Page 152 - ABCTE Study Guide_Neat

Rivers

The Mississippi River

Its name comes from an Objibwe word meaning "big river" and it's the second-longest river in the US. The
Mississippi River is an icon of the United States; it runs from its source Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota
to the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana.

The Missouri River

While not as famous as its counterpart, the Mississippi, the Missouri River is the country's longest. Its
source is in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, and the river runs into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis,
Missouri.

The Rio Grande

Providing the southern border of the US, the Rio Grande's headwaters lie in the San Juan mountains of
Colorado. The river flows through Colorado, New Mexico, and then into Texas where it empties into the
Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas.

Lakes

Lake Powell

Actually a man-made reservoir on the border between Utah and Arizona, Lake Powell was created by
Glen Canyon Dam, which dammed up the Colorado River. (Glen Canyon Damn was built between 1956
and 1963.)

Great Salt Lake

Located in northern Utah, the Great Salt Lake is much saltier than the ocean. Three rivers (the Bear, the
Weber, and the Jordan) feed the lake and dump huge amounts of minerals into its waters each year. It
covers an area of about 1,500 square miles.

The Great Lakes

Five massive lakes that lie in midwestern US and Canada, the Great Lakes comprise Lake Michigan,
Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie. Lake Ontario is connected to the St. Lawrence,
and this combination makes the Great Lakes the largest freshwater collection on the planet.

Demography

Demography is the study of the characteristics of human populations and takes into account such features
as size, growth, migration patterns, and distribution. Below is a review of some of the techniques of the
discipline and also note some of the important demographic shifts in human history.

Population

The world adds some 80 million people each year, and demographers study how this population growth
affects the environment, the world's food supply, the rate of disease, and other issues that are closely