Geographical position of the USA

The United States of America (the USA) is situated in the central and southern parts of the continent of North America and includes the state of Alaska and the Hawaii Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Study the map on the picture 6.1.

Picture 6.1 – the map of the United States of America

The USA is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the east, the Gulf of Mexico in the south-east and by the Pacific Ocean in the west. In the north it borders on Canada and in the south – on Mexico. The USA consists of 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Hawaii Islands became the state of the USA in 1959.

If you look at the physical map of the country on the picture 6.2 you can see lowlands and mountains.

Picture 6.2 - Physical map of the USA

In the west there are the Rocky Mountains, the Condillera and the Sierra Nevada, the highest mountains in the USA. In the east there are the Appalachian Mountains. The areas in the middle of the country are called the prairies and the eastern lowlands are called the Mississippi valley. In the north-eastern part there is the region of five Great Lakes: Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Here there is the Niagara River and the famous Niagara Falls. The largest rivers in the USA are the Mississippi River, the Missouri, the Ohio. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers form one of the longest rivers in the world – 7,330 km. The longest rivers in the west are the Columbia River and the Colorado River that run into the Pacific Ocean. The St. Lawrence River and the Hudson River are in the east.

Climate

The USA has a different climate in the east, in the west, in the south, in the north and in the central part of the country. The coldest climate is in the north. Here is much snow and is very cold. Along the western coast and in the south-east the climate is hot and dry; in the central part it is continental. The climate in the district of the Great Lakes is very changeable.