Download Physical Geography

Physical Geography
US and Canada
The Continent
▪ Canada:
▪ Second largest country in the world.
▪ The longest non-militarized border in the world
(8,900 km).
▪ Trade agreement since 1989.
▪ Several similarities but different societies.
▪ US:
▪ Fourth largest country in the world.
▪ 48 continental (contiguous) states plus Alaska and
Hawaii
▪ Mexico
▪ We’ll do Mexico next unit!
▪ Rich in natural resources
More about the Continent
▪ Major Landforms:
▪ Eastern Lowlands
▪ Flat plain along Gulf of Mexico and East
Coast with good harbors
▪ Bordered by Piedmont plateau
▪ Appalachian Highlands
▪ Appalachians extend 1600 miles from
Canada to Alabama
▪ Catskills, Blue Ridge, Smoky Mountains are in
Appalachians
▪ 400 million years old
▪ Once as tall as Alps and Rockies
More Landforms
▪ Interior Lowlands
▪ Flat land, flattened by glaciers thousands of years
ago
▪ Interior Plains, Great Plains and Canadian Shield
▪ Gradually rise from East to Rockies in West
▪ Western Mountains
▪ Rocky Mountains
▪ Series of ranges from Alaska to Mexico
▪ 3000 miles long
▪ Continental Divide in Rockies
▪ Separates rivers flowing east and west
▪ Between Rockies and Coast
▪ Series of ranges: Cascades, Sierra Nevada run from
California to Alaska
▪ Part of the Ring of Fire
Islands
▪ North Canada
▪ Near Arctic Circle
▪ Largest Islands:
Elsmere, Victoria, and
Baffin
More Islands
▪ Archipelagoes of US
▪ Aleutian Islands
▪ Barren, off coast of Alaska
▪ Hawaiian Islands
▪ Not geographically part of
NA
▪ Stretches 1500 miles!
Pacific Northwest
Midwest
New England
Regions
of the US
D.C.
Southwest
Mountain West
Mid Atlantic States
South
Hawaii and Alaska are not
part of a region
Resources
▪ Oceans and Waterways
▪ Three Oceans
▪ Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic
▪ Large freshwater lakes
▪ Great Lakes; part of St. Lawrence River system
▪ Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri River system
▪ Land
▪ LOTS of land & Fertile soil make US leading food producer in world
▪ Huge forests
▪ Minerals and Fossil Fuels
▪ Canadian Shield and Western Mountains: Iron, Nickel, copper, gold,
uranium
▪ Oil and Natural Gas in Plains, Alaska, and Gulf of Mexico
▪ BUT US largest consumer of fossil fuels
Precipitation
▪ East/west gradient in
precipitation
▪ Wet air from the Pacific.
▪ When reaching the coastal chain and
the Sierra Nevada is forced to gain
altitude.
▪ precipitation over the West Side of
these mountain chains.
▪ The air becomes dryer as it goes over
mountains
▪ Less rain falling over the western part
of the Great Plains.
▪ As it moves east, air masses gain in
humidity through land evaporation
and precipitation levels rise.
Climate
▪ Very diversified, ranging from
continental humid to sub tropical.
▪ Relatively simple weather system:
▪ Varies from west to east.
▪ Influenced by air masses moving from the
arctic (cold and dry) and from the gulf of
Mexico (hot and wet).
▪ The southeast section of the United
States:
▪ A high precipitation level.
▪ Result of movements of air masses from the
gulf of Mexico.
▪ Subject to tropical storms coming from the
South Atlantic
More Climate
▪ Tundra in far north
▪ Treeless, 40˚ is average in July!
▪ Coastal ranges prevent arctic air from
entering interior
▪ North Central and northeast
▪ Cold winters, warm summers
▪ Great for agriculture: Breadbasket of US
▪ Pacific Coast
▪ Marine west coast climate; summers warm,
winters rainy and mild
▪ Southwest
▪ Desert climate
▪ Tropical
▪ Hawaii and Florida
The Anglo-American cultural space
▪ US and Canada are known as “AngloAmerica”
▪ Bound together by geographic,
cultural, political and economic ties
▪ As opposed to Latin America (Spanish and
Portuguese cultural origin).
▪ Prominence of English Language.
▪ A few exceptions:
▪ French Canada, Hawaii, US/Mexico border
regions, southeast Florida, First Nations
and the Black population.
▪ Immigration is changing this space.
▪ English remains the language of power
and business.
Immigration to the United States, 1820-2002
Latin America
Asia
Southeast
Europe
1,400,000
1,200,000
Germany
Scandinavia
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
British
Isles
400,000
200,000
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20
18
28
18
36
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44
18
52
18
60
18
68
18
76
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84
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92
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19
08
19
16
19
24
19
32
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40
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48
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56
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64
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72
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88
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96
0
▪ Overcoming space
Transportation
▪ Always been a challenge.
▪ Massive transport infrastructure (from
trails to railways to highways to the
information highway).
▪ Transportation
▪ Supports the economic efficiency of
the United States and Canada.
▪ Comes with high energy and
infrastructure costs.
▪ Transportation uses 27% of all the
energy.
▪ The American consumption of energy
is 3 times greater than Europeans.
Interstate Highway System
▪ Built since the 1950s:
▪ Peak construction during the 1960s.
▪ Mainly completed by 1991.
▪ Currently about 45,000 miles of
highways.
▪ Trans Canadian highway is the
Canadian equivalent.
▪ Interstates have changed urban
spaces:
▪ Reduced the dominance of downtown
areas
▪ Providing an alternative locational
choice - both for commercial and
residential activities: the suburbs
Impact of the Interstate System
▪ Impacts on businesses:
▪ Attracted by the lower rents in the suburbs
▪ Availability of parking space.
▪ Near suppliers and customers.
▪ Individual families:
▪ The interstates made commuting much easier (more distance for the
same amount of time).
▪ Car ownership increased dramatically
▪ Public transport was relatively neglected in this process.
▪ Suburban America
▪ Made possible by highways and personal mobility.
▪ Reflects American ideals of private ownership and individualism:
▪ Attracted by the more spacious surroundings for housing.
▪ Fled the cities with all of their urban problems.
▪ Increase in the size of housing units.
▪ Automobile dependency
Canada
Not Just America’s Hat!
Canada
▪ Climate and location
▪ Similar to Russia:
▪ Continental scale.
▪ Latitude (plus, it’s stoopid cold)
▪ High dependency to the United States:
▪ Trade 75%.
▪ Each other’s largest trading partners
▪ Resources are in the north while population is in
the south.
▪ Provinces and territories combined in a federal
system (like what the US has)
French Canada
▪ Linguistic and cultural
distinctiveness.
▪ Along the St. Lawrence
Valley settled in “long lots”.
▪ Montreal is the second
largest French-speaking city
in the world.
▪ Significant lumber, mining
and hydroelectric resources
The Northern Frontier
▪ Most of it in Canada with the exception of
Alaska.
▪ Many natural resources, but difficult to access:
▪ Distances.
▪ Permafrost.
▪ Low populations concentrated along extraction
sites.
▪ Tar sands of Northern Alberta:
▪ More oil than Saudi Arabia.
▪ Trapped as bitumen (oil shale) in sand
formations.
▪ .Released by Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)