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Physical Map of North America |
Click on the Red
boxes to display countries with trek activities. 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. |
