Mainland North America. Geography of the United States of America

North America is considered the largest continent on Earth. In terms of area, it ranks 3rd after Eurasia and Africa. Its area is 20.4 million sq. km. If we count the adjacent islands, then the area of \u200b\u200bthe mainland is 24.3 million square kilometers. The continents of North America together with are part of the world America.

In North America, there is the largest state in terms of population and level of development of the mainland - the United States. In addition, Canada, Mexico, a group of Central American countries are located on the mainland. These countries supply the United States with raw materials, fuel, and labor resources.

North America has some similarities in nature with Eurasia. In North America, as in Eurasia, there are arctic deserts, tundra, taiga, steppes, deserts, subtropical forests. Permafrost is widespread in the northern part of the mainland.

The nature of North America is unique in many ways and has many of its natural continental and world records in the most extreme lands, topography, waters, climate, flora and fauna. The most extreme mainland points: Cape Prince of Wales, Cape St. Charles, Cape Maryato and Cape Murchison. The most extreme islands of North America: Cocos, Ellesmere, Attu,. In North America, the North Magnetic Pole is located near Ellesmere Island.

About extreme points

In its shape, North America resembles a triangle, the top of which is in the south, and the expanding base is in the north. The mainland gradually expands from south to north. The extreme western and eastern points of the mainland are at a great distance

The extreme western and eastern points are located at a great distance from each other. It is equal to about 110 degrees or 6000 km.

- extreme western point mainland. Its coordinates are 65 degrees N. sh. and 168 degrees W. e. It is located on the western coast of the state of Alaska and is washed by the waters of the Bering Strait, which connects the sea. The harsh beauty of the cape is amazing with its mountains covered with snow and forests reflected in the blue waters of the ocean.

Easternmost Point Cape St. Charles. coordinates of the point 52 degrees north latitude. 56 degrees W The point is located in the east of the Labrador Peninsula. The beauty of the location of the extreme eastern point of North America is extraordinary.

The cliffs drop steeply to the Atlantic Ocean, green taiga covers the surface, and a vast expanse of turquoise water creates a unique spectacle.

The mainland of North America is strongly stretched from north to south. The length is 64.5 degrees.

The northernmost point of the mainland is Cape Murchison . It is located on the coast of the northernmost peninsula of the Butia Peninsula, washed by the waters. Its coordinates are 72 degrees N. sh. and 92 degrees W. e. The harsh northern nature of the cape is amazing and mysterious in its own way. The abundance of swamps, lakes in the adjacent territory to this point. The area is covered with sparse tundra forest and covered with mosses and lichens.

The southern point of North America is Cape Maryato. This point is located on the Pacific coast in the western part of Panama. Its coordinates are 8 degrees N. sh. and 81 degrees west longitude. Nature near the lying territory is represented by tropical rainforests.

The most, most extreme islands of North America

The southernmost island is Cocos Island.. It belongs to Costa Rica. The island is located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, west of Costa Rica. Many mysteries exist around this island. More than 300 expeditions of treasure hunters were made here. Here they searched for the gold of the Incas, the treasures of famous pirates. No one has found treasure on this island.

Costa Rica has issued a law that if someone finds a treasure, then 50% of the treasure must belong to the country. The Government of Costa Rica decided to capitalize on the desire of people to find treasures on Cocos Island.

The northernmost island of the mainland is Ellesmere.

This island is not only the northernmost island of mainland North America, but also the most northern island of the earth. This island is located 10 degrees north of the extreme northern mainland point. This is the northernmost land in the world. The island is located northwest of Greenland. It belongs to the Canadian Arctic archipelago. To the east of the island is the border between Canada and. The area of the island is 196 sq. km. The coast is cut by fiords. The nature of the island is very harsh and beautiful in its own way. Mountain rocks, snow, ocean ice, northern lights. The polar night lasts 5 months.

The easternmost island of North America is Greenland.

It is located northeast of North America. It is the largest island in the world by area.

Westernmost island - Attu.

