Chapter 1
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7
What physical features do you see in this picture?
Chapter 1
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7
Physical Features of
Pennsylvania
W
e have learned where Pennsyl-
vania is located. Now we can
learn what our state looks like.
Studying about the earth’s surface and its
features
is called
physical geography.
Every place on earth can be described by its
sights, sounds, natural and people-made
features. Every place has many features.
Features are used to describe things such as
climate, people, cities, landforms, plants,
and animals.
There are many geographic terms that
are used to describe the features of
Pennsylvania. Our state has mountains,
valleys, plains, plateaus, glens, waterfalls,
andmanymore. There also are large urban
cities, rural farming regions, small towns,
and
suburbs
in our state. Suburbs are
places wheremany homes are built near or
outside a city or town.
Our State’s Size and
Population
O
ne physical feature that describes
Pennsylvania is the amount of land
located inside our borders. Traveling
north and south, our state is about 160
miles long. Traveling east and west, our
state is about 300miles wide.
Let us compare the size of Pennsylvania
with the size of other states. Regarding the
amount of
land area
, Pennsylvania is not
a very large state. In fact, 32 states are larger
in land area than Pennsylvania. However,
our state is larger thanmost of the states in
theNortheast region.
Another physical feature is thenumber of
peoplewho live inour state. Let us compare
the population of our state with those of
other states. Pennsylvaniahasmore than12
million people living in its land area. That
numbermakes our state the sixth largest in
theUnited States.
