North America

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:LocationNorthAmerica.png Image:North America satellite orthographic.jpg

North America is a continent in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost fully in the western hemisphere, 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. It covers an area of about 24,480,000 square kilometres (9,450,000 sq mi), or about 4.8% of the planet's surface. As of July 2002, its population was estimated at more than 514,000,000. It is the third largest continent in area, after Asia and Africa, and is fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe.

1 Etymology
2 Geography and extent
- 2.1 Physical geography
- 2.2 Human geography
3 Territories and regions
4 Sources
5 See also
6 External links

[edit]

Etymology

A number of theories exist regarding the naming of North and South America. The most widely recognized is that they are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a New World, previously undiscovered by Europeans. The second and less generally accepted is that the continents are named after an English merchant named Richard Amerike from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland in 1497. A third theory that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of 'Amairick'.

[edit]

Geography and extent

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. (For geopolitical reasons, 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, with the intervening region called Central America (or Middle America if the Caribbean is included) and resting on the Caribbean Plate.

The continental coastline is long and irregular. With the exception of the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay is by far the largest body of water indenting the continent; others include the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez).

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 part of North America geographically and on the same tectonic plate (the North American Plate) but is not considered to be part of the continent politically.

[edit]

Physical geography

Image:North america rock types.jpg

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 48⁰ 10′ North, 100⁰ 10′ West, approximately 25km 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 4.5 metre (15 foot) field stone obelisk in Rugby claiming to mark the center.

North America bedrock and terrain.

North American cratons and basement rocks.

Tectonic elements of North America

North American craton.

[edit]

Human geography

Geopolitically, Northern America is sometimes used to refer to Canada and the United States together (plus Greenland, Bermuda, and St. Pierre and Miquelon), while Central America is mainland North America south of the U.S. The term Middle America is sometimes used to refer to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean collectively.

From a linguistic and sociopolitical perspective, the United States, Canada, and the other English-speaking nations of North and South America (Belize, Guyana, and the anglophone Caribbean) are sometimes grouped under the term Anglo-America and included in the Anglosphere. The remaining nations of North and South America (i.e., including much of the West Indies) where Romance languages prevail, namely Spanish and Portguese, are referred to as Latin America; this usage has entered into common parlance.

Usage of the term "North America" often depends on context and may mean different things to different people. The term is often taken to mean the United States and Canada only by many people of those two countries, excluding Mexico and the other countries of Central America. In this respect, the term includes other countries only if the context makes it clear that they are to be included. For example, the NAFTA trading bloc also includes Mexico. In addition, guides to wild flora and fauna published by the National Audubon Society for "North America" frequently include only species found in Canada and the United States. Similarly, Canadians and Americans may often speak of a collective North American culture to describe only the continent's Anglophone communities.

This may be attributed to the fact that, culturally and economically, the United States and Canada are more alike to each other than they are to the rest of North America. Mexicans, however, are acutely aware that Mexico is a part of North America, particularly as a member of NAFTA and a part of the North American tectonic plate. Central Americans, however, are generally content to be called Central Americans – largely because of their shared history, which includes several attempts at supranational integration in the region and in which Mexico was not substantially involved.

[edit]

Territories and regions

Image:North America.png

Name of region Template:Ref and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July 2002 est.)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
Caribbean:
Template:Flagicon Anguilla (UK)	102	13,254	129.9	The Valley
Template:Flagicon Antigua and Barbuda	443	68,722	155.1	St. John's
Template:Flagicon Aruba (Netherlands)Template:Ref	193	71,566	370.8	Oranjestad
Template:Flagicon Bahamas	13,940	301,790	21.6	Nassau
Template:Flagicon Barbados	431	279,254	647.9	Bridgetown
Template:Flagicon British Virgin Islands (UK)	153	22,643	148.0	Road Town
Template:Flagicon Cayman Islands (UK)	262	44,270	169.0	George Town
Template:Flagicon Cuba	110,860	11,346,670	102.4	Havana
Template:Flagicon Dominica	754	69,029	91.6	Roseau
Template:Flagicon Dominican Republic	48,730	8,950,034	183.7	Santo Domingo
Template:Flagicon Grenada	344	89,502	260.2	St. George's
Template:Flagicon Guadeloupe (France)	1,780	448,713	252.1	Basse-Terre
Template:Flagicon Haiti	27,750	8,121,622	292.7	Port-au-Prince
Template:Flagicon Jamaica	10,991	2,731,832	248.6	Kingston
Template:Flagicon Martinique (France)	1,100	432,900	393.5	Fort-de-France
Template:Flagicon Montserrat (UK)	102	9,341	91.6	Plymouth; Brades Template:Ref
Template:Flagicon Navassa Island (USA)	5	—	—	—
Template:Flagicon Netherlands Antilles (Netherlands)Template:Ref	960	219,958	229.1	Willemstad
Template:Flagicon Puerto Rico (USA)	9,104	3,916,632	430.2	San Juan
Template:Flagicon Saint Kitts and Nevis	261	38,958	149.3	Basseterre
Template:Flagicon Saint Lucia	616	166,312	270.0	Castries
Template:Flagicon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	389	117,534	302.1	Kingstown
Template:Flagicon Trinidad and Tobago Template:Ref	5,128	1,088,644	212.3	Port of Spain
Template:Flagicon Turks and Caicos Islands (UK)	430	20,556	47.8	Cockburn Town
Template:Flagicon U.S. Virgin Islands (USA)	352	108,708	308.8	Charlotte Amalie
Central America:
Template:Flagicon Belize	22,966	279,457	12.2	Belmopan
Template:Flagicon Costa Rica	51,100	4,016,173	78.6	San José
Template:Flagicon El Salvador	21,040	6,704,932	318.7	San Salvador
Template:Flagicon Guatemala	108,890	14,655,189	134.6	Guatemala City
Template:Flagicon Honduras	112,090	6,975,204	62.2	Tegucigalpa
Template:Flagicon Mexico	1,972,550	106,202,903	53.8	Mexico City
Template:Flagicon Nicaragua	129,494	5,465,100	42.2	Managua
Template:Flagicon Panama Template:Ref	52,853	2,498,717	47.3	Panama City
Northern America:
Template:Flagicon Bermuda (UK)	53	65,365	1,233.3	Hamilton
Template:Flagicon Canada	9,984,670	32,805,041	3.3	Ottawa
Template:Flagicon Greenland (Denmark)	2,166,086	56,375	0.026	Nuuk
Template:Flagicon Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (France)	242	7,012	29.0	Saint-Pierre
Template:Flagicon United States Template:Ref	9,629,091	295,734,134	30.7	Washington
Total	24,481,177	514,144,046	21.0

Notes:

1. Template:Note Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map.
2., 4.-6. Template:Note Depending on definitions, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago have territory in one or both of North and South America.
3. Template:Note Due to ongoing activity of the Soufriere Hills volcano beginning 1995, much of Plymouth, Montserrat's de jure capital, was destroyed and government offices relocated to Brades.
6. Template:Note Panama is generally considered a transcontinental country in Central America (UN region) and South America; population and area figures are for North American portion only, west of the Panama Canal.
7. Template:Note Includes the US state of Hawaii, which is distant from the North American landmass in the Pacific Ocean and is, thus, commonly included with the other territories of Oceania.