This island is located in the archipelago of the Aleutian Islands. This island is located in the Eastern Hemisphere. It was discovered by the Russians during the Kamchatka expedition of V. Bering in 1745. The island is part of the Aleutian Islands archipelago. The island has an area of 892 sq. km. The island is 56 km long and 32 km wide. Only 20 people live on the island.

north magnetic pole

Location and movement of the magnetic pole

In North America, the north magnetic pole is located - this is also a definite record for the mainland. It is located near Ellesmere Island, which is the northernmost off the mainland. The magnetic pole has been in North America for about 200 years. For the first time its coordinates were determined by R. Amundsen in 1831.

Scientists have found that the north magnetic pole is changing its position. He is moving. Over the past 150 years, it has shifted 110 kilometers to the north. It is believed that by 2045 it will come much closer to the Taimyr Peninsula.

Every year the movement of the magnetic pole is accelerating. The Earth's magnetic field is weakening, although its magnitude is already small. It is hundreds of times smaller than an ordinary horseshoe magnet. But we must not forget that the volume of the Earth's magnetic field is huge. It extends to a height of 90,000 kilometers. Scientists have found that over 150 years the magnetic field has weakened by 10%.

The movement of the magnetic pole is associated with the influence of cosmic bodies and structural features of the Earth's core. The liquid outer core of the Earth transmits the oscillation of the shell with a delay. The solid core rotates more slowly and the axis of rotation shifts.

brief information

The history of North America began long before the travels of Columbus, and even long before the Maya. On this continent, life appeared a very long time ago. In North America, scientists find the remains of a wide variety of dinosaur species that are not found anywhere else in the world.

The indigenous population of North America (Indians and Eskimos) left a noticeable mark in the history of this continent. However, the real history of North America began, as many believe, only after the Europeans sailed there.

Now in North America, along with the United States and Canada, the developed capitalist states, there are also Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua. It is difficult to suspect these countries of a high market economy. But they have preserved thousands of historical monuments that tell the story of pre-Columbian America...

Geography

The continent of North America is located in the north of the Western Hemisphere of the Earth. From the west, North America is washed by the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, from the east by the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Caribbean and Labrador Seas, and in the north by the Arctic Ocean. In the south, the Isthmus of Panama separates North America from South America. In the West, the Bering Strait separates North America from Eurasia.

North America includes numerous islands and archipelagos (eg Greenland, Aleutian Islands, Vancouver Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago). The total area of North America is 24.2 million square meters. km, including the islands (this is 4.8% of the Earth's territory).

All types of climate are represented in North America, ranging from subequatorial in the south to arctic in the north. However, most of this continent is in a temperate continental climate.

The longest river on the North American continent is the Mississippi (6,019 km), which flows through the United States. The largest North American rivers also include the Mackenzie (4,241 km), the St. Lawrence (3,058 km), the Rio Grande (3,034 km), and the Yukon (2,829 km).

On the territory of Canada and the United States is Lake Superior - the largest lake in North America (its area is 82 thousand square kilometers).

Almost 36% of the territory of North America is occupied by mountain systems. The largest of them are the Cordilleras and the Appalachians. The highest mountain of this continent is McKinley in Alaska, its height is 6,194 meters.

In the western part of North America there are several large deserts and semi-deserts - Sonora, Chihuahua and Mojave.

Population of North America

At the moment, the population of North America already reaches 530 million people. This is almost 13% of the total population of the Earth.

Representatives of the Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid races, as well as mixed racial groups (mestizos, mulattoes, sambo, etc.) live in North America. North American natives (Indians and Eskimos) belong to the Mongoloid race.

Spanish is spoken in Mexico and Central America, English and Spanish in the United States, and English and French in Canada.

North American countries

Now there are 23 independent states in North America. The largest North American country is Canada (its territory covers 9,976,140 sq. km), and the smallest is St. Christopher and Nevis (261 sq. km). The territory of the USA is 9,363,00 sq. km.

Regions of North America

North America as a whole can be divided into 3 main regions:

Anglo-America (Canada and USA);
Central America (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Belize, El Salvador and Mexico);
Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica, Antigua, Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Cayman Islands, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Dominica and Haiti).

Some cities in North America appeared before our era (they were formed by the Maya Indians). Now the most populous North American city is Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, which is home to more than 8.9 million people.

Other major cities in North America are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Havana, Santo Domingo, Houston and Ecatepec.

