• North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere.
• It’s bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and South America and the Caribbean Sea to the southeast.
• North America is the third largest continent after Asia and Africa, covering nearly 24 million square kilometers.
• Its boundaries extend from 7°N to 85°N latitude and from 20°W to 179°W longitude.
• Its northern boundary is approximately 500 kilometers from the North Pole and western boundary is about 10 kilometers from the International Date Line.
• There are five time zones in North America.
• The Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle pass through the continent, and the 100°W longitude cuts through the center of the continent.

• North America consists of three large countries: Canada, the United States of America, and Mexico
• It also includes seven small states of Central America and the islands of the West Indies
• The continent is surrounded by the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans in the east, west, and north respectively
• The Bering Strait separates it from Asia in the northwest, and the Isthmus of Panama joins it to South America in the southeast
• North America has a mostly smooth coastline, except for the northwest region

Regional Divisions Of North America

• Western Region
  • Young mountains rise in the west.
  • The Rockies are North America’s largest chain.
  • They stretch from the province of British Columbia, Canada, to the U.S. state of New Mexico.
• Great Plains
  • In the middle of the continent lies the Great Plain.
  • Deep, rich soil blankets large areas of the plains in Canada and the United States.
  • Grain is grown in this region called the “Breadbasket of North America,” feeds a large part of the world.
  • The Great Plains are also home to rich deposits of oil and natural gas.
• Canadian Shield
  • The Canadian Shield is a raised but relatively flat plateau.
  • It extends over eastern, central, and northwestern Canada.
  • The Canadian Shield is characterized by a rocky landscape pocked by an astounding number of lakes.
• Eastern Region
  • This varied region includes the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coastal plain.
  • North America’s older mountain ranges, including the Appalachians, rise near the east coast of the United States and Canada.
  • These areas have been mined for rich deposits of coal and other minerals for hundreds of years.

Major Physical Divisions of North America

• Western Region:
  • Young fold mountains called Cordilleras run from Alaska to South America.
  • Cordilleras are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and act as a barrier to moisture-laden winds.
  • The Rocky Mountains, Alaska Range, Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and Sierra Madre are the chief ranges of the Western Cordilleras.
  • The Grand Canyon and Old Faithful are located in the Western Cordillera of the USA.
• Central Lowlands:
  • Stretch from Arctic Shores and Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, hemmed in by Cordilleras in the west and highlands in the east.
  • The Canadian Shield is a peneplain with many large lakes, including the five Great Lakes and Lake Winnipeg, Great Bear Lake, and Lake Athabaska.
  • South of the Canadian Shield, the Central Lowlands are covered with layers of sediment and are fertile.
• Eastern Highlands:
  • Old fold mountains that stretch from the valley of River St. Lawrence to Southern USA.
  • Also known as the Laurentian highlands in Canada and the Appalachians in the USA, they are less than 2,000 meters in height.
  • Eastern slopes facing the Atlantic Ocean are steep, causing waterfalls in streams that flow to the coast.
  • Canadian Shield:
    • Raised but relatively flat plateau extending over eastern, central, and northwestern Canada.
    • Characterized by a rocky landscape pocked by an astounding number of lakes.

Gulfs of North America

• Gulf of Mexico
  • Important economic site for three countries
  • Coastline of 5000 kilometers
• Gulf of Alaska
  • Situated in the northwestern part of North America
  • Two types of water run into each other
  • Light, almost electric blue merging with a darker slate-blue
• Gulf of California
  • Separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland
  • Coastline of 4000 km (2600 miles)
  • Home to more than 5,000 species of microinvertebrates
• Gulf of St. Lawrence
  • Water outlet of the North American Great Lakes via Saint Lawrence river
  • Semi-enclosed sea covering 236,000 square kilometers (91,000 sq mi)
  • Contains about 35,000 cubic kilometers (8,400 cu mi) of water
  • Average depth of 148 meters (486 ft)

