NORTH AMERICA
1.1
I. North America is the third largest continent and fourth most populous continent.
A. North America is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west.
B. North America was connected to South America by a narrow strip of land called the Isthmus of Panama. The isthmus is the narrowest part of the Americas.
C. Mountains are found on both sides of North America.
1. The Rocky Mountains are in the west.
2. The Appalachian Mountains in the east.
3. Mount McKinley in Alaska is the highest peak in North America. It is part of the Rocky Mountains.
D. Between these mountain ranges are the Great Plains.
1. Because of the amount of grain grown in the Great Plains, it is called the “Breadbasket
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The land
1. Around the North Pole the Arctic Ocean is covered by ice.
2. The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and coldest ocean on earth. Glaciers, which are large masses of ice that flow slowly over land, break off into the water forming huge icebergs.
3. The treeless Arctic plains north of the timberline form a region called the tundra. Most of the tundra is north of the Arctic Circle, in the north Frigid Zone. The Frigid Zones are the coldest regions on earth.
4. The tundra of North America includes parts of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and a large number of islands in the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea. During the summer, the sun shines all day and all night giving the region the nickname “Land of the Midnight Sun.”
5. The ground of the tundra is heated by the sun and becomes marshy during the summer. The ground under the top layer remains frozen. This permanently frozen ground is called permafrost.
6. Low shrubs, mosses, and lichen (two kinds of plants—fungi and algae—growing together) grow in the tundra.
7. The arctic willow is the world’s smallest tree. In some places, the arctic willow grows to a height of only two
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Eagles are among the largest and most powerful birds in the world. The golden eagle is called the “king of the birds.” The bald eagle is not bald; the feathers on its head are white.
IV. Central Canada
A. The Hudson Bay and the Canadian Shield
1. Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world.
2. Hudson Bay is the world’s largest bay. Henry Hudson discovered the bay in 1610.
3. Hudson Bay is nearly surrounded by the Canadian Shield, a horseshoe- shaped region that covers about half of Canada. When seen from above, this range of hills resembles a shield. The hills are made up of hard rocks covered by little or no soil. The shield is the source of much of Canada’s mineral wealth.
B. The St. Lawrence Seaway
1. When early explorers sailed beyond the islands of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, they discovered the Gulf of the St. Lawrence.
2. They followed the St. Lawrence River which became a highway into the continent.
3. The river flows from Lake Ontario into the Atlantic Ocean.
4. Today ships can sail from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Lake
This biome is located in the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere and is in North America, Asia, and Europe. It stretches across Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia spreading through the Northern
Temperature contrast between the equator and the Arctic region is greatest in the winter. Temperatures near or at the equator only change a few degrees between winter and summer while the Arctic region changes drastically up to 40 degrees between the seasons.
1.The geological and geographical conditions that set the stage for North American history is that the earth formed slowly,10 million years ago North America was sculpted ,and the continent was anchored in a north eastern corner by a canadian shield.Around 2 million years ago the great ice age began,the ice sheets were about 2 miles thick crept from the polar region , in North America the glaciers carpeted most of canada and the U.S., parts of europe,Asia,and the americas werecovered with a blanket of snow.
About 225 million years ago, according to the theory of “Pangaea,” the world was once a single supercontinent that contained all the dry land. Approximately 10 million years ago, North America was shaped by the majestic Canadian Shield. About 2 million years ago, in North America, the grand glaciers laid the land of Canada and the United States, southbound as far as from Pennsylvania all the way to the Pacific Northwest. Recently, about 135 million to 25 million years ago, four massive ranges—the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, and the Coast Ranges, arose in western North America. About 35000 years ago, the ancestors of the Native Americans, the nomadic Asian hunters, first
Canada is the largest North American continent by land area. It is also the second-largest country in the world in terms of land area. Canada is home to 35 million people. It borders the United States. Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It is also the fifth most populous city in Canada.
During the Ice Age, the water froze into massive glaciers and exposed a land bridge that connected Eurasia and North America.
Plant life tends to be of low growth and, during the short summer, the birds arrive in large numbers to feed on the insects that are born in this period. The climate is cold summers and very cold winters characterize the tundra area in the northern most limit plant growth. Areas
people of this region are known as being farmers. Although there are many non-farmers in this
In the north, the climate typically consists of hot and humid summers and mild to very severe winters. These severe winters result in freezing temperatures,
America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, the navigator that discovered it. Due to the American Civil War, it was divided into North America and South America. Although these are now two different continents, they are still similar in a way. They have different people, with different cultures. Yet, their physical features and the impact these people have on the lands resemble each other in a
The United States and Mexico together take up the majority of the habitable lands of North America. In 1763, the Viceroyalty of New Spain controlled most of
There were some who used the South Pacific Ocean islands and then the North Pacific Ocean islands to reach the American Continent.
In the northern part of the earth and the upper slopes of all mountains all over the world, a unique biome called tundra exists. Tundra is one of the coldest and harshest biomes of the world. The winters are long and cold, and the summers are short and cool. Tundra is far from the equator; therefore, Tundra soil is generally poor in nutrients. Since the biome is covered in snow throughout the year, the arctic tundra doesn’t seem like a place where plants and animals can survive. Yet, plants and animals are able to survive, thanks to their special adaptations. In fact, it isn’t the freezing temperature that they fear; it is us, human. Today, tundra faces lots of threats and problems because of human. One of the major problem is Global
north pole and the arctic circle, because of the Global warming the ice is melting and the
Permafrost comprises 24% of the land in the Northern hemisphere, and stores massive amounts of carbon. It is a permanent frozen soil that remains at or below 0 degrees Celsius continuously for at least two consecutive years. Even though the soil is frozen, plants still grow in the soil at the surface which is not frozen during the warmer parts of the year. As Figure 1 shows, permafrost has different layers; the active layer is ground that is