At the end of the 15th century, a new, hitherto unknown continent, later called America, opened up to the world. Its area is more than 40 million square meters. km. The discoverers called this continent the New World.

A few words about the continent

October 12, 1492 is officially considered the opening date of the mainland. It was on this day that the sailors of Christopher Columbus noticed the land that turned out to be America. Although the history of this part of the world began long before the discovery. There is a version that the continent got its name from the name of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci (navigator on the expedition of Admiral Alonso de Ojeda).

In the modern sense, America is a part of the world, which includes two continents (southern and northern) and the islands surrounding them. Previously, they belonged to different continents. is more than 950 million people, according to the 2015 census. For the first time, residents of Asia began to populate its territories. It is because of the numerous migrations of the Eskimos that they are currently considered the indigenous inhabitants of the mainland.

Regional division of the territory

The following regions are distinguished:

North America - includes the states: Canada, Mexico, as well as the islands located on the east coast.
unites independent countries located on the mainland.
Central America is a region that includes states located on the northern mainland south of Mexico.
Caribbean (another name for the West Indies) - consists of the islands of the Caribbean Sea.

Separation by language

The territory of America is also classified by division according to linguistic and historical criteria:

Latin America (Spanish, Portuguese, French speaking countries);
Anglo-America (English-speaking countries).

In total, America includes 36 independent countries and 17 dependent territories.

North America

The third largest continent of the planet is located in the Northern Hemisphere. This is North America. The area of the mainland is more than 20 million square meters. km. With adjacent islands - more than 24 million square meters. km. The largest islands of North America are Greenland, Aleutian, West Indies and Canadian. This region includes the following countries: the USA, Canada, Mexico, as well as Greenland, the Bahamas and Bermuda. The total population of the region is more than 560 million people. The mainland is washed by the waters of three oceans: the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific. It is connected to South America by the Isthmus of Panama in the south.

Quite varied. In the west, one of the largest mountain systems on the planet, the Cordillera Mountains, stretches, while in the east, plains and low hills predominate. The highest point of the mainland - the city of Denali (formerly McKinley) - 6,193 m.

The climate of the region changes from arctic in the north to subequatorial in the south. This diversity is easily explained by a large area. Air masses come to the mainland from the west, and warm trade winds prevail only in the south of the region. The region is rich in precipitation. In the northwest, they can reach 6,000 mm/year. In North America, there is the largest river system on the planet - the river. Mississippi and Missouri, as well as the largest accumulation of fresh water in the Canadian Great Lakes.

South America

The area of the mainland is 17.8 million square meters. km takes 4th place among other continents. It is washed by the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In the south, it is disconnected from Antarctica, but in the north, a narrow isthmus separates the mainland from North America. The coastline of the continent is smooth and has few bays. The border of South America (namely, the coastline) stretches for more than 30,000 km. The relief of the region is asymmetrical: in the west, half of the mainland is occupied by a high mountain range - the Andes, in the east, plains and lowlands predominate. The highest point is the city of Aconcagua (6,960 m). South America crosses the equator.

The population of this region is 387 million people. It is distributed unevenly across the mainland. The most populated regions are the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, where the largest cities of the continent are also located.

On the political map of this mainland, there are 12 independent states and one colony - the overseas department of France - Guiana. According to the level of development, the states belong to the agrarian-industrial type. That is, these are countries that are developing. Brazil, Argentina and Chile are the most industrialized. In other countries, agriculture and mining dominate.

Central America (description)

The central part is a region of America, conditionally located between the Southern and Northern continents. But territorially belongs to the northern mainland. The region includes 7 small states. Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and Honduras - Central America consists of them. The land area reaches about 2.7 million square meters. km. The majority of the region's population is Hispanic. The total population is 36 million people. Most of them are engaged in agriculture. Another popular name for the region is "banana republics". It has taken root due to the fact that more than 90% of all banana imports come from these countries.

West Indies

The Caribbean (West Indies) is an island region of America. Includes islands: Caribbean, Bahamas and Antilles. The population of the region is 42 million people. Consists of 5 states: Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Almost all large islands have indented coasts and convenient bays. In addition, the region has a fairly even, warm tropical climate. This makes the West Indies a very popular tourist destination.

