Introduction Wyoming (abbr.: WY or Wyo), state of the United States of America, 253,597 km2, with 453,000 inhabitants, capital: Cheyenne. Physical Geography Wyoming is one of the highest states in the United States (average altitude 2000 m). The lowest point (945 m) is in the northeast, where the Belle Fourche exits the state. Wyoming is…
Category: Geography
Wisconsin
Introduction Wisconsin (abbr.: WI or Wisc.), state of the United States of America, 145,438 km2 (excl. share of the Great Lakes), with 4.8 million inhabitants; capital city: Madison. Physical Geography Wisconsin is predominantly a gently undulating landscape, clearly showing the hallmarks of the Pleistocene ice cover. The older subsoil is covered by thick packs of…
West Virginia
Introduction West Virginia (abbr.: WV or W.Va.), state of the United States of America, 62,629 km2, with 1.7 million inhabitants; capital city: Charleston. Fiscal Geography The state is predominantly closed in shape with narrow panhandles to the north and east. Located in the Valley and Ridge Region of the Appalachian Mountains, the eastern spur has…
Washington
Introduction Washington (abbr.: WA or Wash.), state of the United States of America, bordered by Canada (British Columbia), Idaho, Oregon (border river: Columbia River) and the Pacific Ocean (partly: Strait Juan de Fuca, Straits of Georgia and Puget Sound), 176,617 km2, with 4.8 million inhabitants; capital: Olympia. Physical Geography Extending from south to north along…
Virginia
Introduction Virginia (abbr.: VA or Va.) state of the United States of America, 105,716 km2, with 6.1 million inhabitants. (48 inhabitants per km2); capital city: Richmond. Physical Geography The eastern part consists of a 100 km wide and sandy coastal plain with many lagoons and in the south on the border of North Carolina a…
Vermont
Introduction Vermont (abbr.: VT or Vt.), state of the United States of America, 24,887 km2, with 563,000 inhabitants; capital: Montpelier. Physical Geography Nearly the entire state is occupied by geologically ancient mountain formations, the Green Mountains (highest point Mount Mansfield, 1,339 m), which are a continuation of the easternmost fold ridge of the Appalachians. To…
Utah
Introduction Utah (abbr.: UT or Ut.), state of the United States of America, 219,932 km2, with 1.8 million inhabitants; capital city: Salt Lake City. Physical Geography Utah forms the transition area of three landscape types of the United States: The western part is formed by the edge of the Great Basin, a drainless dry plateau…
Texas
Introduction Texas (abbr.: TX or Tex.), state of the United States of America, 692,407 km2, with 17 million inhabitants; capital city: Austin. Physical Geography Texas consists of three plains, which rise in terraces to the west. The approximately 250 km wide coastal plain is parallel to the strongly articulated coast. The rivers have formed deep…
Tennessee
Introduction Tennessee (abbr.: TN or Tenn.), state of the United States of America, 109,412 km2, with 4.9 million inhabitants; Capital: Nashville. Physical Geography Tennessee consists of six different areas, the first three of which belong to East Tennessee: 1. The eastern mountain region along the eastern border, mainly formed by the Unaka and Great Smoky…
South Dakota
Introduction South Dakota (abbr.: SK or S.Dak.), state of the United States of America, 199,552 km2, population 696,000; capital: Pierre. Fiscal Geography South Dakota is part of both the Central Lowlands and Great Plains of the United States and is divided into an eastern and a western part by a highland called the Coteau de…
South Carolina
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…
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…