North America

North America is the third largest continent in area and in population after Asia and Africa. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 9,355,000 square miles (24,230,000 square kilometers). In 2001 its population was estimated at 454,225,000. It can be geographically defined by subtracting South America from the supercontinent of the Americas. Both North and South America are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a previously undiscovered New World. Although Canada, the United States, and Mexico are geographically in North America, in a European mindset, however, ''North America'' is often considered to include Canada and the United States, but not Mexico or any of the Central American countries, which in some contexts may cause confusion. In Latin America, the Americas are considered as one continent and therefore North America is only a subcontinent composed by Canada, United States and Mexico. 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 and Panama Canal. 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. Most, however, tend to see Central America as a region of North America, considering it too small to be a continent of its own. ==Physical features== [[Image:North america rock types.jpg|thumb|100px|right|:Image:North america rock sedimentary.jpg, :Image:North america rock volcanic.jpg, :Image:North america rock plutonic.jpg, :Image:North america rock metamorphic.jpg rock types of North America. ]] 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, Geography of 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 plateau and American cordillera, 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 and Washington state, with the Great Basin – a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts – in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska. Since 1931, Rugby, North Dakota, has officially been recognized as being at the geographic center of North America. The location is marked by a 4.5 metre (15 foot) field stone Obelisk. Image:North america terrain 2003 map.jpg|North America bedrock and terrain. Image:North america basement rocks.png|North American cratons and basement rocks. Image:North america craton nps.gif|North America craton.
==Regional and political divisions== On the main continent itself there are three large and relatively populous countries: *Canada (some large islands off the shore of North America and belonging to Canada include Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands on the west, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island on the east, and Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, and Victoria Island in the north) *Mexico (including the Revillagigedo Islands and numerous smaller islands closer to the coast) *United States, most of it – includes the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, but not the US state of Hawaii which lies in the Pacific Ocean At the extreme southern end of the continent, in a relatively small area called Central America, are the countries of: *Belize *Costa Rica *El Salvador *Guatemala *Honduras *Nicaragua *Panama ¹ At the extreme southeastern end of the continent lies a chain of islands territories called the Antilles, the Caribbean or the West Indies, which include the states: *Antigua and Barbuda *Bahamas *Barbados *Cuba *Dominica *Dominican Republic *Grenada *Haiti *Jamaica *Saint Kitts and Nevis *Saint Lucia *Saint Vincent and the Grenadines *Trinidad and Tobago ¹ And the dependencies: *Anguilla (British Empire dependency) *Aruba ² (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) *Cayman Islands (British Empire dependency) *Guadeloupe (overseas department of France) *Martinique (overseas department of France) *Montserrat (British Empire dependency) *Navassa Island (U.S. territory) *Netherlands Antilles ¹ (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) *Puerto Rico (U.S. commonwealth) *Turks and Caicos Islands (British Empire dependency) *British Virgin Islands (British Empire dependency) *U.S. Virgin Islands (territory of the United States) Lying in the Atlantic Ocean but considered part of the continent are the dependencies: *Bermuda, a British Empire dependency found about 1,072 km (670 mi.) southeast of New York City *Greenland, the largest island in the world and a self-governing dependency of Denmark, which is located in the far north of the continent to the east of Nunavut. *Saint Pierre and Miquelon, found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is the last of France's once vast possessions in America north of the Caribbean. ¹ These states and dependencies have territory both in North and South America.
² These dependencies lie in South America, but are considered North American because of cultural and historical reasons.