The grandiose Cordillera fold belt, 9,000 km long and 1,000 to 1,500 km wide, stretches along the entire western margin of North America from Alaska to Central America. It distinguishes 4 segments: Alaska, Canadian, USA and Mexican and two main longitudinal zones common to all segments - the miogeosynclinal zone of the Rocky Mountains and the eugeosynclinal inner zone. The Rocky Mountain zone is most typically expressed in Canada and the USA. It is underlain by the Early Precambrian sialic basement, which is common with the basement of the adjacent platform. The boundary of this basement extends farthest to the west, in the region of the summit of the Gulf of California in the south and in the Yukon basin in the north. Paleozoic and Mesozoic shelf sediments accumulated directly on this basement in the outer near-platform subzone. In the innermost subzone, where these sediments increase in thickness and become deeper, they are underlain by thick deposits of the Upper Precambrian. At the same time, the Lower (?)- and Middle Riphean formations are possibly the sediments of an intracratonic rift system, while the Upper Riphean-Vendian clastic sediments certainly reflect the beginning of the formation of a riftogenic passive margin. The latter continued to develop in the Cambrian - Middle Devonian. In the late Devonian - early Carboniferous carbonate shelf sedimentation is replaced by clastic sedimentation in the Rocky Mountains. In the US Cordillera, this was due to the thrusting of slope and foot deposits onto the shelf in the era of the so-called. Antlerian orogeny. Later, in the Early Carboniferous, the accumulation of carbonates resumed, but in the deposits of the Middle-Upper Carboniferous and especially the Permian and Triassic, they are interbedded with clastic rocks. In the Permian and Triassic, the western edge of the continent underwent new deformations. Since that time, the existence of a marginal volcanic-plutonic belt of the Andean type has been established in the Cordillera of the USA. Since the Late Jurassic (Nevada tectonic-magmatic epoch), the zone of the Rocky Mountains, starting from the inner edge, has been involved in intense fold-thrust deformations. They extend up to its outer edge at the end of the Cretaceous - the beginning of the Paleogene (Laramian tectonic-magmatic epoch). The entire zone turns into a system of gently sloping tectonic nappes torn from the Early Precambrian basement and displaced for hundreds of kilometers in the direction of the craton. Since the beginning of the Cretaceous, in the Cordillera of the USA, a significant part of the craton itself has been involved in this process, as a result of which the Cordillera belt reaches its maximum width here. In the north of this area, a series of differently oriented basement uplifts arose, separated by deep depressions filled with thick deposits of the Cretaceous - the lower Paleogene, on which these uplifts are thrust. In the southern half of the site, there was a general uplift of a large block that made up the Colorado Plateau and is bounded on the east by the linear uplifts of the Southern Rocky Mountains and the younger Rio Grande Rift. The continuation of the Rocky Mountain zone in Alaska (Brooks Range) and Mexico (eastern Sierra Madre) differs significantly from the main part of the zone in that the Mesozoic miogeosynclinal complex here is sharply unconformably superimposed on the Paleozoic, which belonged to the Arctic belt in Alaska and the Atlantic in Mexico, where this complex begins only in the Upper Jurassic, with evaporites, which are underlain by continental reds that separate it from the Paleozoic folded basement. In Alaska, the Mesozoic section is entirely marine and terrigenous. A common feature with the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the United States is the Laramian age of the final deformations and a tectonics style with large gentle thrusts north into the Brooks Range and northeast and east into the eastern Sierra Madre. The construction of the Brooks Ridge is accompanied from the north by a large and deep foredeep, the Colville Basin, filled with a thick Small-Cenozoic molasse with intensely deformed southern and gently sloping northern flanks. Troughs of the marginal type, but smaller, follow in a discontinuous chain along the eastern edge of the rest of the Cordilleras; these are the Mackenzie and Alberta basins in Canada, the Powder River, Denver and Rayton in the USA, and the Chicontepec in Mexico.

