The USA Geography

The USA is a Federal republic comprising 50 states and the District of Columbia. The USA is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, Canada on the North, the Atlantic Ocean on the east and Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on the South. The total area of the USA is over 9 million km². The population equals 232 million people. The state originated with the declaration of Independence of 1776. The national capital is Washington, D. C.

     The continental part of the USA consists of 2 highland and 2 lowland regions. The highland regions are the Appalachian Mountains in the east, and the Cordillera in the west.  The Appalachian Mountains run parallel to the Atlantic coast almost from the Gulf of Mexico into Canada. Their highest peak is 2,000 metres high. The Cordillera stretches along the Pacific coast with the Sierra Nevada in the South and the Rocky Mountains continuing into Canada and Alaska in the North. The highest point in the USA is 6,197 metres in Alaska. Between the Cordillera and the Appalachian Mountains are the central lowlands, which are called the prairie, and the eastern lowlands called the Mississippi valley.

The US has many thousands of streams. The Mississippi is one of the world's greatest rivers. Its waters are gathered from 2/3 of the US. Together with its principal tributary, the Missouri, it flows almost 4,000 miles from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. One of its folk names is "father of waters". The Ohio River and the Missouri River also rank among the most important rivers of the world. The long Rio Grande forms most of the border between the USA and Mexico. The Columbia River and its chief branch, the Snake River, the Sacramento River and the Colorado empty into the Pacific Ocean. The Yukon flows across Alaska to Bering Sea.

The USA has thousands of lakes of all kinds and sizes. The Great Lakes make up the largest group of lake in the country and the greatest collection of fresh water lakes in the world. Only Lake Michigan lies entirely inside the USA. Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario form a border between the USA and Canada. There are also such great lakes as the Great Salt Lake and others.

Grassland and scrub dominate the western half of the country, forest the eastern. Over 1/4 of the country is still under forests. There are pines, walnut, oak, hickories. Fur-bearing animals are muskrats, skunks and raccoons. Fish is an important natural resource. Fishing provides an important industry on the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf coasts and on the Great Lakes.

The US has large reserves of all the more widely used minerals except tin. The minerals include coal, petroleum, nuclear fuels, natural gas, iron copper, bauxite, lead, zinc, stone and many others.