Ancient and modern glaciation determined the exceptionally rugged topography, marked by numerous cirques, trough valleys, and fjords. See T. H. Clark and C. W. Stearn, The Geological Evolution of North America (1968); W. P. Cumming et al., The Discovery of North America (1972); R. C. West et al., Middle America: Its Lands and Peoples (3d ed. Early Precambrian crystalline rocks are also found in the American Rockies. South of 43° N lat., the Atlantic coast, is an accumulative lagoon coast complicated by estuaries and deltas. : 332 156 000 (2005 est.). The mountain ranges and higher parts of plateaus that rise above the basins are covered with grasses and open woodlands of pine and juniper or pine and oak (in the south). North of the Great Plains is the Mackenzie Lowland. Much of the area north of 56° N lat. Our employees work hard to provide exceptional customer support in the areas of logistics, warehousing, packaging operations, quality and engineering. For compatibility, we use the ISO 3166 list of countries augmented by a few region names which are sometimes returned by MaxMind.. Sources []. (The political subdivisions of North America are given in Table 3.). The fauna of the larger, nontropical, part of the continent closely resembles that of analogous parts of Eurasia, owing to the former land bridge between the continents. Owing to the great age of the flora of this region, the forests are composed of numerous species, including dozens of oak species, chestnut trees, beeches, hickories, and relict tulip trees. It is only comprised of two countries, the United States of America and Canada. In the subtropical zone (which includes the entire southern USA excluding the southern tip of Florida), the western part of California has a mild Mediterranean. The formation of the mountains on the arctic islands is related to crustal movements in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, which simultaneously created the large basins on the floor of the northern Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Specifically it is used in conjunction with the MaxMind IP geolocation tool to group page requests. Fast rates of growth in the Asia-Pacific region in the past 10 years mean that it will overtake North America as the highest regional defence spender by 2029, according to the latest data from Janes. Circa 1504, French seafarers entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Several Canadian members of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative support the final recommendations of Canada’s Expert Panel on … The runoff varies from a few centimeters in the Great Basin to 100 cm in the Appalachians and up to 200 cm in the northwestern Cordilleras. ), and Cape Saint Charles in the east (55°40’ W long.). In Lower (Baja) California the annual precipitation does not exceed 100–150 mm. In 1532–33, H. Cortés discovered the southern part of Lower (Baja) California. The present boundaries of the USA were established through the expropriation of land belonging to the indigenous Indians (including the colonization of western territories), as well as through wars and other acquisitions, such as the purchase of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands from tsarist Russia in 1867. North America The northern continent of the Western Hemisphere, extending northward from the Colombia-Panama border and including Central America, Mexico, the islands of the Caribbean Sea, the United States, Canada, and Greenland. Between 1824 and 1853, J. Bridger, P. Ogden, B. de Bonneville, K. Carson, and J. Fremont explored and mapped the Central Valley and the Great Basin, discovering the Great Salt Lake and various nondraining rivers such as the Humboldt. In 1524, G. da Verrazano, an Italian navigator in the French service, explored the east coast of North America from 34° to 46° N lat. North American population by country (top 10) The west coast of the continent is formed by the Kenai, Chugach, St. Elias (Mount Logan, 6,050 m), and Canadian island mountains and the US Coast Ranges. High mountain ranges with thick glaciation predominate in the south, and high plateaus are found over the remaining territory. The subequatorial zone, which includes the southern part of Central America, has a permanently hot climate with humid summers and dry winters. Haiti won its independence in 1804 after an uprising against the French colonialists. On the upper slopes of high mountains the grasses and open woodlands are replaced by spruce and fir forests and alpine meadows. , a geologically old and eroded system that extends from the Gaspé Peninsula to Alabama; the Atlantic-Gulf Coastal Plain, a belt of lowlands widening to the south that extends from S New England to Mexico; the Interior Lowlands, which extend down the middle of the continent from the Mackenzie valley to the Gulf Coastal Plain and includes the Great Plains on the west and the agriculturally productive Interior Plains on the east; and the North American Cordillera, a complex belt of geologically young mountains and associated