The common characteristic of the Cordillera eugeosynclinal zone is only its predominant oceanic origin, proven by ophiolites, the widest development of other igneous rocks of the calc-alkaline series, and an exceptionally complex internal structure with numerous melange zones, thrusts and strike-slips, formed as a result of deformations that began in the Permian and culminated in chalk. On the whole, the zone is dominated by western (southern in Alaska) vergence and right-sided, sometimes hundreds of kilometers, displacement along strike-slips (San Andreas in California and many others). Modern researchers believe that the inner zone of the Cordillera is a "collage", i.e. a mosaic resulting from the "sticking together" of many dozens of large and small blocks of different nature and age, fragments of intra-oceanic uplifts, island arcs, microcontinents that differ sharply in the structure and composition of their sections and do not reveal mutual transitions. Some of them have experienced moving in the north along the edge of the continent for many hundreds and even more than a thousand km. With the end of the main deformations, intermountain troughs filled with Cretaceous and (or) Cenozoic molasses appeared to be superimposed on the fold-thrust structure in places - the Great Valley trough and smaller ones in California, Bowser in Canada, a number of troughs in western Alaska. In the Cordillera of the United States, rifting was widely manifested in the Cenozoic. It created a wide zone of extension and block structure in the center of the system - a zone of Basins and Ranges with a thinned crust and lithosphere, as well as the Rio Grande rift east of the Colorado Plateau, the Gulf of California rift with a transition to oceanic spreading at the end of the Miocene and continuing on the continent . The Cenozoic was also an era of intense volcanism, mainly but not exclusively in the western zone of the Cordilleras. The subduction of the Pacific lithosphere under the continent of North America is associated with the formation of the still active volcanoes of the Aleutian Arc, the Alaska Range, the Cascade Mountains, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the older, Oligocene-Miocene calc-alkaline volcanism of the Western Sierra Madre province. The Jurassic-Cretaceous granite batholiths of the Alaska Range, the British Columbia Coast Range, the Sierra Nevada, and the Baja California Peninsula have the same origin. To the east, manifestations of intrusive magmatism of the late Cretaceous - early Paleogene are observed only in the southern half of the Cordillera (USA, Mexico); the plutons are smaller, show slightly increased alkalinity and a greater proportion of crustal material. The last of them go to the platform (Montana, South Dakota). In the rear of the volcanic ridges of the Cascades, the Columbia Plateau is flooded with basalts, and along the transverse fault zone of the Snake River, manifestations of bimodal (both basic and felsic) volcanism are observed.

A special place in the structure of North America belongs to the vast, 1500 km in diameter, rounded basin of the Gulf of Mexico. Its central part, occupied by the deep-sea (up to 3750 m) Sigsby Plain, is underlain by oceanic-type crust, which arose, as is assumed, during spreading in the Middle-Late Jurassic, simultaneously with the beginning of the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Along the periphery of the deep-water basin, a transitional type of crust is developed - a product of the initial rifting of the Late Triassic - Early Jurassic. At the end of the Middle Jurassic, when the waters of the Atlantic penetrated into the basin, a powerful layer of salts was deposited here. The latter is associated with intense manifestations of salt diapirism over most of the basin perimeter, except for the carbonate platforms of Yucatan and Florida, which close the depression in the northeast and southeast. In the Early Cretaceous, a ring of barrier reefs formed around almost the entire basin, and in the Late Cretaceous, deposition of layered carbonates predominated. In the Cenozoic, the periphery of the basin, except for Yucatan and Florida, where carbonate accumulation continued, began to be filled with sandy-argillaceous sediments; their thickness reaches 15 km in the northern part of the basin. At the same time, the growth of salt diapirs continued. The cover of Cretaceous and Cenozoic coastal-shallow sediments, crossing Florida, spreads to the Atlantic Plain of the USA, increasing in thickness towards the ocean; it is practically not deployed. Along the valley of the Mississippi River, this cover forms a "bay" that overlaps the junction of the Appalachians and the Washita and reaches the ancient platform with its top.

