ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES

United States Geography

Geography of the USA

Area

USA topo en.jpg

  • The United States of America is the third largest country in the world by area and has a varied topography.
  • The Country is borders both the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans and is bordered by Canada and Mexico.
  • The land area of the contiguous United States is approximately 1,900 million acres (7,700,000 km2).
  • Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 365 million acres (1,480,000 km2).
  • Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, has just over 4 million acres (16,000 km2)

Characteristics

  • The eastern regions consist of hills and low mountains while the central interior is a vast plain (called the Great Plains region) and the west has high rugged mountain ranges (some of which are volcanic in the Pacific Northwest).
  • Alaska also features rugged mountains as well as river valleys.
  • Hawaii's landscape varies but is dominated by volcanic topography.

Climate

The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types.

  • To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south.
  • The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii.
  • The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid.
  • Much of the Western mountains are alpine.
  • The climate is arid in the Great Basin,
  • It is desert in the Southwest,
  • It is mediterranean in coastal California,
  • It is oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska.
  • Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar.
  • Extreme weather is not uncommon - the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.

Here is a list of pages about the USA: