Chapter 5 Study Guide For Apollo Team Students

Chapter 5 Study Guide for Apollo Team

Chapter 5 Study Guide for Apollo Team

The Physical Geography of the US and Canada

Landforms (page 115) Many different landforms are found in Canada and the United States.

A.  The Rocky Mountains link the United States and Canada.  These mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from New Mexico to Alaska.  The Pacific Ranges and the Rocky Mountains formed as a result of collisions between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates millions of years ago. Mt. McKinley in Alaska is the highest point in North America.

B.  Dry basins and plateaus are found between the Pacific Ranges and the Rocky Mountains.  The Colorado Plateau has been eroded by the Colorado River to form the Grand Canyon.  The Great Basin includes Death Valley—the hottest and lowest place in the United States. Canada’s Nechako Plateau and Fraser Plateau are narrower than the plateau areas in the United States.

C.  The Great Plains are located east of the Rockies and extend 400 miles across the center of the region.  They slope downward to the Central Lowlands along the Mississippi River.

D.  The Eastern Mountains includes the Canadian Shield and the Appalachian Mountains.  The Canadian Shield is a giant core of rock that anchors North America.  The Shield makes up the eastern half of Canada and the northeastern United States.  The Appalachian Mountains are North America’s oldest mountains.  They extend 1,500 miles from Quebec to central Alabama.

E.  Coastal Lowlands lie east and south of the Appalachians.

F.  Islands are important to the region. Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River is a major world economic center. Hawaii formed by volcanic mountaintops in the Pacific Ocean. Canada’s main islands in the east include Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton Island. In the west is Vancouver Island.

A Fortune in Water (page 116) Abundant freshwater lakes and rivers help the United States and Canada to satisfy the water needs of cities and rural areas, provide power for homes and industries, and move resources across the continent.

In North America the high ridge of the Rockies is called the Continental Divide or Great Divide. A divide is a high point or ridge that determines the direction that rivers flow. East of the Continental Divide, the rivers flow toward the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. West of the Continental Divide the rivers flow toward the Pacific Ocean. Some rivers have their headwaters, or source, in the Rockies. Many tributaries, or brooks, rivers, and streams, flow into these rivers.

The Mississippi River is North America’s longest river at 2,350 miles. It stretches from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It is one of the world’s busiest commercial waterways. The St. Lawrence River is one of Canada’s most important rivers. It is in eastern Canada. Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa all lie along the St. Lawrence River.

In the eastern United States, a boundary called the fall line marks the place where the higher land of the Piedmont drops to the lower Atlantic Coastal Plain. Eastern rivers become rapids and waterfalls along the fall line. Many important U.S. cities—Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C., are along the fall line. These cities have port facilities for ocean- going ships. In the Northeast and the South the waterpower of the falls is used for textile mills and factories. Niagara Falls, along the Canada-United States border, is a tourist area and a major source of hydroelectric power for both countries.

In Northern Canada, Glacial dams created Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake.  Glaciers also created the Great Lakes in the central section of the continent. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway is a series of canals, rivers, and other inland waterways linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. This link has been important to the economic development of North America.

Natural Resources (page 119) The geological processes that shaped the landscape of North America also gave the region a great variety of resources:

A.  Fuels include petroleum, natural gas, and coal.

B.  Mineral resources include gold, silver, copper, iron ore, nickel, and potash—a mineral salt used in fertilizer.

C.  Timber is an important resource for both countries. However, today forests cover less than 30 percent of the United States and 50 percent of Canada. Efforts to harvest the timber responsibly include planting new trees, protecting animals in forests, and preserving old-growth forests.

D.  Fishing is important to the region.  Some fisheries, or places for catching fish and other sea animals, have been overfished and are now regulated by governments.

Climate and Vegetation

In the last section, you read about the physical geography of the United States and Canada. This section focuses on the climate regions and natural vegetation in the region.

