Introduction South Carolina (abbr.: SC or S.Car.), state of the United States of America, 80,432 km2, 3.5 million inhabitants; capital: Columbia. Physical Geography The extreme northwest of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountains (Blue Ridge Mountains; highest peak in the state: Sassafras, 1085 m) and rises about 400 m above the Piedmont, the…
Author: ablogtophone
Rhode Island
Introduction Rhode Island (abbr.: RI or RI), state of the United States of America, one of the New England states, on the Atlantic Ocean (Block Island Sound and Rhode Island Sound), 3140 km2, with 1 million inhabitants; capital city: Providence. Physical Geography The state is located on either side of Narragansett Bay (which includes the…
Pennsylvania
Introduction Pennsylvania (abbr.: PA or Penn.), state of the United States of America, 117,412 km2, with 11.9 million inhabitants; capital city: Harrisburg. Physical Geography Pennsylvania belongs entirely to the Appalachians. A high, steep ridge runs through the middle of Pennsylvania, the beginning of the Allegheny Plateau, which forms the western part of the state. The…
Oregon
Introduction Oregon (abbr.: OR or Ore.), state of the United States of America, bordered by Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California and the Pacific Ocean, 251,181 km2, with 2.8 million inhabitants; capital: Salem. Physical Geography Oregon belongs entirely to the area of the large mountain ranges in the western United States. The fertile Willamette Valley stretches between…
Oklahoma
Introduction Oklahoma (abbr.: OK or Okla.), state of the United States of America, bordered on the north by Colorado and Kansas, on the east by Missouri and Arkansas, on the south by Texas, and on the west by Texas and New Mexico, 181,090 km2, with 3.1 million inhabitants; Capital: Oklahoma City. Physical Geography The central…
Ohio
Introduction Ohio (abbr.: OH or Oh.), state of the United States of America, bordered by Michigan, Canada, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana, 106,765 km2, with 10.8 million inhabitants; capital city: Columbus. Physical Geography Western Ohio consists of an undulating prairie landscape, from which several mountain ridges rise. Campbell Hill (472 m) is the highest…
North Dakota
Introduction North Dakota (abbr.: ND or N.Dak.), state of the United States of America, 183,022 km2, with 639,000 inhabitants; capital city: Bismarck. Physical Geography North Dakota falls partly within the Great Plains, the plateau that stretches between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains. The east of the state, then part of Lake Agassiz, is covered…
North Carolina
Introduction North Carolina (abbr.: NC or N. Car.), state of the United States of America, 133,783 km2, with 6.6 million inhabitants; capital city: Raleigh. Physical Geography Numerous deep inlets line the state’s coastline; in front of it are vast lagoons. To the northeast is the Great Dismal Swamp, which extends into Virginia; this swamp area…
New York
Introduction New York or New York State (abbreviation: NY or NY), state of the United States of America, 127,438 km2, with 18 million inhabitants; capital city: Albania. Physical Geography The islands of Staten Island and Long Island are virtually flat. East of the Hudson, near the New England border, are the foothills of the Green…
New Mexico
Introduction New Mexico (abbr.: NM or N. Mex.), state of the United States of America, 315,115 km2, with 1.5 million inhabitants; capital: Santa Fe. Physical Geography The state is divided into two parts by the north-south river Rio Grande. The eastern third of the state is a plateau, part of the Great Plains; the southern…
New Jersey
Introduction New Jersey (abbreviation: NJ or NJ), state of the United States of America, 20,295 km2, with 7.7 million inhabitants; capital city: Trenton. Physical Geography From north to south, four landscapes descending in height can be distinguished: a. in the extreme northwest the chains of the Kittatinny Mountains running in a southwest-northeast direction; the highest…
New Hampshire
Introduction New Hampshire (abbr.: NH or NH), state of the United States of America, 24,097 km2, with 1.1 million inhabitants; capital: Concord. New Hampshire owes its nickname Granite State to the formerly important granite mining. Physical Geography New Hampshire has a distinctly mountainous character; the numerous mountain ranges, mainly south-north, are continuations of the Appalachians….
