Geography

The United States of America has got a surface of 9 000 000 km2.

There are five main geographical areas in the USA:

1. the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain runs north to south along the Atlantic coast from New York to Mexico.

2. the Appalachian Highlands are a line of low mountain ranges which separate the east coast from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Basin.

3. the Great Plains lie west of the Mississippi River. They form the USA’s most important agricultural area, producing most of the country’s grain, soya beans and livestock.

4. there are also the Cordilleran Highlands that include the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada and cascade mountain ranges and contain some of the highest mountains in the country. Between the two mountains there is a spectacular geographical feature such as the Grand Canyon in north-western Arizona.

5. the Pacific Slope includes the fertile valley of California, Oregon and Washington.

The Mississippi is the longest river in the USA. It flows for about 3900 km from Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico.

The climate is mostly temperate but tropical in Hawaii and in Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the Great Plain west of the Mississippi River and arid the Great Basin of the south-west.

Luca S.