Africa

America is the second largest continent in the world after Asia. It occupies much of the Western Hemisphere of the Earth. It extends from the Arctic Ocean to the north to Cape Horn in the south, at the confluence of Atlantic and Pacific oceans that mark the mainland to the east and west, respectively.

With an area of 42.044 million km ², is the second largest landmass in the world, covering8.3% of the total area of the planet and 30.2% of the landmass, and also concentrates about 12% human population.

Due to its large size and geographical characteristics, America is traditionally divided into North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. [4] Some geographers consider Central America and the Caribbean as a subregion of North America. Given its culturalcharacteristics, there are Anglo American, non-Latin Caribbean and Latin America.

The continent was discovered by Christopher Columbus. It had been previously known under the name Abya Yala by the ancient Maya and Central American cultures, as Amerrikua (country of the winds) by the Maya in Nicaragua and Cem Anahuac by the Aztecs.

Physical geography
America is the second largest land mass of theplanet, after Asia.Tiene an approximate area of 42,437,680 km ². It extends from north to south from Cape Columbia (58 ° N, Canada) in the Arctic Ocean to the Diego Ramirez Islands (56 º S, Chile), located in the Drake Passage that separates the American continent of Antarctica. Its easternmost point corresponds to out Branco in Brazil (34 ° 47'W), while the western corresponds to Attu Island in theAleutian Islands (173 ° 11'E), near the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from the mainland Asia.

It consists of three sub-continents: North America, Central America and South America and an island arc known as the West Indies. According to the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics, which would be North and South America have remained for millions of years apart. After the splitfrom Gondwana and Laurasia both subcontinent would have traveled to their present positions being joined by Central America, a land bridge emerged between them by the action of plate tectonics, which was first an island arc and later became land continues . The thinnest point of this union is provided by the Isthmus of Panama formed 3 million years ago. Another island arc, the Antilles, is a secondconnection between the subcontinent.

Relief
 Aconcagua, with 6962 meters of altitude, is the highest peak of American on American soil plates of Earth's crust (American, Caribbean and South America) as they move from the center of the Atlantic to the west, forming the mountain range of western edge of America product of subduction of the Pacific plate. It consists basically of a series of highridges on the west coast (mostly the Rockies, the Sierra Madre and the Andes, all part of Ring of Fire) resulting from the collision of continental plates to the ocean and in the eastern plains which houses the two largest river basins in the world: the Mississippi River in North America and the Amazon River in South America.

The coastline, although much of it is regular, has largelydismembered sections at the ends giving rise to the Canadian Arctic Islands and Greenland in the north, and Chile and Tierra del Fuego in the southern area. Other important island groups correspond to the Aleutians in the far northwest, the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea, the Galapagos Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
Climate
Due to theconsiderable extent from north to south, America has almost all the existing climate. Between the coasts of Mexico, western Nicaragua, and southern Brazil, develops warm weather in the coastal plains and mountain slopes. The inter-tropical climate and rain forest are characteristic of much of Central America, of the Amazonian lowlands and islands of the Caribbean, while on the Atlantic coast of...