North America INorth America I

North AmericaNorth America

Learning Objectives :-

• Explain the geographical location of the North America continent

• Understand the quality of life of residents of North America

• Discuss the physical characteristics of the North America continent

North AmericaNorth America

• Geographically, North America includes USA, Canada and Mexico.

• Commonly referred to in geography as Anglo-America (Canada and the US).

• Two countries very similar in many areas e.g. ethnic origins, wealthy, mobile, highly educated societies, leisure time and consumer goods

North AmericaNorth America

• Most urbanized societies in the world

• Exceeds any other region except Western Europe

• Incomes highest in the world

• Largest concentration of middle-class people

• Life of luxury compared to more than three-fourths of the world’s people

North AmericaNorth America

• Standard of living that is only a dream for the world’s hungry, illiterate, ill-housed, ill-fed and underemployed majority

• Pockets of poverty and a low standard of living, particularly in African-American and Latino communities

• General wealth allows citizens of the two countries a degree of financial independence and free time to travel

Physical CharacteristicsPhysical Characteristics

1) Landforms

• Conducive to human use

• Some major landforms include the Canadian Shield, the Atlantic Coastal and the Central lowlands etc.

Canadian ShieldCanadian Shield

• Diverse and abundant mineral resources

• Rolling landscape, connected by thousands of rivers and streams,

• Center of continental glaciation in North America that leveled the land and created numerous lakes, marshes and ponds.

Atlantic Coastal PlainAtlantic Coastal Plain

• Broad, easily accessible plain

• a) North of Cape Fear, North Carolina

• b) South of this point to the Mexican border

The Central LowlandsThe Central Lowlands

• Agricultural heart of the American continent

• Formed by the Ohio-Mississippi-Missouri drainage

• In Canada, lie along the Great Lakes of Erie and Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River

• Fertile, well-drained suitable for mechanized equipment

The River SystemsThe River Systems

• Physical character of North America is its natural transportation arteries

• Provides major transportation

• Important river system is the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes, which can be navigated halfway across the continent

The River SystemsThe River Systems

Second major river system :-

• Mississippi and its tributaries such as the Arkansas, Ohio and Missouri

Climate CharacteristicsClimate Characteristics

Some factors contributing to the continent’s

climatic patterns are :

• Warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico

• Prevailing westerly winds

• Mountain ranges

• Land and water relationships in and around the continent

Climate CharacteristicsClimate Characteristics

Some of the 10 major climatic types :-

• Tundra essentially uninhabited

• Subarctic occupies much of Alaska and Canada (limited economic development), sparsely inhabited, except for localized settlements for mining trapping

Climate CharacteristicsClimate Characteristics

• Western mountainous region of the United States has desert and steppe climates e.g. driest areas of the world are interior deserts of California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico

• Eastern regions of the United States and Canada have humid continental climates.

• Warm and cool summer types associated with some of the fertile agricultural lands in the world

SummarySummary

• You would have understood the landforms of the North America continent

• The various landforms and the river systems that make up of the North America continent.

• The various climate characteristics that occur uniquely in the North America continent.