Download Social Studies _ North American Geographic Regions – Reading

Social Studies
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North American Geographic Regions – Reading
Directions: Read the descriptions below of physical regions in the continent of North America. Use this
information for class assignments on the regions.
Regions are large areas which contain geographical features, human cultures, politics, or other traits
that are the same inside the region but are different from other regions. Geographers often divide the
continent of North American into large regions to help us remember what is inside of these large areas.
Coastal Plains – The land which touches the
Atlantic Ocean from about present-day
Massachusetts south to Florida and around the
Gulf of Mexico through present-day Texas is
generally flat and low. This lowland actually
begins as a very narrow band in the north and
becomes the very broad lowlands of the
southeast. Rivers are wide and move slowly.
Soil is rich and fertile. Here you find many
swamps and ocean beaches. The waterfront
and port areas here are much flatter than along
the mountainous Pacific coast. The Atlantic
coastal area is bounded on the east by the
Atlantic Ocean and on the west by the
Appalachian Mountains. The Gulf coastal area
spreads south like a fan around the lower
Mississippi.
Appalachian Mountains/Highlands –
West and north of the coastal plains is the
Appalachian region. This mountain range
stretches from the northeast in Maine to the
southeast. Some also consider the Ozarks, split
off by the Mississippi River, to be a part of the
Appalachians. These mountains are old enough
to be the Rocky Mountains’ grandfather! Over
time the Appalachians have been eroded by
water and wind to be much lower and more
rounded than the Rockies. Their tallest peak is
Mount Mitchell (NC-6684 ft. tall). However,
these mountains still looked huge to the early
colonists who crossed them as pioneers to
make a new life in the west. After all, there
were no roads and you had to pull your own
belongings up and down the hills.
Interior Lowlands – West of the
Appalachians, south of the Canadian Shield, and
east of the Great Plains, the Interior
Lowlands(Central Lowlands) are a rich land that
is lower than the Appalachians but a bit higher
and more rolling than the coastal plains. Many
broad rivers and valleys, including the mouths
of the Ohio and Missouri, and the upper
Mississippi, provide excellent support for
farming. This area looked very rich to farmers
during the 1800s and remains our nation’s
‘breadbasket,’ a place where many grain
products such as corn and wheat are grown.
All of the Great Lakes except Superior also fall
within this area.
Canadian Shield/Laurentian Plateau Located west of the Appalachians, east of the
Great Plains, and north of the Interior Lowlands,
the Canadian Shield is shaped like a horseshoe
or a shield surrounding the Hudson Bay. The
land is composed mainly of thin soil and
contains many lakes formed by glacier activity.
Thousands of years ago, glaciers moved slowly
south and gouged (scraped) the best soil off this
area, pushing it south. However, it exposed
many mineral resources such as nickel, gold,
silver and copper that can be dug (Over, please)
up from the ground, processed, and turned into
useful products.
and east of the Rockies, the Great Plains opens
up after you pass the Mississippi River. Unlike
eastern North America, whose Interior
Lowlands, Appalachians and Coastal Plains were
covered in forests, the Great Plains are a ‘sea of
grass.’ Conestoga wagons favored by the early
settlers were often called ‘prairie schooners’
because the grass was so tall that from a
distance the wagons’ tops looked like the sails
of boats in the ocean. Few trees grow here
because there is less precipitation than east of
the Mississippi. Beginning around 100 degrees
west longitude, the flat to rolling Plains rise
gradually toward the Rockies.
Range is an area of extreme climate (very hot or
very cold; often quite dry) and changing
elevations. There are places where the land
goes down into a large bowl shape (basin),
others where it makes a high flat top (plateau),
and many different mountain ranges scattered
around. These ranges aren’t quite as tall as the
Rockies, but they are still quite rough! To the
north is the Great Basin which contains Utah’s
Great Salt Lake; traveling south you will find
many canyons carved by ancient rivers and
blowing sand, such as the Grand Canyon, and
the lowest and hottest place in the United
States, Death Valley. At the northwest side of
the Basin and Range rise the Cascade
Mountains in present-day Washington and
Oregon. Forming a wall to the southwest are
the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Rocky Mountains – West of the Great
Coastal Ranges – West of the Basin and
Plains and east of the Basin and Range, the
Rocky Mountains are the highest region in
North America. Some think of them as our
continent’s spine. These mountains soar to
heights of 15,000 feet and more in a thick line
from Alaska down to Mexico, where they are
called the Sierra Madre, or ‘mother range.’
Compared to the Appalachians, the Rockies
posed an even more challenging obstacle to
westward migration. This great wall of
mountains contains a feature we call the
Continental Divide-the highest line of
mountains in North American which make some
rivers flow east toward the Mississippi and the
Gulf of Mexico, and forces other rivers to flow
west toward the Pacific Ocean.
Range and east of the Pacific Ocean, the Coastal
Range area offers spectacular scenery. On the
western edge, rugged mountains seem to dip
their toes in the Pacific from Alaska south to
Mexico. Some geographers also include the
Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas as part of this
region on the eastern side. Among the more
spectacular peaks in this region are Alaska’s
Mount McKinley – also named Denali – at
20,320 feet, Washington’s Mount Rainier
(14,410-the baby of the bunch) and California’s
Mount Whitney )14,494 feet. Don’t take our
word for it; climb on! However, watch out for
the volcanoes and earthquakes which dot this
area that is part of the Pacific’s ‘Ring of Fire.’
However, there are more than mountains here;
beautiful beaches, lush river valleys and regal
sequoias also take an honored place in this
region.
Great Plains – West of the Interior Lowlands
Basin and Range – West of the Rockies
and east of the Coastal Ranges, the Basin and