The nation of United States of America, the most powerful nation on earth, lies in the Western Hemisphere. In the geography of USA, there are forty-eight contiguous states on the continent of North America; the state of Alaska, which forms the northwestern most part of North America, and Hawaii, an archipelago of islannds in the Pacific Ocean and the district of Columbia. There are also a multitude of United States territories in the Pacific and Caribbean. The country shares land borders with Canada in the north and Mexico to the south and southeast with the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast, Pacific Ocean on the West Coast.
America geography makes it the world's third largest nation after Canada and Russia. It will be interesting to note that US geography makes it half the size of South America, two and a half times the size of Western Europe and slightly more than one and a quarter times Australia's size.
In geography of USA, there is deciduous vegetation and grasslands in the east, that gives way to boreal forests, prairies and the Rocky Mountains in the west, and deserts in the southwest. Most of the country's population stays in the northeast of USA , the Great Lakes coasts and Atlantic seaboard.
The total area of the USA is 9,631,418 square kilometers of which land accounts for 9,161,923 square kilometers and water 469,495 square kilometers. The lowest point is Death Valley, Inyo County, California which is 86 meters below sea level and highest point Mount McKinley in Alaska 6,194 meters above sea level.
The geography of USA varies considerably with eight clear physiographic regions. The major division are:
- Laurentian Highlands - part of Canadian Shield extending into northern United States Great Lakes area.
- Atlantic Plain - coastal regions of eastern and southern parts including the continental shelf, the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast.
- Appalachian Highlands - lying on the eastern part of United States, it includes Appalachian Mountains, Adirondacks and New England province.
- Interior Plains - part of the interior continental United States, it includes much of what is called the Great Plains.
- Interior Highlands - part of interior continental United States, including the Ozark Plateau.
- Rocky Mountain System - branch of Cordilleran system lying far inland in western states.
- Intermontane Plateaus - also divided into Columbia Plateau, the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province. A system of plateaus, basins, ranges and gorges between the Rocky and Pacific Mountain Systems. It is location of the Grand Canyon, the Great Basin and Death Valley.
- Pacific Mountain System - the coastal mountain ranges and features in the west coast of the United States.
The U.S. Geography contains examples of nearly every global climate due to its gigantic size and wide range of geographic features. The climate is temperate in most areas, polar in Alaska, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida, Mediterranean in coastal California, semiarid in the Great Plains west of the hundredth meridien and arid in the Great Basin.
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