chapter 4 section 1. north america clip (5 minutes)
TRANSCRIPT
North America:North America:PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHYPHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Chapter 4Section 1
North America Clip (5 minutes)
North America at Night
Large Bodies of Water:
North America is surrounded by 3 oceans:
PACIFIC
ARCTIC
ATLANTIC
Other Major Bodies of Water
• Hudson Bay
•Gulf of Mexico
•Caribbean Sea
Lakes in North America The United States and Canada share the Great Lakes—Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.
These are the world’s largest freshwater lakes, and they were formed by melting glaciers, huge, slow-moving ice sheets.
The Great Lakes from Space
Major Rivers in AmericaThe major American
river is the Mississippi.
The smaller Ohio and
Missouri rivers flow into the
Mississippi and are called
tributaries.
St. Lawrence River• In Canada, the St.
Lawrence River connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
• The St. Lawrence is an important transportation corridor, because itenables ships to travel all the way from the Atlantic to the heart of the United States and Canada.
• North America has several major mountain ranges.
• The Rocky Mountains are in the west and run from Canada to Mexico in the south.
In the West are the Rocky Mountains,
which extend through the United States and
most of Canada.
In the East are the Appalachian Mountains
In between these mountain chains are the Great Plains, good areas for farming.
The Coastal Plains in the southeast has good arable land for farming, but is prone to hurricanes.
The Great Plains are America’s breadbasket.
Plateau
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/willow/geography-of-mexico0.gif
Central Plateau of Mexico is where most people of Mexico live.
PeninsulasA peninsula is surrounded by water on at
least three sides.•Yucatan Peninsula - famous tourist spot
•Baja California
•Florida
Other Physical Features
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/images/CanadianShield.jpg
Canadian Shield
–too cold and
rocky
Other Physical Features• Caribbean Islands-$$
from tourism
Other Physical Features
Panama Canal- man-made shortcut for ships
COLD
HOT
Climate• The United States has
more types of climates than any other continent.
• Alaska is far north and very cold.
• Hawaii and Florida are near the tropics, the area between 23°N and 23°S latitudes; their climate is hot.
The Southwestern part of the United States & Central Mexico includes deserts.