Islands

• Vancouver Island: Situated on Canada’s Pacific Coast, separated from British Columbia mainland and Washington by straits, known for its mild climate and arts community.
• Greenland: Massive island situated between Atlantic and Arctic oceans, 80% of its land is covered by ice.
• Prince of Wales Island: One of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, fourth largest in size.
• Hawaii Island: Also known as the Big Island, the largest island of the Hawaiian archipelago in the Central Pacific, provides a vast canvas of natural environment.
• Cuba Islands/Cuba Islands of Antilles: Known as the sugar bowl of the world, vast source of metallic resources including cobalt, nickel, iron ore, chromium, and copper. Other resources include timber, petroleum, silica, salt, and arable land.
• Bermuda Island: A British territory in the North Atlantic, famous for its pink sand beaches such as Elbow and Horseshoe Bay.

Drainage Pattern

• There are many rivers in North America. River of North America can be grouped according to the seas they drain into, like
  • Rivers draining into the Gulf of Mexico
  • Rivers draining into the Atlantic Ocean
  • Arctic Ocean drainage
  • Pacific Ocean Drainage
• Rivers draining into the Gulf of Mexico include:
  • Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries
  • Ohio and Tennessee rivers (exceptions as they have their source in the Appalachians)
• Rivers draining into the Atlantic Ocean include:
  • St. Lawrence River (the largest river in this group)
  • Smaller rivers of the Fall Line
• Arctic Ocean drainage includes:
  • Mackenzie River (has many shallow lakes on the Canadian Shield)
  • Nelson River (flows into Hudson Bay)
• Pacific Ocean drainage includes:
  • Yukon River in Alaska
  • Columbia River, Fraser River, and Colorado River along the west coast
  • Colorado River cuts across the Colorado Plateau and forms the world’s most famous and attractive deep gorges known as grand canyons
  • Other well-known rivers include the Snake, Humboldt, Sacramento, and San Joaquin.

Seas in North America

• Caribbean Sea: sub-oceanic basin bordered by coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Lesser Antilles islands.
• Beaufort Sea: marginal sea of Arctic Ocean located north of Canada and Alaska, covering an area of 184,000 sq. miles with an average depth of 3,239 ft (1,004 m).
• Hudson Bay: the second-largest bay in the world, encompassing an area of 1,230,000 square kilometers (470,000 mi) and a large body of saltwater.
• Labrador Sea: bordered by continental shelves and separates Canada from Greenland.
• Bering Sea: situated on the extreme North of North America, separating the continents of Asia and North America.

Inland Drainage System

• The Great Basin area in the Rocky Mountains (Middle) has rivers which do not reach the coast, but terminate in the land. This is the Inland Drainage System.
• The rivers are small, seasonal and end up in saline lakes.

Lakes in North America

• The Lakes of the Canadian Shield are freshwater bodies.
• The Great Salt Lake between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada has a high salt content and is an area of ‘Inland drainage’.
• Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada, and Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania in the USA.
• Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada, and Michigan in the USA.
• Lake Ontario in Ontario, and New York in the USA.
• Lake St Clair in Ontario, and Michigan in the USA.
• Lake Superior in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin in the USA.

Resources

• North America produces most of the world’s corn, meat, cotton, soybeans, tobacco, and wheat, along with a variety of other food and industrial raw material crops.
• Mineral resources are also abundant; the large variety includes coal, iron ore, bauxite, copper, natural gas, petroleum, mercury, nickel, potash, and silver.
• North America has a variety of agricultural industries due to its diverse climate zones.
• The different climate zones are tropical, subtropical, cool temperate, and dry.
• Tropical zones are suitable for crops like oranges, sugar cane, coffee, cocoa, and bananas.
• Subtropical zones are suitable for fruits, vegetables, cotton, and tobacco.
• Cool temperate zones are suitable for dairy farming, corn, soybeans, and wheat.
• Dry zones are suitable for livestock ranching but suffer from water scarcity due to irrigation for fruit and cotton farming.
• The Dairy Belt, Corn Belt, and Wheat Belt are important agricultural areas in the cool temperate zone.
• The Dry Zone is ideal for large-scale livestock ranching, but water scarcity has affected the availability of fodder.