See Countries on two continents#Countries in both North America and South America for details. The United States, Canada, and the other English-speaking nations of the Americas (Belize, Guyana, and the Anglophone Caribbean) are sometimes grouped under the term Anglo-America, while the remaining nations of North and South America are grouped under the term Latin America. The term "North America", when employed in a context other than geography, may mean different things to different people. To many United States and Canadians the term, in common usage, is often taken to mean "The United States of America and Canada, only", excluding Mexico and the countries of Central America, unless the context makes it clear that they are to be included (for instance, with specific reference to Mexico, when talking about NAFTA). This is due to the fact that culturally and economically, the USA 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 and object to this usage. 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. == Political divisions – area and population data == {| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="border:1px solid #aaa; border-collapse:collapse" |- bgcolor="#ECECEC" ! Name ! Area (km²) ! Population (2002-07-01 est.) ! Population density (per km²) |- | Anguilla (UK) | align="right" | 102 | align="right" | 12,446 | align="right" | 122 |- | Antigua and Barbuda | align="right" | 443 | align="right" | 67,448 | align="right" | 152 |- | Aruba (Neth.) | align="right" | 193 | align="right" | 70,441 | align="right" | 365 |- | Bahamas | align="right" | 13,940 | align="right" | 300,529 | align="right" | 22 |- | Barbados | align="right" | 431 | align="right" | 276,607 | align="right" | 642 |- | Belize | align="right" | 22,966 | align="right" | 262,999 | align="right" | 11 |- | Bermuda (UK) | align="right" | 53 | align="right" | 63,960 | align="right" | 1,200 |- | British Virgin Islands (UK) | align="right" | 153 | align="right" | 21,272 | align="right" | 139 |- | Canada | align="right" | 9,976,140 | align="right" | 32,078,819 | align="right" | 3.2 |- | Cayman Islands (UK) | align="right" | 262 | align="right" | 36,273 | align="right" | 138 |- | Costa Rica | align="right" | 51,100 | align="right" | 3,834,934 | align="right" | 75 |- | Cuba | align="right" | 110,860 | align="right" | 11,224,321 | align="right" | 101 |- | Dominica | align="right" | 754 | align="right" | 70,158 | align="right" | 93 |- | Dominican Republic | align="right" | 48,730 | align="right" | 8,721,594 | align="right" | 179 |- | El Salvador | align="right" | 21,040 | align="right" | 6,353,681 | align="right" | 302 |- | Greenland (Denm.) | align="right" | 2,166,086 | align="right" | 56,376 | align="right" | 0.03 |- | Grenada | align="right" | 344 | align="right" | 89,211 | align="right" | 259 |- | Guadeloupe (Fr.) | align="right" | 1,780 | align="right" | 435,739 | align="right" | 245 |- | Guatemala | align="right" | 108,890 | align="right" | 13,314,079 | align="right" | 122 |- | Haiti | align="right" | 27,750 | align="right" | 7,063,722 | align="right" | 255 |- | Honduras | align="right" | 112,090 | align="right" | 6,560,608 | align="right" | 59 |- | Jamaica | align="right" | 10,991 | align="right" | 2,680,029 | align="right" | 244 |- | Martinique (Fr.) | align="right" | 1,100 | align="right" | 422,277 | align="right" | 384 |- | Mexico | align="right" | 1,972,550 | align="right" | 103,400,165 | align="right" | 52 |- | Montserrat (UK) | align="right" | 102 | align="right" | 8,437 | align="right" | 83 |- | Navassa Island (U.S.) | align="right" | 5 | align="right" | 0 | align="right" | n/a |- | Netherlands Antilles (Neth.) | align="right" | 960 | align="right" | 214,258 | align="right" | 223 |- | Nicaragua | align="right" | 129,494 | align="right" | 5,023,818 | align="right" | 39 |- | Panama | align="right" | 78,200 | align="right" | 2,882,329 | align="right" | 37 |- | Puerto Rico (U.S.) | align="right" | 9,104 | align="right" | 3,957,988 | align="right" | 435 |- | Saint Kitts and Nevis | align="right" | 261 | align="right" | 38,736 | align="right" | 148 |- | Saint Lucia | align="right" | 616 | align="right" | 160,145 | align="right" | 260 |- | Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Fr.) | align="right" | 242 | align="right" | 6,954 | align="right" | 29 |- | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | align="right" | 389 | align="right" | 116,394 | align="right" | 299 |- | Trinidad and Tobago | align="right" | 5,128 | align="right" | 1,104,209 | align="right" | 215 |- | Turks and Caicos Islands (UK) | align="right" | 430 | align="right" | 18,738 | align="right" | 44 |- | United States | align="right" | 9,629,091 | align="right" | 280,562,489 | align="right" | 29 |- | U.S. Virgin Islands (U.S.) | align="right" | 352 | align="right" | 123,498 | align="right" | 351 |- style=" font-weight:bold; " | Total | align="right" | 24,497,994 | align="right" | 490,354,921 | align="right" | 20.0 |} ==See also== * Discoverer of the Americas * Economy of North America * European colonization of the Americas * History of North America * List of North American birds ==External link== *http://www.america-norte.com/america-norte-mapa.htm Continents North America bn:উত্তর আমেরিকা cv:Çӳрçěр Америка ga:Meirice� Thuaidh ht:Amerik din� haw:ʻAmelika ʻĀkau la:America Septentrionalis lv:Ziemeļamerika li:Noord-Amerika zh-min-nan:Pak B�-chiu nds:Noordamerika se:Davvi-Amerihkk� simple:North America th:ทวีปอเมริกาเหนือ vi:Bắc Mỹ

