Eight physical regions of north america
Transcript of Eight physical regions of north america
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Eight Physical Regions of North America
By Sabian St. Prix
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8 Physical Regions of
North America
Legend• Western Cordillera
• The Intermountain Range
• The Interior Plains
• The Costal Plains
• The Appalachian Region
• The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowland
• The Canadian Shield Key• The Arctic Mt. Logan
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Western Cordillera
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Western Cordillera - Topography
• Tall and rough mountain ranges that are separated by valleys
• Contains mountains that are not weary by erosion just yet.
• The mountains in the Western Cordillera are twice as high as the mountains in the Appalachian Region.
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Western Cordillera - Climate
• Climate is deeply influenced by the Pacific Ocean
• Western Cordillera contains some of the wettest regions on the entire planet
• Slopes with upward wind (Windward Slopes) are wetter than slopes with downward wind (Leeward Slopes), because in some areas, they have very little precipitation.
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Western Cordillera - Vegetation
• Giant trees grow on the very moist, windward slopes
• Grasses and cacti grow on the very dry, leeward slopes.
• Due to the lack of rain in the south, evergreens don’t grow there.
• At the top of the mountains here, the vegetation is similar to the vegetation of the tundra.
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Western Cordillera – Economic Activity
• Fishing
• Logging
• Mining
• Farming
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Western Cordillera – Environmental Concern
• Silitation (When dirt covers up streams of water, affecting its wildlife).
• In taking care of marine wildlife, it can result in pesticide run-off
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The Intermountain Region
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The Intermountain region -Topography
• It has bodies of water usually don’t connect to the sea. These bodies of water become somewhat salty instead.
• It contains desert like locations where it can collect water, which makes it so dry.
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The Intermountain Region - Climate
• Some places here can have an affected climate due to its location and elevation
• In southern areas, its winters are warm with little precipitation
• In northern areas, winters are very damp, also with little precipitation, and summers are very dry
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The Intermountain region - Vegetation
• Thin grasslands
• Has plants that are able to live in very hot desert conditions
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The Intermountain Region – Economic Activity
• Growing flowers
• Forestation (Chopping down trees to use as lumber)
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The Intermountain Region –Environmental Concerns
• Due to forestation, the intermountain region is losing a lot of its forests.
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The Interior Plains
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The Interior Plains - Topography
• It is divided by the Central lowlands and Great Plains.
• Flat or gently rolling plains at various elevations
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The Interior Plains - Climate
• In the north, winters are long and cold, and summers are short and cool.
• Its climate is no where near influenced by the ocean, because it is in the centre of the continent.
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The Interior Plains - Vegetation
• Prairie grasses
• It used to be made up of a lot more forests than it has now.
• In the north, boreal forests are grown, and become tundra the further north you go
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The Interior Plains – Economic Activity
• Farming
• Mining
• Oil and natural gas drilling
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The Interior Plains – Environmental Concerns
• If there is a spill in the oil and natural gas drilling, it can get into the water. This can cause any life that needs water to survive, to die.
• When farmers take care of plants, they use pesticides. If it gets into the water supply, it can poison the water.
• When mining, the entire vegetation around where they want to mine has to be destroyed.
• The interior plains get tornadoes that spin at a speed of around 650 km/h
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The Costal Plains
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The Costal Plains - Topography
• Its average elevation is around 200 m above sea level.
• It contains many swamp like places.
• The gradual sinking of land was allowing the sea to plunge into streams that cross the plains.
• In the Mississippi delta, the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico, which creates a wide belt of fruitful and undeveloped land.
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The Costal Plains - Climate
• In the north, it has cold and snowy winters. Summers in the north are hot and humid.
• In the south, it has mild or warm winters.
• The southern portion also has a lot of hurricanes. Mostly they happen around fall.
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The Costal Plains - Vegetation
• The original vegetation consisted of pine forests.
• Its soils are mainly very sandy
• Lush jungles in the Mexican area are developed from the sandy soil
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The Costal Plains – Economic Activity
• Farming in costal plains is at its strongest on higher and drier grounds.
• National park services
• Connecting estuaries are important nurseries for so many marine species.
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The Costal Plains – Environmental Concerns
• Mineral exploration
- They have to search a vast amount of land to discover what they are looking for. They don’t do it in one place, they go all around the vast area to find what they need.
• Hurricanes that can go up to speeds of 120-240 km/h
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The Appalachian Region
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The Appalachian Region - Topography
• It is made up of many different mountain ranges that change every day, due to erosion.
• It consists of low mountain ranges, rolling hills and river valleys
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The Appalachian Region - Climate
• Labrador current brings freezing water from the south of the arctic, which causes cold winters in the northern part of the region.
• The Gulf stream brings warm water from just north of the Caribbean.
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The Appalachian Region - Vegetation
• It at first had a lot of coniferous (Evergreen like trees) and deciduous trees(Trees that shed leaves once a year).
• These trees were able to live through poor and fruitless mountain soil.
• They also grow on flat terrains and in river valleys, with much more fruitful soil.
