Hey everyone, it's Kelsey. We've mentioned the seven continents, eight if you count Oceania,
and we've looked briefly at where they're located on the globe. Today we're going to
begin exploring the continents in depth, seeking out the characteristics that make them unique
and interesting. We'll begin in the western hemisphere on the continent of North America
with two countries that have been friends for a long, long time. Hundreds of years in fact!
These two countries share history, culture, physical features, and even the longest
international border in the world. I'm talking of course about the United States and Canada.
Canada and the United States in that order are the two largest countries by land area in North
America. Mexico, just to the south of the United States, is the fourth largest but is commonly
associated with the Spanish-speaking countries of central and South America and is often grouped
within the broadly defined perceptual region of Latin America. Yes, that's right. I said Mexico is
the fourth largest country in North America which means there must be another very large country
in North America that's smaller than Canada and the United States but bigger than Mexico.
It's a country that's formally linked to North America because of its position within the
North American tectonic plate, but perceptually it's linked to Europe because of its culture,
its politics, and its currency. Can you guess the country? If you said Greenland give yourself some
Danish crown because you're absolutely right. Greenland, northeast of Canada,
is an autonomous country within the kingdom of Denmark that happens to be the largest island in
the world that isn't one of the seven continents. We'll get to Mexico and Greenland later, but right
now for our introduction to North America we're going to focus on the United States and Canada,
their location, and some of the prominent physical features they share including the Rocky mountains,
the Interior Plains, the Appalachian mountains, and the Canadian shield.
If you were to describe the relative location of the United States and Canada,
the most obvious point of reference would be the oceans that border them. The Pacific Ocean to the
west and the Atlantic to the east. Canada borders the United States to the north and north of Canada
is the Arctic Ocean. If you were to travel to the geographic center of the North American continent,
you'd find yourself in the small town of Rugby, North Dakota. Founded in 1886 as a stop along the
great northern railways transcontinental route. That's an absolute location of 48° 22 minutes
8 seconds N, latitude 99° 59 minutes 46 seconds W longitude. The Rocky Mountains, or the Rockies as
they're often called, are the largest mountain system in North America stretching 3,000 miles
from British Columbia in western Canada all the way down to New Mexico in the western United
States. They're known as the continental divide because they divide the North American continent
with rivers on the west side of the Rockies flowing to the Pacific Ocean and rivers on the
east side flowing to the Atlantic including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The tallest
peak in the Rockies is Mt. Elbert in Colorado checking in at an impressive 14,439 feet above
sea level. The Rockies are home to a huge variety of landscapes and wilderness areas including
Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, widely acknowledged as the world's first national park.
Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado which contains the tallest sand dunes in North America
and Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, home of the Colombian ice field. One of the last
major geological features in Canada to be explored by Europeans due to its isolation in harsh weather
conditions and currently home to one of the most unexpected Starbucks locations on the continent.
That's right folks, you can get your tall decaf coconut milk latte at the Columbia icefield
glacier discovery center located at 52° 13 minutes 13 seconds N, latitude 117° 13 minutes 27 seconds
W longitude. But it can get cold out there so bring a toque, that's Canadian for knit cap.
The eastern edge of the Rockies towers above a vast plane which is a flat mostly treeless expanse
of land that doesn't change much in elevation and a prairie which is a large open area of grassland.
The interior plains as this region is collectively called stretch all the way
from the Gulf Coast in the southern United States to the arctic Beaufort Sea in northern Canada.
Much of this land is used for agriculture and livestock with wheat from the interior
plains making up more than half the world's wheat exports. Copious amounts of barley, corn, cotton,
sorghum, soybeans, and canola are also grown here. The largest portion of the interior plains within
the united states occupying the area east of the Rockies and west of the Mississippi River
is known as the great plains historically home to the Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho,
Comanche and other native tribes. East of the interior plains lie the
Appalachian mountains stretching some 2,000 miles from Newfoundland in Canada
all the way to Alabama in the southern United States. A number of smaller land forms including
the Catskills, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Cumberland plateau are
considered part of the Appalachian range. People with a lot of time, energy, and motivation can
hike the Appalachian Trail, a footpath extending from springer mountain Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in
Maine passing through two national parks along the way: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
in the southern section and Shenandoah National Park in the northern section. The tallest peak
in the Appalachian range is North Carolina's Mt. Mitchell at 6,684 feet above sea level.
The Canadian shield, also called the Laurentian plateau, is a huge area of exposed igneous
and metamorphic rock stretching from the arctic ocean over half of Canada
and all of Greenland down to the great lakes and Adirondack mountains in the United States.
The shield is mostly granite with a thin layer of soil. Human population and industrial development
in this area are minimal, but the shield is home to some of the richest mineral ore deposits on
earth. Nickel, gold, silver, and copper are mined throughout the region. The Manicouagan
reservoir in northeastern Quebec on the Canadian shield is the site of one of the largest known
meteorite impact craters on Earth. A meteorite is a natural object from interplanetary space
that survives its passage through Earth's atmosphere and lands on the surface.
Geologists studying the impact crater believed that the enormous meteorite
that created the lake island in the center of the reservoir was some three miles in diameter.
Both Canada and the United States contain major drainage basins. A drainage basin is
an area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common body of water.
The Mississippi River drainage basin, the fourth largest in the world, occupies more than 40% of
the land mass and the contiguous United States and 15% of the total North American landmass. Part or
all of 31 states plus two Canadian provinces drain into the Mississippi River which itself creates
the borders of 10 states. In Canada's northwest territories the Mackenzie River flows through
a huge sparsely populated region of forest and tundra. A tundra is a vast flat treeless region
in which the subsoil is permanently frozen. Arctic tundra covers about 550,000 square miles
of northern Canada. North of the Canadian tundra lies about 57,660 square miles of arctic ice in
the polar climate region. The United States has four major deserts within its borders:
the Great Basin, the Mojave, the Chihuahua, and the Sonoran. Part or all of which are found to
the west or the south of the Rockies and to the east or south of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Many people, even Canadians, are sometimes surprised to discover that Canada land of ice
and snow also has a desert. The Okanagan desert the hottest region in Canada is a
semi-arid stretch of British Columbia containing hundreds of unique plant and animal species. As
we continue to study Canada and the United States, the two largest countries in North America, we'll
be exploring their climates, their ecosystems, their people, their cultures, and their economies,
but keep in mind that all of these considerations arise from the kind of land that exists there and
the kinds of activities and interactions that are possible. From this point of view, think
of the United States and Canada as an enormous plane flanked on both sides by two giant mountain
systems with rainfall and snowmelt draining into huge river systems flowing all the way to
the ocean. With that mental map, try to begin imagining the kinds of settlements, cultures,
and ways of life that might naturally occur and this can give you a head start on understanding
the past and the future of this fascinating region. Until next time, keep exploring!