The USA occupies the central part of the North American continent. It borders on Canada in the north and Mexico in the south.
It is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the east, by the Pacific Ocean in the west and by the Gulf of Mexico in the south.The present territory of the USA consists of three separate parts. The USA proper and Alaska are situated in North America. The Hawaii are situated in the central part of the Pacific Ocean.
No general statement can be made about the landscape of the USA. It is a country of mountains and prairies, valleys and deserts. About one half of the territory in the west is occupied by the Cordilleras. In the east there are the Appalachian Mountains. Between these great mountain chains central and large valleys lie.
The Rocky Mountains extend from Alaska through Canada and the USA to Mexico. Together with the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California they have snow-capped peaks and clear mountain lakes.
The Great Lakes are situated in the north-east of the country. They are Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan. The largest rivers of the USA are the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Columbia, the Colorado, and the Yukon. American rivers have very expressive names: the Snake River, the Milk River, the Green River, the Sweetwater River, the White River.
The USA has rich deposits of coal, oil, iron, zinc, copper, silver, phosphate rock, natural gas, uranium and nonferrous metals. The country has one fourth of the world’s coal deposits.