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The term "United States," when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. [1]
USGS map colored by paleogeological areas and demarcating the sections of the U.S. physiographic regions: Laurentian Upland (area 1), Atlantic Plain (2-3), Appalachian Highlands (4-10), Interior Plains (11-13), Interior Highlands (14-15), Rocky Mountain System (16-19), Intermontane Plateaus (20-22), & Pacific Mountain System (23-25) The legend ...
As the edge of North America moved away from the hot rift zone, it began to cool and subside beneath the new Atlantic Ocean. This once-active divergent plate boundary became the passive, trailing edge of westward moving North America. In plate tectonic terms, the Atlantic Plain is known as a classic example of a passive continental margin. [20]
Physiographic Map from "Geography of Ohio," published in 1923. During the early 1900s, the study of regional-scale geomorphology was termed "physiography". Physiography later was considered to be a portmanteau of "physical" and "geography", and therefore synonymous with physical geography, and the concept became embroiled in controversy surrounding the appropriate concerns of that discipline.
The precise boundaries of this cordillera and its subregions, as well as the names of its various features, may differ depending on the definitions in each country or jurisdiction, and also depending on the scientific field; this cordillera is a particularly prominent subject in the scientific field of physical geography. [3] [4]
The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of human geography, referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains states. [citation needed]
Two historical events during the nineteenth century had a great effect on the further development of physical geography. The first was the European colonial expansion in Asia , Africa , Australia and even America in search of raw materials required by industries during the Industrial Revolution .
Atlantic Plain Physiographic Division of the United States. Green highlighted area is the Atlantic Plain, and the other seven physiographic divisions of the contiguous United States are shown in the legend.