Terms to Know

timberline -The elevation above which trees cannot grow (page 123)

Chinook - A warm, dry wind that blows down the Rocky Mountains in late winter and early spring (page 124)

prairie - A naturally treeless expanse of grasses (page 124)

Super-cell - A violent spring and summer thunderstorm that causes a tornado (page 124)

hurricane -  An ocean storm hundreds of miles wide with winds of 74 miles per hour or more (page 125)

blizzard - A long, severe snowstorm (page 125)

Introduction (page 121) The climate regions and natural vegetation of the United States and Canada are diverse.

A Varied Region (page 121) Much of the United States and Canada have climates that match their latitudes. Most of Canada and Alaska are in high latitudes, so they experience long, cold winters and short, mild summers. Most of the continental United States and the southern one-third of Canada lie in more temperate latitudes where the climate regions vary with elevation. Hawaii has a predominantly tropical climate.

Northern Climates (page 122) There are two northern climate zones:

A.  The subarctic climate zone covers large parts of Canada and Alaska. The winters are very cold and the vegetation is mostly coniferous forest.

B.  The tundra climate zone is found in lands along the Arctic coastline.  This zone has very cold winters and cool summers. Most plants cannot live there. Greenland’s tundra vegetation is sedge, cotton grass, and lichens. Some small trees and scrubs can grow there. Few people live in this climate zone.

Western Climates (page 122) The climate and vegetation patterns in the western areas of the United States and Canada vary widely. This is because of the combined effects of latitude, elevation, ocean currents, and rainfall.

A.  A marine west coast climate zone is found along the Pacific coast from northern California to southern Alaska.  The mix of ocean currents and winds with the Pacific Ranges causes this climate.  The mountains force the wet ocean air upward where it cools and releases its moisture. This area receives more than 100 inches of rain each year. Coniferous trees, ferns, and mosses are common.

B.  A Mediterranean climate zone is found in southern California.

C.  A desert climate zone is found between the Pacific Ranges and the

Rocky Mountains.  The rain shadow effect keeps the plateaus and basins in the area hot and dry.  This climate supports cacti. During brief spring rains, hardy wildflowers bloom.

D.  A steppe climate zone is also found between the Pacific Ranges and the Rocky Mountains.  The steppe climate is usually in areas near deserts. Desert scrub, grasslands, or coniferous forests grow in this steppe climate, depending on latitude.

E.  A highland climate is found in the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Ranges. Coniferous forests cover the middle elevations of the western mountains. Beyond the timberline, the elevation above which trees cannot grow, only lichens and mosses grow in the constant cold. In the late winter and early spring, a warm, dry wind called the Chinook may blow down the eastern slopes of the Rockies.  This wind quickly melts and evaporates the snow at the base of the mountains.

Interior Climates (page 124) The Great Plains of the United States and Canada are far from large bodies of water which moderate climate. This area is a humid continental climate zone with bitterly cold winters and hot summers. Prairies, or naturally treeless expanses of grasses, cover the land. In the Great Plains and Eastern United States, super-cells, or violent spring and summer thunder- storms, create tornadoes. The Great Plains supply most of North America’s wheat harvest.

Eastern Climates (page 125) There are two eastern climate zones in the region.

A.  A humid subtropical climate zone with long, humid summers and mild winters is found in the southeastern part of the region. Deciduous forests grow there.  Wetlands and swamps in the area are home to a great variety of vegetation and wildlife. Hurricanes, or ocean storms hundreds of miles wide with extremely strong winds, are common during the late summer and early autumn.

B.  A humid continental climate zone extends from northeastern United States into southern Canada. Deciduous and mixed deciduous-evergreen forests grow in this climate zone. In winter, much of northern North America has blizzards. These snowstorms have winds over 35 miles per hour, temperatures below freezing, and visibility of less than 500 feet.

Tropical Climates (page 125) There are two tropical climate zones in the United States.

A.  A tropical savanna climate zone is found in the southern tip of Florida.

B.  A tropical rainforest zone is located in Puerto Rico and Hawaii.