plateaus and basins, which extend from Alaska into Mexico and include two orogenic belts—the Pacific MarginPacific Margin,western section of the great North American Cordillera, W United States and W Canada, stretching from SW Alaska to S Calif. Physiographically, the Anglo-American section of the continent may be divided into five major regions: the Canadian ShieldCanadian Shieldor Laurentian Plateau, U-shaped region of ancient rock, the nucleus of North America, stretching N from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean. Whereas the Gulf of Saint Lawrence has both straight abrasion and bay shores, the peninsulas of Nova Scotia and the northeastern USA have tectonic and erosion-tectonic coastlines with numerous skerries. While COPA is a global organization, our roots are in North America. The victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 led to the establishment of the first socialist state in the Americas and stimulated an upsurge in the liberation movement on the entire American continent. Most of the population of North America consists of the descendants of European and, to a much lesser extent, Asian immigrants who came here between the 16th and 19th centuries and of the descendants of slaves brought from Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries. Canadian Members of UNEP FI Sign Statement of Support to the Final Report of the Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance. Lava plateaus with flat surfaces and deeply dissected canyons occupy large areas along the US-Canadian border and in the southern Mexican Highlands. The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is one of the world’s largest island groups. Fitch Learning run public courses in New York, Houston, Washington, DC, Charlotte, and Toronto, covering a wide range of financial topics, from credit analysis to structured finance. Companies, foundations, and institutions across the continent are increasing their commitments to support sustainable agriculture and promote resilient economies. Anthropological and ethnic composition. 1989); T. L. McKnight, Regional Geography of the United States and Canada (1992); S. Birdsall, Regional Landscapes of the United States and Canada (4th rev. has an annual radiation balance of less than 20 kcal/sq cm, or 84 kj/sq cm (Greenland has a negative balance), but to the south it increases rapidly, reaching 60–80 kcal/sq km, or 250–335 kj/sq cm south of 30° N lat. The most extensive forests are those of the temperate belt, divided into taiga, coastal coniferous, mixed, and broadleaf forests. Here is a list of the Regions in North America along with the geographical boundaries of each. North of 37° N lat. Coastal coniferous forests are found on the west coast of Canada and in the American Northwest in valleys and coastal lowlands and on the lower slopes of the Cordilleras. Together with the Ohio River and numerous other tributaries, it drains most of S central North America and forms the world's greatest inland waterway system. It is now the foremost capitalist country in the world. Over most of the continent the predominant air movement is from west to east; only in the south, in the tropical latitudes, is there a predominant northeast to southwest movement (trade winds). Colorado Plateau Canada. Later, La Salle spent three years (1678–81) exploring the water routes from the St. Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, to the Mississippi, which he navigated from its confluence with the Illinois River to the sea. Spanning the arctic, subarctic, temperate, subtropical, tropical, and subequatorial zones, North America is divided into two large parts, the plains non-Cordilleran East and the mountainous Cordilleran West, which in turn are subdivided into regions. Meanwhile, a Spanish naval expedition headed by G. González Dávila sailed northwest from the Gulf of Panama to the Gulf of Fonseca. In the drier country west of the Mississippi such rivers as the Colorado and Rio Grande become very shallow in summer, sometimes drying up in their upper reaches, although occasional heavy rains may cause flash floods. Spruce, both black and white, tamarack, and balsam poplar form the northern boundary of tree growth. A heart for mission has been in the DNA of the North American movements from the beginning. Animal life. Through the action of denudation processes, depending on the type of rock bedding, there arose cuesta ridges (in the Great Lakes region), stepped plateaus (Great Plains), and low- and medium-elevation erosion mountains (Ozarks and Ouachitas). Mexico's population, about 60% mestizo (of European and Native American descent), is increasingly urbanized (about 72%). The temperate zone, north of 40° N lat., is distinguished by a mild, very wet climate in the west, a severe continental climate in the interior plateaus of the Cordilleras, and a moderately continental climate in the east. In the winter this activity, strong over the Pacific Coast, diminishes over the Cordilleras and again intensifies over the interior