In a geographical sense, the Antilles-Caribbean region belongs to North America in the south. Its main elements are the Antilles island arc, convex to the east, the Central American (Panama) isthmus connecting North America with South America, and the Caribbean Sea enclosed between them. The Antilles arc, consisting of three main links (the latitudinal chain of the Greater Antilles in the north, the arc of the Lesser Antilles in the east, and the latitudinal archipelago of the Southern Lesser Antilles in the south), developed from the Jurassic to the Eocene inclusive as a volcanic arc, partially laid down on the sialic, partly on a simmatic basis. As a result of intense deformations of the end of the Cretaceous and the end of the Eocene, it acquired a complex fold-cover structure with a general northern vergence, with the participation of ophiolites and with the formation of metamorphogenic dome structures in the south, in the rear. On the northern coast of Cuba, the covers are pushed over the edge of the Florida-Bahama platform with a Precambrian-Paleozoic basement and a Mesozoic and Cenozoic carbonate cover. In the Oligocene-Quaternary, the islands of the Greater Antilles experienced a general (somewhat differentiated in Cuba and Haiti) uplift. The Lesser Antilles for the most part represent a volcanic arc that arose in the Eocene and remains active in the modern era. Part of the islands of the Lesser Antilles has lost this activity and is covered with a cover of Neogene-Quaternary limestones (Limestone Antilles). The Southern Lesser Antilles, like the Greater Antilles, are an ancient (Cretaceous) volcanic arc on a simatic basis. Together with the Coastal Ranges of Venezuela, they are part of the complex of south-vergent fold-cover structures thrust over the northern edge of the South American continent. The Isthmus of Panama south of the Polochik-Motagua strike-slip zone, which opens into the Gulf of Honduras of the Caribbean Sea, consists of two main structural elements - an ancient, Precambrian-Paleozoic massif in the north with a Mesozoic-Cenozoic cover, continuing into the Nicaraguan submarine uplift of the Caribbean Sea, and a young folded - cover structure of the Isthmus of Panama with Jurassic-Early Cretaceous ophiolites at the base of the section and younger island-arc volcanic rocks. Between the massif and the folded system there is the largest deep fault zone, along which there is a chain of young volcanoes of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica, which, like the Polochik-Motagua shear zone, is distinguished by high seismic activity. The folded system of the Isthmus of Panama took shape only by the beginning of the Pliocene, when a land connection between North America and South America arose.

The Caribbean Sea consists of several deep-sea basins (Yucatan, Colombian, Venezuelan, Grenada). Their formation dates back to the beginning of the Late Cretaceous. The Yucatan depression is separated from the Colombian by the Nicaraguan uplift and the Cayman trench, the Colombian from the Venezuelan by the underwater Beata ridge, extending south from the island of Haiti, the Venezuelan from the Grenada depression by the underwater Avas ridge (dead volcanic arc). A peculiar young strike-slip-spreading structure is the Cayman Trench, which extends in the latitudinal direction in the east from the top of the Gulf of Honduras to the strait between Cuba and Haiti and articulates here with the Puerto Rico Trench, bordering the eastern segment of the Greater Antilles from the northeast and east and from the north — Lesser Antilles.

seismicity. The main seismically active zone of North America extends along its Pacific coast and is associated with the convergence of the East Pacific and North American lithospheric plates along the seismic focal zones of the Aleutian and Central American trenches, the coast of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, as well as the San Andreas seismogenic transform fault in California. Devastating earthquakes occurred in this seismically active zone: Alaska (1964), San Francisco (1906), in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles (1971), Mexican (September 1985) and in the extreme south in Managua (1982). It is quite obvious that this entire zone will remain highly seismically hazardous in the future, especially its intersection with the latitudinal transform faults of the Pacific Ocean. To the east, in the Cordillera, seismic activity weakens, but does not completely die out: the western, southern and eastern periphery of the Great Basin and the Rio Grande rift are seismic. The platform Terek and the ancient folded structures framing it from the north, east and south are practically aseismic or weakly seismic. The exception is the zone stretching from the estuary of the Syatoy Lawrence River to the Mississippi Delta, which is considered as a zone of ancient and modern rifting. A major earthquake in 1811-12 was associated with it.

Minerageny. In accordance with the peculiarities of the geological structure of North America, four epochs of the formation of mineral deposits are distinguished on its territory: Archean, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic-Cenozoic.

