Geography of USA

Geography of the USA

Samuele Gueccia, Alissa Fabiano e Federico Panzeri.

Political geography

The United States is a very extended nation, made up of 50 states, each with its own government, but all united under a federal government. In addition to the states, there are territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, which are not in the USA but are governed by the United States. The country is divided into four main regions: the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West. The capital of the USA, Washington D.C., is a separate district that houses the central government. Each state has a governor, while at the national level, the president leads the country.

In the USA live 290.000.000 people, and the most important cities are: Washington, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Boston.

The USA border on Messico at south, Canada at north, the Atlantic Ocean at east and the Pacific Ocean at west.

Physical geography

• Mountains: the highest is the Mount McKinley (6194m) and the lowest is the Death Valley (86m b.s.l.)
• There's an enormous plain in the centre
• West: the Rocky Mountains
• East: the Appalachain Mountains
• Lakes: the deapest and biggest is the Lake Superior in Michigan; the Lakes Michigan and Huron are connected by the Stricts of Mackinac; the Lake Erie, the less deep; the Lake Ontario is the smallest
• Rivers: The Mississippi (3,778km), the Missouri (3,726km), and the Colorado (2,234km).

• Coasts of the United States stretch for thousands of miles, offering landscapes ranging from the golden sands of California to the cliffs of Maine.

Climate

It is: - Tropical in Florida and Hawaii. - Arid and semi-arid in Arizona, Nevada, and parts of Texas. - Continental in Michigan and Ohio. - Subarctic and Arctic in Alaska. - Mediterranean in California - Mountain climates in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada