North America is the third largest continent, or a portion of the second largest if North and South America are combined into the Americas and Africa, Europe and Asia are considered to be part of one supercontinent called Afro-Eurasia. With an estimated population of 460 million and an area of 24,346,000 km² (9,400,000 mi²), the northernmost of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west; the Atlantic Ocean on the east; the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and South America on the south; and the Arctic Ocean on the north. The northern half of North America is sparsely populated and covered mostly by Canada, except for the northwestern portion which is occupied by Alaska, the largest state of the U.S. The central and southern portions of the continent are represented by the United States, Mexico, and numerous smaller states primarily in Central America and in the Caribbean.
North America consists of all the mainland and related offshore islands lying north of the Colombia-Panama border according to most sources, or the Panama Canal according to a few.. The islands include Greenland, the world's largest island, and archipelagos and islands in the Caribbean. The terminology of the Americas is complex, but "Anglo-America" can describe Canada and the U.S., while "Latin America" comprises Mexico and the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, as well as the entire continent of South America.
Natural features of North America include the northern portion of the American Cordillera, represented by the geologically new Rocky Mountains in the west; and the considerably older Appalachian Mountains to the east. The north hosts an abundance of glacial lakes formed during the last glacial period, including the Great Lakes. North America's major continental divide is the Great Divide, which runs north and south down through Rocky Mountains. The major watersheds all drain to the east: The Mississippi/Missouri and Rio Grande into the Gulf of Mexico, and St. Lawrence into the Atlantic.
Climate is determined to a large extent by the latitude, ranging from Arctic cold in the north to tropical heat in the south. The western half of North America tends to have milder and wetter climate than other areas with equivalent latitude, although there are steppes (known as "prairies") and deserts in the Southwestern United States of Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, and Texas; along with the Mexican states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.
Seventy percent of North America is underlain by the Laurentia craton, which is exposed as the Canadian Shield in much of central and eastern Canada around the Hudson Bay, and as far south as the U.S. states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The continental crust started to form 4 billion years ago (Ga), and six of the microcontinents collided to form the craton about 2 Ga. This core has been enlarged by plate tectonics, most notably between 1.8 and 1.65 Ga when a piece currently stretching from Arizona to Missouri fused with the south and west portion of the craton. The craton started to rift about 1.1 Ga, and the fissure (now the Midcontinent Rift System) ran between Kansas and Lake Superior before stopping, perhaps due to the Grenville collision in the east. Otherwise the craton has remained relatively stable, with some rocks dating from 2.5 to 4 Ga, including what may be the world's oldest known rock: Specimens from the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt on the coast of the Hudson Bay have been dated to 4.38 Ga, though the dating methods are disputed. Periodic flooding by inland seas, most recently the Western Interior Seaway during the Cretaceous, caused the layer of sedimentary rock over the remainder of the craton. The Laurentia craton is the center of the Proterozoic supercontinent Rodina in most models, and was also part of the later Laurussia, Pangea, and Laurasia supercontinents.
Roughly 3 million years ago (Ma), the volcanic Isthmus of Panama formed between the North and South American continents creating a bridge over what was the Central American Seaway and allowing the migration of flora and fauna between the two landmasses in the Great American Interchange. Starting 2.58 Ma, the Quaternary glaciation covered much of the continent with ice, centered west of Hudson Bay, the floor of which is slowly rebounding after being depressed by the great weight of the ice. Glaciers descended the slopes of the Rocky Mountains and those of the Pacific Margin. Extensive glacial lakes, such as Glacial Lake Missoula, Bonneville, Lahontan, Agassiz, and Algonquin, formed by glacial melt water. "Remnants of them are still visible in the Great Basin and along the edge of the Canadian Shield in the form of the Great Salt Lake, the Great Lakes, and the large lakes of west central Canada." The last glacial period of the current ice age caused a lowering of the sea level, exposing the Bering Land Bridge between Alaska and Siberia, which resulted in human migration from Asia to the Americas between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago.
Physiographically, the continent may be divided into at least five major regions: The Canadian Shield, which is a geologically stable area of rock dating between 2.5 and 4 Ga that occupies most of the northeastern quadrant, including Greenland; the Appalachian Mountains, an old and eroded system that formed about 300 Ma and extends from the Gaspé Peninsula to Alabama; the Atlantic Coastal Plain, a belt of lowlands widening to the south that extends from south New England to Mexico; the Interior Lowlands, which extends down the middle of the continent from the Mackenzie Valley to the Gulf Coastal Plain including the Great Plains on the west and the agriculturally productive Interior Plains on the east; and the North American Cordillera, a complex belt of mountains and associated plateaus and basins some of which were formed as recently as 100–65 Ma, during the Cretaceous. The cordillera extend from Alaska into Mexico and includes two orogenic belts — the Pacific Margin on the west and the Rocky Mountains on the east — separated by a system of intermontane plateaus and basins. The Coastal Plain and the main belts of the North American Cordillera continue in the south in Mexico (where the Mexican Plateau, bordered by the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Occidental, is considered a continuation of the intermontane system) to connect the Transverse Volcanic Range, a zone of high and active volcanic peaks south of Mexico City.