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The Appalachian Region – Economic Activity
• Mining
• Logging
• Fishing
• Trade (Usually at sea ports)
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The Appalachian Region –Environmental Concerns
• The Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is an insect that is destroying forests by eating trees that grow slowly and live long (Hemlock trees)
• The simplest way for people to coal mine now, is to remove the top of a mountain. This completely gets rid of all life that once lived at the top of that mountain.
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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowland
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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands - Topography
• Flat plains, rolling hills and deep river valleys
• Several steep hills
• Its rolling landscape is mostly created by glaciation (Process of being completely covered in ice sheets and glaciers)
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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands - Climate
• Its climate is not subjective to the ocean, but it’s subjective to the great lakes.
• The presence of the great lakes makes this area humid. It also cools the temperature during the summer, and warm the area during winter by storing heat.
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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands - Vegetation
• Fertile soils
• Mixed deciduous and coniferous forests
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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands – Economic Activity
• Farming
• Logging
• Manufacturing
• Urban economic activity
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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands – Environmental Concerns
• Great lakes are getting polluted
• Exhaust from manufacturing plants cause air pollution
• From hot and humid weather, it can help pollution develop, and even cause thunderstorms or even floods.
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The Canadian Shield
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The Canadian Shield - Topography
• Rock surfaces with no life
• It has an approximate elevation on 100 m above sea level in north, and 500 m above sea level in the south
• Lots of lakes and wetlands
• Areas near Hudson and James bay are covered with clay
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The Canadian Shield - Climate
• Winters are long and cold and summers are short and cool.
• Around 250 mm of rain in summer, and 1375 mm of snow during winter
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The Canadian Shield - Vegetation
• Arctic forests
• Deciduous trees
• North of where trees grow, there is not enough precipitation for trees to grow
• Thin soil makes it out of place for agriculture
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The Canadian Shield – Economic Activity
• Pulp and paper industry
• Mining
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The Canadian Shield – Environmental Concerns
• The Canadian shield has acid rain, which can destroy life in Canadian shield. This threatens human life in this area.
• Air pollution from acid rain
• When mining, it can cause great damage to the area around it
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The Arctic
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The Arctic - Topography
• Very flat
• Near the ocean
• Contains mountains
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The Arctic - Climate
• Winter is 10 months in the far north. Summers aren’t very warm, and are very short
• Arctic has very little precipitation. It’s basically a cold desert.
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The Arctic - Vegetation
• Shrubs, mosses and lichens are usually the only things that grow there.
• Too cold and dry for trees to grow
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The Arctic – Economic Activity
• Mining
• Oil and natural gas drilling
• Fishing
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The Arctic – Environmental Concerns
• Climate change causes can cause rises in temperature and severe weather
• Arctic tree line is moving more towards the north, causing the tundra to grow more trees.
• Melting permafrost could make well drained lands wetlands.
• Vascular plants are becoming more dominating over the regular plants. Lots of animals eat the regular plants, so this is lowering their food supply.
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Bibliography
• Cranny, Michael. Crossroads - A meeting of nations. 1st ed. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada Inc., 1998. 164-179. Print. (Cranny 164-179)
• Chater 1: Geogaphy of canada. Informally published manuscript, UBC word press 2010, UBC, Vancouver, BC. Retrieved from http://www.dlc-ubc.ca/wordpress_dlc_mu/jeff1/files/2010/07/Geography-of-Canada.pdf
• Chang, L. (2011, May 09). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://prezi.com/s6yz8ae9ud6f/intermountain-regions/
• [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://bestclipartblog.com/clipart-pics/compass-clip-art-4.gif
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Bibliography
• [Web Drawing]. Retrieved from http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/naoutl.gif
• Agriculture in the western cordillera. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.angelfire.com/d20/scottnotes/farmingcordillera.html
• Seabrook, J. (2006, October 13). Lower costal plains and cstalislands. Retrieved from http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/lower-costal-plain-and-costal-islands
• Thomson, I. (2000, August 17). Mineral exploration and the challenge of community relations. Retrieved from http://www.pdac.ca/docs/default-source/publications---communique/mineral-exploration-and-the-challenge-of-communityrelations.pdf?sfvrsn=6
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Biblography
• Moyer, B. (n.d.). Saving hemlocks. Retrieved from http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/pennsylvania/explore/saving-hemlocks.xml
• Clendinning, K. (2012, August 14). Where mountains once stood: Coal mining in the appalachians. Retrieved from http://earthreform.org/where-mountains-once-stood-coal-mining-in-the-appalachians/
• Pollution. (2002). Retrieved from http://partner.galileo.org/schools/gibson/4-5_fp/geography/issue/st_lawrence_i/st_lawrencei_1.htm
• Bryan and Josh. (2003, December). Canadian shield region. Retrieved from http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/ict/2learn/kdwajda/alberta/studentwork/shield.htm
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Bibliography
• Milz, P. (2002). Acid rain in the canadianshield. Retrieved from http://partner.galileo.org/schools/gibson/4-5_fp/geography/issue/canadianshield_i/canadianshieldi_2.htm
• Cote, F. (2008, October 24). The arctic: Environmental issues. Retrieved from http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/prb0804-e.htm