The United States also impinges on the global economy as a source of and as a destination for investment capital. The country continues to sustain an economic life that is more diversified than any other on Earth, providing the majority of its people with one of the world’s highest standards of living. Prominent rivers in the United States include the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Colorado.

West of the Central Lowland is the mighty Cordillera, part of a global mountain system that rings the Pacific basin. The Cordillera encompasses fully one-third of the United States, with an internal variety commensurate with its size. At its eastern margin lie the Rocky Mountains, a high, diverse, and discontinuous chain that stretches all the way from New Mexico to the Canadian border. The Cordillera’s western edge is a Pacific coastal chain of rugged mountains and inland valleys, the whole rising spectacularly from the sea without benefit of a coastal plain.

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To some, the landscape may seem dull, for heights of more than 2,000 feet (600 meters) are unusual, and truly rough terrain is almost lacking. Landscapes are varied, however, largely as the result of glaciation that directly or indirectly affected most of the subregion. The southern part of the Central Lowland is quite different, covered mostly with loess (wind-deposited silt) that further subdued the already low relief surface. Elsewhere, especially near major rivers, postglacial streams carved the loess into rounded hills, and visitors have aptly compared their billowing shapes to the waves of the sea. As the Mesabi iron was a major source of America’s industrial wealth, its agricultural prosperity has been rooted in Midwestern loess.

Usually, however, the Appalachian Plateau is considered a subregion of the Appalachian Mountains, partly on grounds of location, partly because of geologic structure. Unlike the other plateaus, where rocks are warped upward, the rocks there form an elongated basin, wherein bituminous coal has been preserved from erosion. This Appalachian coal, like the Mesabi iron that it complements in U.S. industry, is extraordinary. Extensive, thick, and close to the surface, it has stoked the furnaces of northeastern steel mills for decades and helps explain the huge concentration of heavy industry along the lower Great Lakes. Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States includes the state of Alaska, at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of Hawaii, in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The conterminous states are bounded on the north by Canada, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.

The Mississippi River, one of the longest in the world, flows south from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, effectively dividing the country into eastern and western halves. The Missouri River, a tributary of the Mississippi, is the longest river in North America. The Colorado River, famous for carving the Grand Canyon, also contributes significantly to the landscape of the Southwest. Furthermore, there are numerous geographical regions that form the contiguous United States as well as its various island territories and states. Last, the greatest east-west distance in the 48 contiguous United States is 4,500 km (2796 mi). In regards to north-south, the longest distance in the 48 contiguous states region is 2,660 km (1653 mi).

The United States is the fourth largest country in the world in area (after Russia, Canada, and China). The national capital is Washington, which is coextensive with the District of Columbia, the federal capital region created in 1790. The western flanks of the Interior Lowlands are the Great Plains, a territory of awesome bulk that spans the full distance between Canada and Mexico in a swath nearly 500 miles (800 km) wide. The Great Plains were built by successive layers of poorly cemented sand, silt, and gravel—debris laid down by parallel east-flowing streams from the Rocky Mountains. True flatness is rare, although the High Plains of western Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and eastern Colorado come close.

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The gently sloping surface of the plain extends out beneath the sea, where it forms the continental shelf, which, although submerged beneath shallow ocean water, is geologically identical to the Coastal Plain. Southward the plain grows wider, swinging westward in Georgia and Alabama to truncate the Appalachians along their southern extremity and separate the interior lowland from the Gulf. South of the Adirondack Mountains and the Superior Upland lies the boundary between crystalline and sedimentary rocks; abruptly, everything is different.

• Aside from small deposits of lead and zinc, metallic minerals are of little importance.
• Spanning a total area of approximately 9,833,520 km2 (3,796,742 sq mi), the United States ranks as the third or fourth-largest country by total area, depending on if one includes or omits water area, respectively.
• Its physical environment ranges from the Arctic to the subtropical, from the moist rain forest to the arid desert, from the rugged mountain peak to the flat prairie.
• The country continues to sustain an economic life that is more diversified than any other on Earth, providing the majority of its people with one of the world’s highest standards of living.

