encompasses all the major types of biomes in the world From tall mountains to sprawling plains and from wet rain forests A STATE APART Two U S states are separated geographically from the rest of the country Alaska is at the far northwestern part of North America Hawaii however is in the middle of the central Pacific Ocean It’s made up of eight major islands and more than 100 islets or small islands The islands are volcanic Loa on the main island of Hawaii is the world’s largest volcano and there’s still a lot of volcanic activity in Hawaii today Mauna 4
5 THINK LIKE A GEOGRAPHER THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA AREN'T THE ONLY COUNTRIES THAT MAKE UP NORTH AMERICA GREENLAND MEXICO AND MANY OTHER SMALLER COUNTRIES ARE CONSIDERED PART OF THE CONTINENT Though they're two different countries the United States and Canada can both claim one notable landmark Niagara Falls
THINK LIKE GEOGRAPHER OLD ROCKS RICH RESOURCES North America is made up of some of the oldest rocks on Earth The continent was built up on a continental shield called the Canadian or Laurentian Shield which is huge about 3 million square miles 7 8 million sq km The shield is centered on Canada’s Hudson Bay It’s the biggest chunk of exposed Precambrian rock on Earth While much of the shield is exposed across Canada it’s mostly covered by sedimentary rock in the United States except for a few areas including the Adirondack Mountains The Appalachian Mountains stand to the southeast of the shield and the ranges that include the Rocky Mountains the Sierra Nevadas and others stand to the west The Great Plains and other lowlands lie between them A A CONTINENTAL SHIELD IS A HUGE STABLE LOW AREA IN EARTH’S CRUST SHIELDS ARE MADE OF PRECAMBRIAN ROCKS THAT CAN BE ANYWHERE FROM 540 MILLION TO 3 BILLION YEARS OLD 6
Thousands of millions of years ago glaciers smoothed much of the rock of the Canadian Shield They left behind rocky hills and basins that are now often lakes or swamps THE CORDILLERA A cordillera is a system of mountain ranges arranged in somewhat parallel chains The mountain ranges that rise to the west of the Canadian Shield are sometimes called the Cordillera or Cordilleras They take up about a third of the land in the United States They include the Rocky Mountains in the eastern part of the ranges the Coast Ranges and the Klamath Mountains on the West Coast and the Sierra Nevadas and the Cascade Range in the middle 7