Forestry

• Forestry involves management, cultivation, and harvesting of trees and vegetation in forests.
• In Pacific Northwest, cedar, fir, and spruce trees are harvested by logging companies.
• Lumber from these trees is exported worldwide for construction purposes.
• Large paper mills are found in these temperate rain forests, producing paper, cardboard, and fiberboard.
• Forestry is a major economic activity in North America.
• In the US, the timber industry is strong in the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf states, and South Atlantic coastal plains.
• In Canada, forestry is a major industry in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia.

Mining

• North America is a leading producer of coal, bauxite, iron, copper, nickel, gold, and silver.
• Coal can be mined underground or in large, open pits, and around 20% of the world’s coal is mined in Pennsylvania, USA.
• Large deposits of iron ore are found in the areas around Lake Superior and the Eastern part of the Canadian shield, and iron is also found in the southern Appalachians.
• The USA is one of the largest producers of copper in the world, and it is mined extensively around the great lakes and the Rocky Mountains.
• Mexico is the world’s largest producer of silver, and large deposits of silver are found in the USA and Canada too.
• Canada and the US produce a substantial amount of gold which is mined in the Rocky Mountains, and California and Alaska saw the Gold rush in the early 1900s.
• Canada produces about 90% of the world’s nickel and is also the largest producer of asbestos, zinc, and platinum and the second-largest producer of cobalt, uranium, and radium.
• The USA is one of the world’s largest producers of uranium and sulfur.

Drilling

• North America has vast deposits of oil and natural gas, which are used for energy and fuel.
• The United States, Canada, and Mexico are among the world’s top oil producers.
• The Athabasca tar sands in Alberta, Canada, are the world’s largest reservoir of heavy crude oil.
• More than 20 national and international extraction projects are established in the Athabasca tar sands.
• Large reserves of petroleum are found in North America in a great arc from Alaska to Texas in the USA.
• The United States is the top oil-producing country in the world, accounting for 18% of the world’s production.
• The U.S. surpassed former leader Saudi Arabia in 2013 to become the world’s top oil producer.
• Much of the increased U.S. production is attributable to fracking in the shale formations in Texas and North Dakota.
• The U.S. has been a net exporter of oil (i.e., exports exceed imports) since early 2011.
• Mexico leads other North American countries as one of the top oil exporters in the world, largely because of its reserves in and around the Gulf.

Important Industrial Centers of North America

United States of America:

• West Coast Important Cities –
  • Seattle – world’s largest aircraft assembly center. Lumbering, fish canning, aluminum smelting electrical engineering are important industries.
  • San Francisco – known as ‘The City of Golden Gate’. Famous for oil refining and ship building.
  • Los Angeles – known for its film industry – Hollywood.
• Great Lake Region-
  • Famous for heavy industries and iron and steel.
  • Important cities – Chicago, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, etc.
  • Detroit – greatest automobile region of USA
  • Akron – world’s largest synthetic rubber and tyre making center.
  • Pittsburg – highest production of Iron and steel
• Texas –
  • Houston – Oil refinery, shipbuilding, chemical, and machinery are important industries located here.
• Canada
  • Hamilton – located at the head of Lake Ontario. It is known as the Birmingham of Canada. Center for iron and steelworks and engineering.
  • Sudbury – Located on the shore of Lake Huron. It is one of the most productive mining areas of Canada which yields nickel, Platinum, copper, etc.
  • Arvida – Situated on Saguenay River. It has the largest aluminum smelter in the world.
  • Sarnia – Located on the shore of Lake Huron. It has the largest oil refinery in the world.
  • Ottawa – Paper and pulp and sawmilling