ordering 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 area: 9,372,610 sq km
land area: 9,166,600 sq km
comparative area: 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 smaller than
China; about two and one-half times the size of Western Europe
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

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

International disputes: maritime boundary disputes with Canada
(Dixon Entrance, Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Machias Seal
Island); US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased from Cuba and
only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate
the lease; Haiti claims Navassa Island; US has made no territorial
claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does
not recognize the claims of any other nation; Republic of Marshall
Islands claims Wake Island

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
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

Land use:
arable land: 20%
permanent crops: 0%
meadows and pastures: 26%
forest and woodland: 29%
other: 25%

Irrigated land: 181,020 sq km (1989 est.)

Envir