North America

==Image confusion== ''User:TakuyaMurata wrote when readding image I (User:Infrogmation) deleted:'' : "They are not identical. Sorry but I think your cache misled you because I changed the filename of new image file." I checked this with two seperate browsers. It is the same image, taken from the CIA World Fact Book, twice, under two different image names. Perhaps your cache has done the misleading? Could some other folks take a look at this please? -- User:Infrogmation 21:33 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC) :They look the same to me. -- User:Someone else 21:35 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC) ::The bottom one has an older version that's different. - User:Hephaestos 21:36 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC) :::Yes, the history of the lower one has (at http://www.wikipedia.org/upload/archive/1/11/20030421174440!North_america.jpg ) what looks to be a 16th or 17th century map of minimal use, but the current version showing on the page is as far as I can see identical with the first map. User:Infrogmation ::::The two current images are byte-for-byte identical, so there's no question, they're very much the same picture. -- User:JohnOwens 21:52 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC) It seems that the new map had a name of "North_america.jpg" while the old one got "north_america.jpg". The filename in wikipedia is ''case-sensitive'' they can co-exist unluckly but unfortunately some operating systems treat filename in case-insentitive notoriosly windows. This is why things screwed I guess. Anyway I gave a different name to both of maps so nothing should be a problem now. -- User:TakuyaMurata 21:56 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC) ** Aha! I'm glad we got that cleared up! Cheers, -- User:Infrogmation 22:08 Apr 21, 2003 (UTC) ==Navassa Island error== I think you mean Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Navassa was Spanish and then US since 1865 this is reflected in the link. I was about to make the same complaint. But since I found the above unanswered, I went ahead and changed (overseas department of France, part of R�union) to U.S. territory. Several references including Wikipedia's Navassa Island agree. Maybe he meant Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and maybe he is referring to the Haitian claim to Navassa, based on French ownership of both Haiti and Navassa before the Haitian revolution. Either way, the de facto owner of Navassa Island is the U.S., and I found no evidence France even claims Navassa any more. Reunion left me wondering too. Did the French really associate Navassa with an island on the other side of the world? User:Art LaPella 01:14, Aug 27, 2004 (UTC) ==Greenland vs. Australia== Is Greenland really the biggest island in the world? Australia seems bigger... User:Jengod 22:58, Jan 30, 2004 (UTC) *Australia is officially a continent. User:Radagast **What makes something a continent? I don't understand why Australia is considered a continent, but Greenland isn't, vice versa. In other words, what makes something a continent? *** I started articles about such continents as Pannotia, Euramerica, et cetera. I can answer the question: *** From a geological point of view, a continent is a more or less isolated thing consisting on one or more granite cratons. By this definition, Greenland, madagascar, and many other landmasses, but not Hawaii Iceland and many others are continents. *** Geographers did not want to have to memorize the names of dozens of continents, so after the discovery of Australia, the geographers decried that no continent is smaller than Australia. *** Basically, Greenland is not a continent because the geographers say so. It is totally arbitrary. *** User:Walabio 03:25, 2004 Jul 31 (UTC) ****It's definitely arbitrary, but Australia is large enough to be viewed as a "peer" to Asia, Africa, North America, etc. Greenland is not quite big enough. ==Sorted by population== Is there any reason the countries in the table are sorted by population density? Of the four items on the list (alpha, density, size, pop) it seems the oddest... User:Radagast ==Flora/Fauna?== I came here hoping to find some discussion of extinct species of North America (I've definitely heard of wooly mammoths; I just saw mention of camels and lions, and was looking for "confirmation"). I don't see any blindingly obvious links from here to flora/fauna discussion though. I'm not offering to make any, so this is only a suggestion in case someone motivated to do so reads this. :) User:Tomak 04:39, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Mexico== I always group Mexico as part of Central America. Doesn't this make more sense? The culture is much more alike than it is to USA or Canada's people. Is there any good reason it's usually grouped in North America, not Central America? : Mexico is on the same techtonic plate, this is why. Russia is partially in asia yet has a quite different culture. Maybe it has been in the past that the techtonic plates have created physical boundaries and thus lead to similar cultures on the same techtonic plates. Colonisation is why this is not quite so in this instance. Central america is on its own