Rivers
What is the longest river in the United States of America?
Missouri River
What is the U.S. river that discharges the most water?
Mississippi
What are the five Great Lakes?
Superior, Huron, Ontario, Erie, Michigan
Why do we need canals?
To connect rivers and circumvent higher elevations to increase trade and movement of people between the new areas of the USA.
What are the two oceans that border the USA
Atlantic and Pacific Ocean
How do we use rivers? Name three ways
logging, fishing, shipping, tourism, drinking, hydroelectric power
How does the Columbia River affect Chicago?
hydroelectric power from the dam
What is the largest freshwater lake in the world?
Lake Superior
What moved or traveled on canals, with or in addition to people.
Settlement of people, ideas and diseases, and goods
What is the biggest ocean?
Pacific Ocean
How did we make transport faster, trade more profitable between the midwest area and the East Coast, and solve the problem of the Appalachian Mountains?
Built canals and used the rivers
Why do we have a canal in New York connecting the Hudson River and Lake Erie and not on the Potomac River?
The terrain was lower in elevation and did not require as many locks as the Potomac, making it less expensive and more feasible.
What is oolitic sand and how is it formed?
It is sand that is formed in the lake itself and is a composition of concentric layers of calcium carbonate around a nucleus then smoothed out by water and rocks and other things in the lake.
Do we still use canals today?
yes
What is the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico?
An area of that has been polluted and does not have enough oxygen for fish to live.
What do canals and the Potomac River have to do with the Constitution?
Georgia Washington wanted a route to his property using the Potomac and the third meeting to plan the solution resulted in the Constitution.
What is the difference between rivers on the East versus rivers that flow into the Mississippi River?
The east coast rivers have a limited travel use due to their terrain and do not connect north and south areas of the country. They also do not cross the Appalachian Mountains.
What are the other two lakes we learned (not counting the Great Lakes)?
Lake Okeechobee, Great Salt Lake
Which canals that we learned about, do we still use today?
Illinois Michigan/Chicago Sanitary Canal and the Erie Canal
Why are barges so important in transporting goods versus rail cars and tractor-trailers?
They can carry more stuff due to their large design and the way they float on top of the water and do not need deep water to travel.
How is the connection of the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean a negative thing?
Non-native species now have access to areas they should not and this affects the native species and the current environment. Also, the dead zone in the Gulf is a result of the connected waterway begun by Chicago's sewage dumping.
Which rivers are connected to the Mississippi River and continue to be used as water highways?
Ohio, Tennesee, Missouri, Illinois,
Why is the Great Salt Lake saltier on the north side than the south side?
Bonus points: How does increased saltiness affect aquatic life in the lake?
The lake is saltier on the north side because there was a railroad causeway and it eventually sank and caused water to stop flowing between the two parts of the lake. Now that the water flows again, the salt in the saltier water makes the north side water denser than the water on the south side and it won't mix well anymore.
Bonus: The shrimp cannot live in the saltier side, but the bacteria that turn the water pink can live there.
What happened to the shipping industry and travel industry because of the building of the Erie Canal?
Travel time got faster and shipping got cheaper.
What natural resource changed the Gulf Coast region of Texas forever.
OIL and the petroleum industry