More commonly, the land is broadly rolling, and parts of the northern plains are sharply dissected into badlands. Located along the northern shore of the Potomac River in the federal district of Columbia is, Washington D.C. Situated at the southern edge of the State of New York is the New York City – the largest and the most populous city of the U.S. Iron lies near the surface and close to the deepwater ports of the upper Great Lakes.

US Relief Map

Iron is mined both north and south of Lake Superior, but best known are the colossal deposits of Minnesota’s Mesabi Range, for more than a century one of the world’s richest and a vital element in America’s rise to industrial power. In spite of depletion, the Minnesota and Michigan mines still yield a major proportion of the country’s iron and a significant percentage of the world’s supply. Its physical environment ranges from the Arctic to the subtropical, from the moist rain forest to the arid desert, from the rugged mountain peak to the flat prairie.

Coal occurs in structural basins protected from erosion—high-quality bituminous in the Appalachian, Illinois, and western Kentucky basins; and subbituminous and lignite in the eastern and northwestern Great Plains. Petroleum and natural gas have been found in nearly every state between the Appalachians and the Rockies, but the Midcontinent Fields of western Texas and the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma, and Kansas surpass all others. Aside from small deposits of lead and zinc, metallic minerals are of little importance. Whether or not the lowlands constitute the country’s cultural core is debatable, but there can be no doubt that they comprise its geologic core and in many ways its geographic core as well.

• The United States is relatively young by world standards, being less than 250 years old; it achieved its current size only in the mid-20th century.
• Iron lies near the surface and close to the deepwater ports of the upper Great Lakes.
• The Central Lowland resembles a vast saucer, rising gradually to higher lands on all sides.

Major rivers (by length in km)

The Central Lowland resembles a vast saucer, rising gradually to higher lands on all sides. Beyond the reach of glaciation to the south, the sedimentary rocks have been raised into two broad upwarps, separated from one another by the great valley of the Mississippi River. The Ozark Plateau lies west of the river and occupies most of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas; on the east the Interior Low Plateaus dominate central Kentucky and Tennessee.

The above outline map represents the contiguous United States, the world’s 3rd largest country located in North America. The above blank map represents the contiguous United States, the world’s 3rd largest country located in North America. The above map can be downloaded, printed and used for geography education purposes like map-pointing and coloring What Is Cryptocurrency activities. The map above shows the location of the United States within North America, with Mexico to the south and Canada to the north.

This region also contains the Great Basin, a largely arid area characterized by desert and salt flats. Learn about the president and how to contact elected officials and federal agencies. Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Over much of central Canada, these Precambrian rocks are exposed at the surface and form the continent’s single largest topographical region, the formidable and ice-scoured Canadian Shield. The United States is relatively young by world standards, being less than 250 years old; it achieved its current size only in the mid-20th century. America was the first of the European colonies to separate successfully from its motherland, and it was the first nation to be established on the premise that sovereignty rests with its citizens and not with the government. In its first century and a half, the country was mainly preoccupied with its own territorial expansion and economic growth and with social debates that ultimately led to civil war and a healing period that is still not complete. In the 20th century the United States emerged as a world power, and since World War II it has been one of the preeminent powers. It has not accepted this mantle easily nor always carried it willingly; the principles and ideals of its founders have been tested by the pressures and exigencies of its dominant status.

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Found in the Norhern and Western Hemispheres, the country is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west, as well as the Gulf of Mexico to the south. For discussion of other major U.S. cities, see the articles Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Political units in association with the United States include Puerto Rico, discussed in the article Puerto Rico, and several Pacific islands, discussed in Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. The two major American political parties are the Democrats and the Republicans.

Pent between the Rockies and the Pacific chain is a vast intermontane complex of basins, plateaus, and isolated ranges so large and remarkable that they merit recognition as a region separate from the Cordillera itself. The United States, officially known as the United States of America (USA), shares its borders with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. To the east lies the vast Atlantic Ocean, while the equally expansive Pacific Ocean borders the western coastline. Spanning a total area of approximately 9,833,520 km2 (3,796,742 sq mi), the United States ranks as the third or fourth-largest country by total area, depending on if one includes or omits water area, respectively.