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Key facts on the topic “North America”
North America is completely located in the Northern and Western hemispheres, stretching almost 7 thousand km from north to south, has a heavily dissected coastline. Its closest neighboring continents are Eurasia and South America. The first of the Europeans reached the northern coasts of North America, the Normans in the 10th century, but information about their voyages was forgotten for a long time. The mastering and colonization of the continent by Europeans began after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The northwestern part of the continent was discovered by the Russian Vitus Bering and our Ukrainian compatriot Alexei Chirikov. The structure of the earth’s crust of North America is more complex than that of the continents of the Southern Hemisphere. At the core of the continent lie the ancient and young platform. Cordilleras – a mobile region, part of the Pacific seismic ring. There are often earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. In the east –
the ancient folded belt of the Appalachian Mountains. The relief of the continent is very diverse. Plains occupy 2/3 of its area. The largest of these are the Laurentian Upland, the Great Plains and the Central Plains. In the north the plains were influenced by the ancient glaciation. The mountains stretch along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. In North America, many deposits of various minerals, the location of which is associated with its geological structure. The flat topography of the central parts of North America contributes to penetration into the interior of the continent of various air masses. Cordilleras are an obstacle to penetration of the humid air masses from the Pacific Ocean to the flat territory of the continent, the Appalachian monsoon winds from the Atlantic Ocean. North America is stretched from north to south for many thousands of kilometers, therefore lies in all climatic zones of the northern hemisphere, except equatorial. Because of the proximity of the seas and oceans, as well as the features of the relief within the same climatic zone, there is a different temperature regime, different amount of
precipitation and seasonality of their distribution. Therefore, climatic regions are distinguished in the temperate, subtropical and tropical climatic zones. North America is rich in inland waters. Its rivers belong to the basins of three oceans. The largest of these are the Mississippi, Mackenzie, Columbia, Colorado and the Yukon. Most of the lakes are in the northern part of the continent. They are all mainly tectonic and glacial in origin. The Great Lakes of North America is the world’s largest freshwater storage in the liquid state. On the mainland, the largest area of glaciers. The location of the natural areas of North America has its own characteristics. The natural zones of arctic deserts, tundras and forest-tundra extend in the latitudinal direction, zones of mixed, broad-leaved, variable-moist forests, forest-steppes and steppes, deserts and semi-deserts – in the meridional zone. The Cordillera is characterized by a high-altitude zonation of landscapes. The natural complexes of North America have changed greatly due to human economic activity. To preserve the nature of the continent, many reserves and national parks were created. The population in North America is very unevenly distributed. Most of it is concentrated on the east of the mainland and on the islands of the Caribbean Sea. In the population of North America there are representatives of three major and mixed human races. The indigenous population is less than 2% of the entire population of the continent. These are Indians and Eskimos. The largest countries in terms of area, population and economic development are the United States of America and Canada. In their territories there is a large Ukrainian diaspora. These countries are Ukraine’s largest trading partners in the Western Hemisphere.
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From the history of discovery and research in North America Long before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Normans visited the inhabitants of the Scandinavian Peninsula. In the X century. they led Eirik Raudi from the island of Iceland set off across the expanses of the ocean to the west and reached an unknown land – the island of Greenland. A thousand years ago, […]...
