claims South Georgia and the South
Sandwich Islands; Mauritius claims island of Diego Garcia in British
Indian Ocean Territory; Rockall continental shelf dispute involving
Denmark, Iceland, and Ireland (Ireland and the UK have signed a
boundary agreement in the Rockall area); territorial claim in
Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory)

Illicit drugs: gateway country for Latin American cocaine entering the
European market; producer of synthetic drugs, precursor chemicals;
transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin; money-laundering
center
______________________________________________________________________

UNITED STATES

@United States:Geography

Location: North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and
the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico

Geographic coordinates: 38 00 N, 97 00 W

Map references: North America

Area:
total: 9,629,091 sq km
land: 9,158,960 sq km
water : 470,131 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

Area - comparative: about one-half the size of Russia; about
three-tenths the size of Africa; about one-half the size of South
America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China;
about two and one-half times the size of Western Europe

Land boundaries:
total: 12,248 km
border countries : Canada 8,893 km (including 2,477 km with Alaska),
Cuba 29 km (US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay), Mexico 3,326 km
note: Guantanamo Naval Base is leased by the US and thus remains part
of Cuba

Coastline: 19,924 km

Maritime claims:
contiguous zone : 12 nm
continental shelf: not specified
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida and
arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi
River and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter
temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January
and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the
Rocky Mountains

Terrain: vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low
mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska;
rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Death Valley -86 m
highest point: Mount McKinley 6,194 m

Natural resources: coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates,
uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver,
tungsten, zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber