North America

North America is a continent in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost fully in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west by the North Pacific Ocean; South America lies to the southeast, connected to North America by the isthmus of Panama. It covers an area of about 24,490,000 km² (9,450,000 sq mi), or about 4.8% of the planet's surface. As of October 2006, its population was estimated at over 514,600,000. It is the third-largest continent in area, after Asia and Africa, and is fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe.

North America is the third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km) (if Eurasia is excluded), and the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and South America on the south, and the Arctic Ocean on the north. Canada covers most of the northern half of North America (much of which is sparsely populated). Alaska, the largest state of the U.S.A., occupies the northwestern part of the continent.

The first inhabitants of North America have supposedly come from Asia at least 20,000 years ago, some of which believes to have come over the Bering land bridge. Europeans, such as Christopher Columbus and many others made discoveries to North America. "Most people live in towns and cities with larger cities along the east and west coasts."

North America consists of all the mainland and related offshore islands lying north of the Isthmus of Panama (which joins with South America). "Anglo-America" can describe Canada and the USA together. "Middle America" is used in reference to the region of Mexico, the republics of Central America, and the Caribbean.

Its natural features include the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains (the largest mountains on the east), the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi, Missouri, Rio Grande, and St Lawrence rivers.

Climate is mainly determined, on a large extent, on the latitude, ranging from the arctic cold in the north, and tropical heat in the south. The western half of North America tends to have wilder and wetter climate than other areas with equivalent latitude, although there are steppes (known as "prairies") and deserts in the "American Southwest" (Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas), along with neighboring parts of Mexico.

Geography

North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America. North America's only land connection is to South America at the narrow Isthmus of Panama. (Geopolitically, all of Panama—including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus—is often considered a part of North America alone.) According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico with the intervening region called Central America (or Middle America if the Caribbean is included) and resting on the Caribbean Plate. Before the Central American isthmus was raised, the region had been underwater. The islands of the West Indies delineate a submerged former land bridge, which had connected North America and South America via Florida.

The continental coastline is long and irregular. The Gulf of Mexico is the largest body of water indenting the continent, followed by Hudson Bay. Others include the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Gulf of California.

There are numerous islands off the continent’s coasts: principally, the Arctic Archipelago, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Alexander Archipelago, and the Aleutian Islands. Greenland, a Danish self-governing island and the world's largest, is on the same tectonic plate (the North American Plate) but is not considered to be part of the continent. Bermuda is not part of the Americas, but is an oceanic island formed on the fissure of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The nearest landmass to it is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and it is often thought of as part of North America, especially given its historical political and cultural ties to Virginia and other parts of the continent.

Sedimentary, volcanic, plutonic, metamorphic rock types of North America. The vast majority of North America is on the North American Plate. Parts of California and western Mexico form the partial edge of the Pacific Plate, with the two plates meeting along the San Andreas fault.

The continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many sub-regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long plateaus and cordilleras, falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf.

The western mountains are split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the coast ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia with the Great Basin – a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts – in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska.

The United States Geographical Survey states that the geographic center of North America is “6 miles west of Balta, Pierce County, North Dakota” at approximately 48° 10′North, 100° 10′West, approximately 15 miles (25 km) from Rugby, North Dakota. The USGS further states that “No marked or monumented point has been established by any government agency as the geographic center of either the 50 States, the conterminous United States, or the North American continent.” Nonetheless, there is a 15 foot (4.5 m) field stone obelisk in Rugby claiming to mark the center.

-wikipedia.org

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