In the blocks of rocks of the Archean era of the Canadian Shield, deeply metamorphosed ore deposits of the basaltoid and granitoid groups are distinguished. The basaltoid group includes formations of greenstone belts, represented by numerous hydrothermal gold deposits of the Porcupine, Kirkland Lake, and other types, pyrite deposits of the Flin Flon type, and Abitibi ferruginous quartzites. The granitoid group includes the oldest rare-metal and muscovite metamorphogenic pegmatites, known among gray granite domes.

Deposits of ores of ferrous, nonferrous, noble, rare and radioactive metals are associated with the formations of the Proterozoic era of the Canadian Shield. Large deposits of ferruginous quartzites are concentrated in the region of Lake Superior (see Lake Superior iron ore basin). Among the deposits of non-ferrous metal ores in Canada, igneous deposits of sulfide copper-nickel ores, deposits of pyrite-polymetallic ores of Sullivan, as well as deposits of native copper of the Kivino Peninsula, which are very rare in nature, stand out. Deposits of noble metals are represented by high-temperature hydrothermal quartz-gold

North America is the third largest continent after Africa and Eurasia. To give complete information about the continent, it is necessary to draw up a plan for describing North America. First of all, it is necessary to find out the geographical position, climatic conditions, information about the relief and its dimensions.

general characteristics

North America is a continent that includes 23 states. The largest countries are Canada, the United States of America and Mexico.

The length of the mainland North America from north to south is 7326 km. The mainland is located in the Western Hemisphere north of the equator. Its extreme points:

northern - Cape Murchison
western - Cape Prince of Wales
eastern - Cape St. Charles
southern – Cape Maryato

North America is washed by the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. It is separated from South America by the Panama Canal, and from Eurasia by the Bering Strait.

In the northern part of the coast of the mainland have a strongly indented structure. The largest peninsulas are Labrador, California, Florida. The largest island is Greenland (the largest in the world) and the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Relief and minerals

North America is dominated by mountains in the West and plains in the East. At the base of most of the continent lies the N American Plate, on which the Mississippi Lowlands, the Central Plains and the steps of the “giant staircase” of the Great Plains and the plains of the northern coast are located.

In the west of the mainland are the Cordillera. In short, the Cordillera is the largest mountain range on Earth, stretching along the outskirts of North and South America. The highest height is Mount McKinley (6194 m), which is the highest point of the Cordilleras and all of North America.

Rice. 2. Mount McKinley

The Appalachians are a mountain range to the east. Compared to the Cordillera, there are very low mountains here, the height of which ranges from 600 m to 1200 m.

North America also has many minerals. On the Great Plains and the Mississippi Lowland there are deposits of oil, gas, and coal. The Cordilleras are rich in non-ferrous metal ores, gold, and uranium ores. Iron ores and coal are found in the Appalachians.

Climate

The equatorial climate zone is the only zone in which North America is not located. Many factors play a huge role in the climate: longitude, latitude, the presence or absence of mountains, and distance from the ocean.

It is necessary to remember the following information: the farther the area is from the Atlantic Ocean, the less rainfall. At the same time, the humid air masses of the Pacific Ocean affect the coastal slopes of the Cordillera.

In the Arctic zone, in addition to the northern coast, there are Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

In Greenland, it is so cold in winter that the temperature drops to -50 degrees.

In the subarctic zone are the Alaska Peninsula, the Labrador Peninsula, the coast of Hudson Bay. A distinctive feature of this belt is permafrost.

The temperate zone is characterized by a monsoon type of climate in the east, and a maritime climate on the Pacific coast. The temperature here depends on the time of year: in summer, tropical air brings heat, and in winter, it is characterized by sharp cooling.

On the east coast, the climate is humid subtropical, and on the west - Mediterranean. In the central part of the mainland, the climate is continental.

All of Central America, excluding the south, is located in the tropical climate zone. South - in the subequatorial. The climate in these areas is determined by the trade winds.

Inland waters

There are many rivers and lakes in North America. The largest river, the Mackenzie, belongs to the Arctic Ocean basin. The rivers belonging to this area are mostly flat and covered with ice for 8-9 months a year.

The rivers of the Atlantic Ocean basin are quite long. The most important river in this territory is the Mississippi (3778 km). The Mississippi is a flat river, often overflowing due to heavy rains, which causes floods.