The vast majority of North America is located on the North American Plate, centered on the Laurentia craton. Parts of California and western Mexico form the partial edge of the Pacific Plate; the two plates meet along the San Andreas fault. The southern portion of the Caribbean and parts of Central America compose the much smaller Caribbean Plate.
The continent can be divided into four great regions (and sub regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico and its long plateaus and cordilleras fall largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf.
The western mountains have split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the Coast Ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia with the Great Basin (a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts) in between. The highest peak is Mount McKinley/Denali in Alaska.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) states that the geographic center of North America is approximately "6 miles west of Balta, Pierce County, North Dakota" at 48⁰ 10′north, 100⁰ 10′west. The USGS further states "No marked or monumented point has been established by any government agency as the geographic center of the 50 States, the conterminous United States, or the North American continent.". Nonetheless, there is a 15 foot (4.5 m) field stone obelisk in Rugby, North Dakota (approximately 15 miles or 25 km away) claiming to mark the center.
Three countries (Canada, the United States, and Mexico) make up most of North America's land mass; they share the continent with 34 smaller nations located mainly south of Mexico and in the Caribbean.
The Great Plains is the broad expanse of prairie and steppe which lies east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. The narrow plains in the Mexican coast and the savannas of the Mississippi are analogous to, respectively, the Patagonian steppes and the pampas of the Piranha, Paraguay, and Rio de la Plata. Thus the Appalachians and the mountain chains of Brazil are regarded as creating similar interruptions to the plains community.
North America extends to within 10° of latitude of both the equator and the North Pole. It embraces every climatic zone, from tropical rain forest and savanna on the lowlands of Central America to areas of permanent ice cap in central Greenland. Subarctic and tundra climates prevail in north Canada and north Alaska, and desert and semiarid conditions are found in interior regions cut off by high mountains from rain-bearing westerly winds. However, most of the continent has temperate climates very favorable to settlement and agriculture. Prairies, or vast grasslands cover a huge amount in mountain ranges.
|24 hours||Silver Lake, Colorado||April 14–15, 1921||76||195.6|
|1 month||Tamarack, California||Jan. 1911||390||991|
|One storm||Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl, Calif.||Feb. 13–19, 1959||189||480|
|One season||Mount Baker, Wash||1998-1999||1, 140||2, 895.6|
North American rivers include:
The climate in North America is typically cool and humid. The rainy zone disproportionately extends in America, and as the continent stretches over the climatic zones, vegetation is remarkably distinctive. Great indentations of the shoreline make insular conditions to prevail in much of its interior. The area along the west coast tends to be milder and wetter than other areas with the same latitude.
There are various plant life distributions in North America. Plant life in the Arctic includes grasses, mosses, and Arctic willows. Coniferous trees, including spruces, pines, hemlocks, and firs, are indigenous to the Canadian and Western U.S. mountain ranges as far south as San Francisco. Among these are giant sequoias, redwoods, great firs, and sugar pines. Sugar pines are generally confined to the northwestern area of the United States. The central region of the country has hardwoods. Southern states grow extensive yellow pines. In addition, mahogany, logwood, and lignumvitae - all tropical in nature - are grown. The southwest has desert plants, including yucci and cacti. The cultivated native plants of North America are tobacco, maize, potato, vanilla, melons, cacao, gourds, indigo plant, and bean.
North America is home to many native mammal species. Several species of deer, including elk, caribou, moose, mule deer, and the abundant white-tailed deer are found throughout various regions, along with the bison and musk ox in the central and northern plains, respectively. Three species of bear, several subspecies of wolf, and various other carnivores such as raccoons, skunks, and cats including cougars and lynxes are widely distributed. The family Mustelidae is well-represented, including badgers, otters, ferrets, and wolverines. Numerous species of squirrels and other rodents, such as beavers and muskrats, can be found in virtually every region of the continent. Central America has adapted sloths, anteaters, and armadillos. Other animals includes the condor, among the heights of the Andes, the parrots and the monkeys of Tropical forests, the humming bird, rattlesnake, alligator, and Cayman of the banks of the streams, the electric eel in the tropical waters, and swarms of mosquitoes on the wide plains.
The Rocky Mountain region is known for vast resources and rich mineral deposits including copper, lead, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium, and zinc. Coal, petroleum and natural gas are mineral fuels found. Old mine tailings are present in the Rocky Mountain landscape.
Agriculture and forestry are two major industries. Agriculture includes arid land and irrigated farming and livestock grazing. Livestock are often moved between high-elevation summer pastures and low-elevation and winter pastures.
Relief maps of the United States explain the location of desert areas. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run along the entire Pacific Coast, acting as a barrier to the humid winds that sweep in from the ocean. The rising topography forces this air upwards, causing moisture to condense and fall in the form of rain on the western slopes of the mountains, with some areas receiving more than 70 inches (1.8 m) of rainfall per year. As a result, the air has lost much of its moisture and becomes hot and dry when it reaches the areas east of the coastal mountain ranges. These arid conditions are, in some instances, exacerbated in regions of extremely low altitude (some near or below sea level) by higher air pressure, resulting in drier conditions and adiabatic heating effects. What precipitation does fall generally does not last long, lost primarily to evaporation, as well as rapid runoff and efficient water uptake and storage by native vegetation.
Map and aerial photos