The United States has many major landforms and several climates.
The United States encompasses a number of climates and major landform types. A landform is a natural feature of the landscape, such as a mountain range or plain. The description of landscape at regional scales is known as physiography. At its broadest, the continental United States includes parts of five physiographic realms that characterize the surface features of North America and are further subdivided into divisions, provinces and sections.
Western Mountains
The Pacific Mountain region includes the Sierra Nevadas and Cascade Range and fertile valleys. The Intermontane Basins and Plateaus region is a varied landscape of deserts (Mojave, Great Basin, Sonoran and Chihuahuan) and plateaus (Columbia and Colorado). The Rocky Mountains region is composed of more than 100 mountain ranges extending 3,000 miles from New Mexico through Canada. Along the West Coast, a mild temperate climate predominates, with wetter, cooler conditions farther north along a north-south axis. The mountainous topography creates pockets of highland climate, a complex and unpredictable climate due to the effects of elevation. The mountains also trap and release precipitation on their western flanks, resulting in progressively drier conditions eastward in their rain-shadows.
Interior Plains
The Interior Plains realm lies between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. It experiences strong seasonal weather variations. Moisture from both the north and south mean that this realm lacks the arid deserts found in the Western Mountains, and it is more humid. The Great Plains is a gently sloping plateau of grasslands adjacent the Rocky Mountains. The fertile Interior Lowlands region lies to the east, while the Interior Highlands in Missouri and Arkansas contains the Ozark Plateau and the low Ouachita Mountains, which reach 2,700 feet.
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield touches Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, and it extends into New York to include the Adirondack Mountains. This landscape was once heavily glaciated, resulting in many small lakes and thin unproductive soils. Its climate is similar to that of the Interior Plains, only harsher due to its more northerly latitude.
Appalachian Highlands
The Appalachian Highlands, once as towering as the Rocky Mountains, are now worn low by erosion. They extend 1,500 miles from central Alabama through New England and Canada. Mountain ranges include the Cumberlands, Blue Ridge, Alleghenies, Catskills, Green Mountains and White Mountains. The climate is humid and temperate with strong seasonality made more variable by the mountainous terrain.
Gulf-Atlantic Coastal Plain
The Gulf-Atlantic Coastal Plain follows the eastern seaboard south of New York City and includes Cape Cod, the islands off Massachusetts and areas surrounding the Gulf of Mexico. This region is flat and characterized by mixed forests, wetlands and complex coastal features, including bays, bayous, deltas, marshes and mudflats. Its climate ranges from humid, to temperate to subtropical.
Alaska and Hawaii
Alaska may be divided into the Arctic Lowlands, the Rocky Mountains (Brooks Range), the Central Basins and Highlands, which is dominated by the Yukon River basin, and the Pacific Mountain System. The Aleutian Islands are partially submerged extensions of the Pacific Mountains, similar to the volcanic peaks of Hawaii.
Tags: Rocky Mountains, Interior Plains, United States, Appalachian Highlands, Canadian Shield, Coastal Plain