Nevada
Introduction Nevada (abbreviation: NV or Nev.), state of the United States of America, in the west, 286,298 km2, with 1.2 million inhabitants; capital: Carson City (40,000 inhabitants). The state is named after the Sierra Nevada. Physical Geography Almost all of Nevada is part of the Great Basin. In Nevada, this plateau is interrupted by numerous…
Nebraska
Introduction Nebraska (abbr.: NE or Nebr.), state of the United States of America, 200,018 km2, with 1.5 million inhabitants; capital Lincoln. Physical Geography Nebraska consists largely of an undulating plain with a prairie-like character, which gradually rises in a westerly direction and merges into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. There are more than 2300…
Montana
Introduction Montana (abbreviation: MT or Mont.), state of the United States of America, 381,087 km2, 799,000 inhabitants; capital: Helena. Physical Geography Montana has an average altitude of 1000 m. The eastern part consists of a steppe-like plateau, part of the Great Plains (about 75% of the state). In the southeast corner begins a barren, desolate…
Missouri
Introduction Missouri (abbr.: MO or Mo.), state of the United States of America, 180,450 km2, with 5.1 million inhabitants; Capital: Jefferson City. Physical Geography The north of the state is formed by an up to 360 m high, slightly undulating, prairie-like plateau. Between the ore-rich Ozark Plateau, which spans most of the south, and the…
Mississippi
Introduction Mississippi (abbr.: MS or Miss.), state of the United States of America, 123,584 km2, with 2.5 million inhabitants; capital city: Jackson. Physical Geography The soil shows little relief and is generally sloping to hilly. The 20 to 25 km wide coastal strip is only a few meters above sea level; the hinterland has an…
Minnesota
Introduction Minnesota (abbr.: MN or Minn.), state of the United States of America, bordered by Canada (northern border) and the states of Wisconsin (eastern border), Iowa (southern border), and South Dakota and North Dakota (western border), 217,736 km2, with 4.3 million inhabitants; capital: Saint Paul. Physical Geography Minnesota is mostly flat prairie land; the northeastern…
Michigan
Introduction Michigan (abbr.: MI or Mich.), state of the United States of America, 150,779 km2, with 9.3 million inhabitants; capital: Lansing. Physical Geography Michigan consists of two peninsulas, the southern part separated from the northern by Mackinac Strait. About 2,600 km2 of Michigan’s surface area consists of inland waterways (numerous rivers and more than 11,000…
Massachusetts
Introduction Massachusetts (abbr.: MA or Mass.), state of the United States of America, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, 21,408 km2, with 6 million inhabitants; capital city: Boston. The name Massachusetts is taken from a Native American name and probably means ‘by the…
Maryland
Introduction Maryland (abbr.: MD or Md), state of the United States of America, bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, the Atlantic Ocean, Virginia and West Virginia, 27,394 km2, with 4.8 million inhabitants; Capital: Annapolis. Physical Geography The state extends a great distance west from the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the coastal plain (Atlantic Plain) is separated into…
Maine
Introduction Maine (abbreviation: ME or Me), state of the United States of America, 86,027 km2, with 1.2 million inhabitants; capital: Augusta. Physical Geography Maine is part of the Appalachians. Three regions can be distinguished: a. The coastal strip is strongly articulated with many peninsulas; off the coast are more than 1,300 islands. (The name Maine…
Louisiana
Introduction Louisiana (abbr.: LA), state of the United States of America, on the Gulf of Mexico, 125,675 km2, with 4.2 million inhabitants; Capital: Baton Rouge. Physical Geography Louisiana is part of the coastal plain along the Gulf of Mexico and of the Mississippi River Basin. About 50% of the area is occupied by the coastal…
Kentucky
Introduction Kentucky (abbreviation: KY or KY), state of the United States of America, in the eastern part of the country, 104,600 km2, with 3.7 million inhabitants; capital city: Frankfurt. Physical Geography The east of the state is part of the Allegheny Mountains. To the west of this is a plateau, consisting of the Cumberland Plateau…
Kansas
Introduction Kansas (abbr.: Kans.), state of the United States of America, in the Midwest, 213,063 km2, with 2.5 million inhabitants; capital: Topeka. Physical Geography The Great Plains in the west of the state gradually merge into the prairies in the east. Almost the entire area of Kansas shows a drop from west to east (from…
Iowa
Introduction Iowa (abbr.: IA or Ia.), state of the United States of America, in the Midwest, 145,753 km2, with 2.7 million inhabitants; Capital: Des Moines. The state was named in 1846 after the Iowa River, a tributary of the Mississippi, which in turn was named after the Ioway or Kiowa Indian tribes. Physical Geography Iowa…
Indiana
Introduction Indiana (abbr.: IN or Ind.), state of the United States of America, in the Midwest, 93,730 km2, with 5.5 million inhabitants; Capital: Indianapolis. French researchers gave the area the name Indiana around the beginning of the 18th century, after the Indians who lived there. By 1830 all original inhabitants had been expelled or killed….
Illinois
Introduction Illinois (abbr.: IL or Ill.), state of the United States of America, in the Midwest, 145,934 km2, with 11.4 million inhabitants; capital city: Springfield. The state got its name from French settlers, who named it after the tribe of the Illini Indians living here at the time; in Algonqui spoken by those Indians, illini…
Idaho
Introduction Idaho (abbr.: ID or Id.), state of the United States of America, in the northwest, 216,432 km2, with 1.0 million inhabitants; capital: Boise. The name is probably derived from the Indian word e-da-how (= the sun rises). Physical Geography Idaho is one of the most hilly states in the United States (average elevation: 1,500…
Hawaii
Introduction Hawaii (abbr.: HI or Hi.), state of the United States of America, comprising the Hawaii Islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 3,860 km from San Francisco (California), 28,313 km2 (land area, incl. inland waterways ), with 1.1 million inhabitants; Capital: Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. The archipelago consists of 8 main islands and…