North and South America
Geography · Key Stage 2 · The School
Two continents, one landmass
North America holds Canada, the United States and Mexico. It also holds Central America and the Caribbean. Its largest cities include Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. South America holds Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Chile. Its largest cities include São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima and Bogotá. A narrow land bridge at Panama joins the two.
Mountains, plains and rainforest
The ROCKY MOUNTAINS run down western North America. The ANDES run down the western edge of South America. The Andes are the longest mountain range on Earth. Between the mountains and the eastern coasts lie vast plains. In the north are the Great Plains and the prairies. In the south are the Amazon Basin and the Pampas. The AMAZON is the largest river in the world by volume.
Environmental regions
An environmental region is an area with a shared climate and vegetation. The Americas hold nearly all of them. Arctic tundra in northern Canada. Temperate forest and grassland in the middle. Hot desert in the south-west United States and northern Mexico. Tropical rainforest across the Amazon. Cold desert in Patagonia. That range in one north-to-south strip is why the Americas are worth studying together.
Which is further east, Miami or Santiago in Chile? On a flat map, South America hangs below North America, and Miami looks further east. Now use a globe and follow the lines of longitude. Miami is at about 80 degrees west. Santiago is at about 71 degrees west. So Santiago is nearly a thousand kilometres FURTHER EAST. South America sits south and east of North America. Flat maps hide that.