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