techtonic plate, for if it were not, and were on that of North America, I imagine it would likely be considered more a part of North America. I am fairly sure, but I could be mistaken.User:Cerceole|User_talk:Cerceole == Mid America? == Regions: We have Central America, the Caribbean, and maybe even Northern America for Mexico and above, is there a subdivision for that northern America, maybe Artic America/Northern America and Mid-America for US? == Navassa in NA == Navassa Island is also part of the West Indies and therefore of North America User:Bish 17:13, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC) == Hawaii is not part of North America == Hawaii is not part of North America, and should be excluded from that list (United States includes Hawaii, however it is not part of North America) would be an appropriate note. Hawaii lies in the middle of the Pacific far from any continent, lying on an oceanic plate, built from basalts from a midplate hotspot... User:132.205.15.4 04:29, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC) : I concur, and furthermore should be, as the Us is noted in other articles as existing in multiple continents (North America and Oceania), Oceeania, that is, as much as Hawaii is concerned. At the least, I don't think we should have discrepancies between articles. User:Cerceole|User_talk:Cerceole 12:29, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC) == US Pop wrong == The US pop is radically different from the one that you get when you click on america. Is this because of Hawaii? == US Pop wrong? == The US pop is radically different from the one that you get when you click on USA alone. Is this because of Hawaii? Just wondering == Panama, border between american continents == Panama is not listed as only North American state. Why? Where is the border between North and South America? I think that it should have some South American territory too (so, there should be a note mentioning that) - if not, then Columbia should have some North American territory - becouse it is highly unlikely that former colony or current state borders are drawed EXATLTY on purely geographical continent borders. :Again, this is arbitrary, but convention dictates that Panama is North American and that Columbia is South American. (Convention isn't necessarily "right"--many biologists feel that the Ural mountains are not enough of a barrier to separate Europe from Asia, but convention holds that it is.) == Trinidad == I am not sure if Trinidad belongs to North America. It seems as if belongs to South America... How about some feedback? I am taking Trinidad out and adding it to South America... http://www.visittnt.com/ :I have readded it to North America. For one thing, it never got added to South America after all. For another, it is grouped in North America in every source I have consulted. I said it on the South America talk page, and I say it here--find me an actual recent reference that lists Trinidad and Tobago as part of South America, and we can discuss it. Otherwise, we have the existing references versus your "It seems..." User:Alfvaen 05:06, Jan 12, 2005 (UTC) == Plains talking == The Great Plains region should not be called the "Central Lowlands." Those lands are relatively flat, but they are *not* low-lying. Elevation in the Great Plains slowly rises from east to west, from about 1,000 feet to more than 5,000 feet when they run into the Rockies. (For metric folk, that's 300-1,500 meters.) == Denali, highest on earth? == Right now the article says "The highest peak is Denali in Alaska (which can be considered the tallest in the world if measured from the base to the summit, as distinct from sea level to summit)." Where did they get that from? Reference please? "Rise above base" is not a well-defined concept mathematically, so one could pick any mountain they like for this distinction. Topographic prominence, on the other hand, is well-defined, and the mountain with the greatest topographic prominence on earth is Everest. This claim should be made more specific or removed entirely.

North America

{| align="center" class="toccolours" cellspacing="0" |- bgcolor="#ccccff" ! align="center" | Countries of the world in North America |- | align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" | Antigua and Barbuda | Bahamas | Barbados | Belize | Canada | Costa Rica | Cuba | Dominica | Dominican Republic | El Salvador | Grenada | Guatemala | Haiti | Honduras | Jamaica | Mexico | Nicaragua | Panama | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Trinidad and Tobago | United States |- | align="center" style="font-size: 85%;" | Dependencies: Anguilla | Aruba | Bermuda | British Virgin Islands | Cayman Islands | Greenland | Guadeloupe | Martinique | Montserrat | Navassa Island | Netherlands Antilles | Puerto Rico | Saint-Pierre and Miquelon | Turks and Caicos Islands | U.S. Virgin Islands |}

North America

#redirect Template:North America

North America

North America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 9,355,000 square miles (24,230,000 square kilometres). In 2001 its population was estimated at 454,225,000. Geography Continents Americas

North america

#REDIRECT North America

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