Figures and facts

The area of North America (excluding Greenland) is about 19.4 million sq km. Greenland is the world largest island with the area of over 2 million sq km. The western third of the North American continent is covered with mountain ranges, plateaus and inter-mountain hollows lying on the altitude of 2-3 thousand meters; separate peaks reach up to 4 thousand meters. The correlation of mountainous and valley regions is approximately 1:2. The most ancient part of the continent is the Lawrence hills in the north-east, which is a crystal shield up to 3 billion years old. The northernmost point of the continent is Murchison Promontory on Boothia Peninsula in Canada located in latitude 71°58' north. Further north is the Canadian Arctic archipelago and Greenland, where Cape Morris Jesup is located in latitude 83°39' north. There is no other place where land stretches so far north. The Aleut Islands is one of the most seismically unstable areas in the world. The highest peak is Mount McKinley in the south of Alaska is 6193 m high. The largest islands of the Bering Sea are the Saint Lawrence Island, the Nunivak, and the Pribylov Island.

View of the center of the city of Sitka. USA, Alaska,  Baranov Island. Late 19th cent.