plains. Crice-tines, shrews, and woodchucks are widely found. Interior Plateau Central America. It is home to athletes from Canada, the Caribbean and the United States. North America Region North America has over half a million athletes participating in all 32 sports offered by Special Olympics. The indigenous pre-European population (Indians and Eskimos) and some later arrivals from Asia belong to various branches of the Mongoloid race; the descendants of European immigrants, to the Caucasian race; and the people of African origin, to the Equatorial, or Negro-Australoid, race. Significant petroleum and gas deposits are found along the Pacific Coast, in California and southern Alaska (Cook Inlet), in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and in the eastern part of the American Rockies. North America includes all of the mainland and related offshore islands lying N of the Isthmus of Panama (which connects it with South America). There are frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. This season introduces the most major changes to the RLCS system yet with League Play and bi-annual seasons being abandoned, replaced with an open circuit. Denali (Mt. In the southeastern part of the shield stretches the Grenville Belt, consisting of Early Precambrian rock reworked in the Late Proterozoic and of metamorphosed Proterozoic carbonate detrital formations enclosing masses of granite and gab-bro-anorthosite. There are significant temperature variations between the northern and southern parts of the Central Plains in all seasons but especially during the winter, which is one of the main reasons for the sequence of landscapes from taiga to subtropical forests. We encourage you to look beyond the boarder sand spread your wings! North of 40° N lat. Lake Superior (31,820 sq mi/82,414 sq km), the westernmost of the Great LakesGreat Lakes,group of five freshwater lakes, central North America, creating a natural border between the United States and Canada and forming the largest body of freshwater in the world, with a combined surface area of c.95,000 sq mi (246,050 sq km)...... Click the link for more information. The system of inner plateaus and uplands consists for the most part of denudation plateaus. North American regions California. North America, the third-largest continent, extends from the tiny Aleutian Islands in the northwest to the Isthmus of Panama in the south. The climate is tropical and mostly dry. North American adj. The topography of the Appalachian Mountains was created as rivers eroded the rising structures; the northern Appalachians, which underwent glaciation, typically have such glacial forms as broad U-shaped valleys and moraine deposits in intermontane depressions. Broadleaf forests are found in the central and southern Appalachians and in the eastern Central Plains. In Alaska and in the Cascade Range the cross section is topped by andesites, and on the Columbia Plateau by plateau basalts. About 80 percent of Greenland, the largest island in the world, is covered by ice. The first human inhabitants of North America are believed to be of Asian origin; they crossed over to Alaska from NE Asia roughly 20,000 years ago, and then moved southward through the Mackenzie River valley. We respond to the evolving needs of our broad range of customers by efficiently leveraging our unique logistics network, quality functions, engineering, and keen judgment based on decades of experience in the electronics industry. The American, or Southern, Cordilleras constitute the highest part of the Cordilleras. From 1884 to 1904 the Canadians A. West of the Mississippi lie the reddish black soils of the subtropical prairies and the cinnamon-colored and gray-cinnamon soils of the shrub steppes. The overall average elevation of North America is 720 m. The extensive development of platform structures promoted the formation of large plateaus and plains in the central and eastern parts of the continent. Sedimentary uranium ores are found in the Lower Mesozoic formations of the Rocky Mountains, and the Paleozoic rocks of this region contain stratified beds of phosphorites. The maximum area covered by glaciers during the Anthropogene, when the ice sheet descended to 40° N lat., was 15.6 million sq km, excluding Greenland. J. Cabot and S. Cabot sailed along the east coast of North America in 1497–98 and the Portuguese navigator G. Corte-Real, in 1500–1501. Although the population of Canada and the United States is still largely of European origin, it is growing increasingly diverse with substantial immigration from Asia, Latin America, and Africa; it is also highly urbanized (about 74% live in urban areas); much of the population is centered in large conurbations and coalescing urban belts along the southern margin of Canada and in the northeastern quadrant of the United States around the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic coast. In sandy regions, primarily along the coast, there are pure pine forests with low palms in the undergrowth. 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