United States of America
The United States of America comprises fifty states and a federal district. Forty-eight of these states lie in central North America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, separated from Washington state by the Canadian province of British Columbia. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
The Rocky Mountains, in the west, are separated by the fertile Great Plains from the Appalachian Mountains on the eastern seaboard. Desert areas, such as the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Mojave deserts, are found in the west and southwest and most of Alaska is subarctic or polar.