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Identify major physical features of the US, including:

Rivers: Colorado, Mississippi, Ohio, Rio Grande

Mountains: Alaska Range, Appalachian, Rockies

Bodies of water: Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico

Desert: Great Basin

Landforms: Grand Canyon, Great Plains

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Four of the major rivers in the United States are, the Colorado River, the Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Rio Grande River.

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The Colorado River begins in the Rocky Mountain National Park, located in Colorado, and ends in the Gulf of California, located in Mexico. The river spans 1,450 miles long. Read this article to learn more: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Colorado-River/399409

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The Mississippi River is 2,340 miles long. It spans from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, and is a migration route for many kinds of birds and fish. Read the following article to learn more: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Mississippi-River/346177

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The Ohio River is 981 miles long. It begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and ends in Cairo, Illinois. The Ohio River is a source of drinking water for more than 5 million people!

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The Ohio River begins at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together. It flows northwest out of Pennsylvania and then turns southwest to join the Mississippi River in Illinois. It is 981 miles (1,579 kilometers) long.

The Ohio River forms the state borders between Ohio and West Virginia; Ohio and Kentucky; Indiana and Kentucky; and Illinois and Kentucky. The longest river that feeds into the Ohio is the Tennessee River, which begins in the Appalachian Mountains. The Tennessee River flows into the Ohio at Paducah, Kentucky.

The Ohio serves such large cities as Pittsburgh; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Louisville, Kentucky. These cities and others use the river to transport coal, oil, steel, and many manufactured goods.

The French explorer known as the Sieur de La Salle is said to have been the first European to see the Ohio River. He reached it in 1669. By 1763 the British controlled the river. The United States gained control of the country around the river when they defeated the British in the American Revolution.

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The Ohio River begins at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together. It flows northwest out of Pennsylvania and then turns southwest to join the Mississippi River in Illinois. It is 981 miles (1,579 kilometers) long. The Ohio River forms the state borders between Ohio and West Virginia; Ohio and Kentucky; Indiana and Kentucky; and Illinois and Kentucky.

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The Rio Grande River is 1,885 miles long. It begins in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado and ends in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Three of the major mountain ranges in the United States are the Alaska range, the Appalachian range, and the Rockies.

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The Alaska Range is 600 miles long. It is located in South Central Alaska and covers 55,889 square miles. Read the following article to learn more: https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Alaska-Range/272775

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The Appalachian Mountain Range is 2,050 miles long. It covers 206,000 square miles, from Newfoundland in Canada to Alabama in the United States

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The Rockies are approximately 3,000 miles long. They covers 382,894 square miles from British Columbia in Canada to New Mexico in the United States.

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Two of the major bodies of water in the United States are the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes. Combined, they contain 649 quadrillion gallons of water!

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The Great Lakes are the biggest group of freshwater lakes in the world based on area. They are so large that they border 8 states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

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What’s so great about the Great Lakes? - Cheri Dobbs and Jennifer Gabrys

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The Gulf of Mexico is the largest gulf in the world, covering 617,800 square miles. It is home to over 15,000 species and borders 5 states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. You can read the following article to learn more: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Gulf-of-Mexico/353459

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The Great Basin is one of four deserts in the United States. The other three are the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts.

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The Great Basin is the largest desert in North America. It covers 200,000 square miles over 5 states: Utah, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and California.

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Two of the major landforms in the United States are the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains.

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Noted for its fantastic shapes and colors, the Grand Canyon is one of the most spectacular sights in the United States. The vast canyon was cut through many layers of rock by…

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At the heart of the North American continent lies a vast expanse of land that was once known as the Great American Desert. Today it is called the Great Plains, a high plateau of grassland stretching from the Rio Grande in the south to the delta where the Mackenzie River enters the Arctic Ocean in the north. The western boundary is the Rocky Mountains. The eastern boundary is harder to define because it is not as visible. But a line drawn on a map from Brownsville, Texas, in the south through Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in the north, serves as an approximate boundary.

The length of the Great Plains is about 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers), and the width varies from 300 to 700 miles (500 to 1,100 kilometers). The area covers approximately 1,125,000 square miles (2,900,000 square kilometers), which is roughly equivalent to one-third of the United States. Parts of 10 states lie within the plains: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. In Canada the three Prairie Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta as well as portions of the Northwest Territories are part of the plains.

The altitude of the plains is from 5,000 to 6,000 feet (1,500 to 1,800 meters) above sea level at the western border. In the east this decreases to 1,500 feet (500 meters), and in the far north near the Arctic Ocean the plains are near sea level. In general, the landscape is not the flat, featureless plain that most envision it to be. Low hills and stream valleys are commonplace. In the United States the plains are drained by the Missouri and Arkansas rivers and their tributaries. In Canada the Saskatchewan River and its tributaries constitute the main drainage system.

The climate of the Great Plains is continental-subject to cold winters and hot summers. The southern plains, being close to the Gulf of Mexico, have from 15 to 25 inches (38 to 64 centimeters) of rainfall a year. Farther north this drops to a maximum average of 15 inches of precipitation, including frequent heavy winter snowfalls. (The snow may pile deep, but for precipitation figures it is measured as the amount it would have been in rain.) The growing season averages 240 days in Texas, but in the Canadian provinces the season is only from 70 to 110 days.

Natural vegetation in the Great Plains is dominated by grasses-tallgrass and medium grass prairie in the east and shortgrass and bunchgrass steppes in the west. Much of the natural grass cover, however, has been removed to create farmland or is heavily overgrazed.

Indigenous peoples lived in the area for at least 10,000 years prior to the arrival of Europeans. Based on their shared cultural traits, they are said to make up the Plains culture area. Before European settlement the plains were home to great herds of grazing animals, primarily bison (buffalo) and pronghorn antelope, as well as a great variety of fowl. Spanish colonists from Mexico began occupying the southern plains in the 16th century, bringing horses and cattle to the area. Indigenous peoples of the Plains gradually obtained horses, and many groups began traveling on horseback to hunt the enormous herds of bison. The bison provided Plains peoples with meat for food, hides and fur for clothing and shelter, and sinew and horn for tools. However, Indigenous hunting had little impact on the bison population.

In the mid-19th century, settlers from the eastern United States began supplanting the Indigenous peoples of the Plains, who were forced onto reservations. The white settlers slaughtered the bison in large numbers, nearly eliminating the animal. Cattle ranching became a major economic activity. Many European immigrants, especially British, German Russians, Scandinavians, and Ukrainians, began to settle in the Great Plains. By the 1890s farmers had encroached on the cattle ranchers. Today, wheat, cotton, corn (maize), sorghum, hay, and oilseeds, such as canola, are the chief crops, but cattle and sheep are still raised.

The plains have much mineral wealth. Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Alberta have petroleum. Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, and Colorado contain large reserves of coal. Texas leads in the production of natural gas in the United States as does Alberta in Canada.

Although they include some fairly large cities, the plains are thinly populated. Rural population is sparse. The leading cities are Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta, Denver in Colorado, and Oklahoma City in Oklahoma. ( See also United States, "Great Plains"; Canada, "Settlement and Exploration in the West"; the Midwest; the South; the West.)

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At the heart of the North American continent lies a vast expanse of land that was once known as the Great American Desert. Today it is called the Great Plains, a high plateau...

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The Grand Canyon was carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, and is home to almost 600 different species. It is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and over 1 mile deep.

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The Great Plains is located east of the Rocky Mountains, spanning over 10 states: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.