Physical Features of the United States – 4th – 08/09

Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Coastal Plain Pacific Ocean Gulf of Mexico Mississippi River St. Lawrence River Gulf of St. Lawrence The Great Lakes Niagara Falls Erie Canal Appalachian Mountains Rocky Mountains Great Basin Continental Divide Death Valley

The Atlantic Coastal Plain is the flat stretch of land that borders the Atlantic Ocean.

Part of Georgia is in the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Atlantic Ocean Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico covers more than 617,600 square miles The Gulf of Mexico covers more than 617,600 square miles. It receives freshwater from 33 major river systems, 207 estuaries, and the Mississippi River.

Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico

The Mississippi River is about 2,300 miles long.

The Mississippi is as little as 20 feet wide in some and up to a mile in others. It is as shallow as three feet deep in some areas and 200 feet deep in others.

About 15 million people use the Mississippi River for water. Atlantic Ocean Gulf of Mexico

41% of all water in the United States drains in into it.

Missouri: 2,540 miles – longest river in U.S. Mississippi: 2,340 miles – 2nd longest Yukon: 1,980 miles Rio Grande: 1,900 miles St. Lawrence: 1,900 miles – 5th longest

St. Lawrence River

The St. Lawrence River is bordered by the state of New York and the provinces of Ontario and Québec. St. Lawrence River Gulf of St. Lawrence

St. Lawrence River? The Great Lakes?

This chain of five large freshwater lakes form the largest lake group in the world, covering an area of 95,000 sq miles. The St. Lawrence River is not a Great Lake, but is an important part of the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence system, leading to the Atlantic Ocean.

The State of Michigan has over 6,360 lakes. This large number is due to the action of the glaciers across the land thousands of years ago and also resulted in the formation of the Great Lakes.

Once vital to fur trading and development in the early history of Canada and the U. S., the Great Lakes remain a transportation route for iron ore, steel, petroleum, grain, and American automobiles.

Niagara Falls is the second largest falls on the globe next to Victoria Falls in southern Africa.

At the bottom of the falls, the water travels 15 miles over many gorges until it reaches the fifth Great Lake - Ontario.

The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York state that runs about 365 miles from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The Erie Canal is shown here in light blue.

The Erie Canal is shown on the map as the green line from Albany, NY to Buffalo, NY.

In 1825, the Erie Canal linked the "Northwest“ Erie Canal, Rochester, New York, 1907 In 1825, the Erie Canal linked the "Northwest“ (Ohio to Wisconsin) with the Atlantic states north of Virginia.

The Great Lakes? The Appalachian Mountains? The Coastal Plain? The Great Plains? The Rocky Mountains?

The Appalachian Mountains formed via many different mountain building episodes.  One episode would cause older rock to rise, which would later be eroded, and the cycle would then repeat itself.

Formation of the Rockies has taken millions of years. The Appalachian Mountains are older than the Rockies.

Rocky Mountains

The length of the Rocky Mountain system is about 3,300 miles; the width is as much as 400 miles.

The Rockies cross parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Washington in the U.S. and parts of Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, and the Northwest Territories in Canada.

The present mountains are the result of an uplift of folding, faulting, and thrusting of the land. In some areas, volcanic activity aided the mountain building. During the last Ice Age, glaciers helped carve and shape them.

The Great Basin is bordered by the Sierra Nevada Range on the west and the Rocky Mountains on the east, the Columbia Plateau to the north and the Mojave and Sonoran deserts to the south.

Rockies? Great Basin?

The Great Basin is the Largest desert in the U. S. It covers about 190,000 square miles.

This is a cool or "cold desert" due to its northern latitude and higher elevations.

Great Basin Precipitation, 7-12 inches annually, is more evenly distributed throughout the year than in other deserts. Winter precipitation often falls as snow.

The Continental Divide is a series of mountain ridges extending from Alaska to Mexico forms the watershed of North America. Most of it runs along the Rocky Mountains and is often called the Great Divide.

Continental Divide or Great Divide Rocky Mountains Continental Divide or Great Divide

The Continental Divide is the line that divides the flow of water between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.

The Continental Divide is the border between the green and red/blue on the map. Do you see the Great Basin?

Pacific Ocean

Death Valley – the land of extremes - The lowest point in the country is in the Death Valley National Park, at 282 feet below the sea level. Death Valley’s highest point is at 11, 049 feet.

The valley was named for something that happened around the time of the 1849 Gold Rush. A group of travelers in search of a short cut wandered away from the caravan and perished in the desert.

Can you find Death Valley on the map? Can you find the Grand Canyon on the map?

Grand Canyon from the air - The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and 5000 feet deep. It cuts through the Colorado Plateau that is between 5000 and 9000 feet above sea level.

The Grand Canyon began forming six million years ago with the beginning erosion of the Colorado River.