From Sea to Shining Sea! Take the Ultimate North American Geography Quiz!

Estimated Completion Time
2 min
From Sea to Shining Sea! Take the Ultimate North American Geography Quiz!
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About This Quiz

Do you love geography? Have you traveled extensively throughout North America? Then this quiz is for you! Take the ultimate North American geography quiz and prove your knowledge of the rivers, oceans, mountains, and land of North America and take this quiz!
What engineering marvel in North America connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans?
Alaskan Inside Passage
Hoover Dam
Panama Canal
The 50-mile (80-kilometer) Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914, is one of the most important waterways in the world — by connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Isthmus of Panama, it dramatically shortens shipping routes.
Where is the lowest elevation in North America?
the Badlands
Death Valley
Death Valley's Badwater Basin in Furnace Creek, California, has the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level.
Mojave Desert
True or false: Canada is the world's second largest country in total area.
true
This is true. Canada spans more than 3,855,100 square miles (9,984,670 square kilometers).
false

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What region of North America is made of large expanses of prairie and steppe?
the Great Plains
The Great Plains features a broad expanse of prairie and steppe that lies east of the Rocky Mountains in both the United States and Canada.
the Great Basin
the Atlantic seaboard
True or false: Three countries make up most of North America's land mass.
true
Canada, the United States and Mexico account for most of the North America land mass.
false
What mountain range includes North America's major Continental Divide?
the Sierra Nevada
the Rocky Mountains
The Great Divide runs north and south through the Rocky Mountains.
the Cascade Range

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True or false: Nearly 80 percent of Greenland is covered in ice.
true
Greenland’s major physical feature is its massive ice sheet, which is second only to Antarctica’s in size. The Greenland ice sheet covers more than 700,000 square miles (1.8 million square km) — more than 80 percent of its total land area.
false
Which North American river would you cross to travel from El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico?
Mississippi
Missouri
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande River separates the Texan and Mexican towns.
True or false: The Florida Everglades are the largest wetland system in the United States.
true
The Everglades cover more than 4,300 square miles (11,137 square kilometers) of southern Florida.
false

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What kind of minerals have been mined in the Rocky Mountains?
copper, lead and gold
tungsten, zinc and uranium
all of the above
The Rocky Mountain region has been mined for its copper, lead, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium and zinc.
What is the highest peak in North America?
Denali
Denali, which is located within Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska, stands at 20,320 feet (6,194 meters).
Mount Logan
Iztaccihuatl
What is North America's largest mountain range?
Cascade Range
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are the largest chain in North America, stretching from British Columbia, Canada, to New Mexico.
Appalachian Mountains

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True or false: North America has three major desert regions.
true
The three major desert regions — the Sonoran, Mojave and Chihuahuan — are all in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.
false
What is the largest freshwater lake in the North America?
Lake Superior
Lake Superior the largest freshwater lake in North America.
Lake Huron
Lake Michigan
What is the current population of North America?
50 million
100 million
more than 500 million
The population of North America is expected to reach more than 533 million in 2016.

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North America is the only continent with what?
volcanoes and tornados
every type of climate
Weather varies dramatically across the North American landscape. Climates range from arctic cold to equatorial heat and everything in between.
mountains and islands
True or false: British Columbia borders two states.
true
false
British Columbia borders four states: Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
What is the longest river in North America?
Mississippi
Missouri
The Missouri River is North America's longest river, beginning in western Montana and ending 2,341 miles (3,767 kilometers) away, north of St. Louis, Missouri, where it enters the Mississippi River.
Rio Grande

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What is the most populous city in North America?
New York City
Mexico City
Mexico City is identified as the most populous city in North America, with a population of nearly 20 million.
Los Angeles
North America is the ______ largest continent.
first
second
third
North America is the third largest continent, after Asia and Africa.
How many countries make up North America?
five
18
23
There are a total of 23 countries in North America, including all of the Caribbean and Central American countries, Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, the United States and Greenland.

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How many physical regions is North America divided into?
five
North America is divided into five physical regions: the mountainous West, the Great Plains, the Canadian Shield, the varied eastern region and the Caribbean.
seven
eight
What mountain range in North America includes some of the youngest mountains on Earth?
Appalachian Mountains
Rocky Mountains
Cascade Range
Some of Earth's youngest mountains are in the Cascade Range of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon and California, where some peaks began to form only about 1 million years ago.
How many islands, reefs and cays make up the Caribbean region of North America?
more than 200
more than 2,500
more than 7,000
The Caribbean region includes more than 7,000 islands, islets, reefs and cays. Some have relatively flat and sandy terrain, while others are rugged, mountainous and volcanic.

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What's the largest volcano in the United States?
Mount St. Helens
Mauna Loa
While Kilauea in Hawaii is considered one of (if not the) most dangerous volcanoes in the U.S., it's actually Mauna Loa that is the largest.
Kilauea
How much of the world's freshwater do the Great Lakes hold?
15
21
The Great Lakes — Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario — contain about 21 percent of the world's freshwater.
25
True or false: It took more than 60 years to build the Hoover Dam.
true
false
It took more than 60 years from the time Maj. John Wesley Powell began to conduct geological studies of the Colorado River in 1869 until construction on the dam began in 1933. It only took five years to complete construction.

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What two mountain ranges run along the entire Pacific Coast?
Sierra Nevada and Cascades
Both the Sierra Nevada and Cascades follow the Pacific Coast, shielding the humid winds that sweep in from the ocean.
Sierra Nevada and Alaska Range
Cascades and Canadian Shield
How many major bodies of water (oceans and gulfs) does North America border?
three
four
North America borders four major bodies of water: the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
five
How many countries in North America are landlocked?
zero
Every country in North America borders an ocean. Canada, the United States, and Mexico border both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
one
two

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You Got:
/30
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