3 4 2 regions and resources

natural resources region physical environment landform climate fuel mineral communities Write to It!. In this book you will read about some of the regions and natural resources in the Un

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Scott Foresman Social Studies

ISBN 0-328-14829-6

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Regions and Resources

by Barbara Bigelow

Fascinating Facts

pounds of paper each year

made of paper and could have been recycled

years for just one inch of rich soil to form

Genre Comprehension Skill Text Features

Nonfi ction Draw Conclusions • Captions

• Headings/Subheadings

• Map

• Time Line

Scott Foresman Social Studies

ISBN 0-328-14829-6

ì<(sk$m)=beicjf< +^-Ä-U-Ä-U

Fascinating Facts

pounds of paper each year

made of paper and could have been recycled

years for just one inch of rich soil to form

Genre Comprehension Skill Text Features

Nonfi ction Draw Conclusions • Captions

• Headings/Subheadings

• Map

• Time Line

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natural resources

region physical environment

landform climate fuel mineral communities

Write to It!

What natural resources are near where you live?

How are they important to your community?

Write one paragraph about your ideas

Write your paragraph on a separate sheet

of paper.

ISBN: 0-328-14829-6

by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited

reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise For information regarding

permission(s), write to: Permissions Department, Scott Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue,

Glenview, Illinois 60025.

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Illustration

3 ©Guy Porfirio

Photographs

Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.

Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.

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In this book you will read about some of the regions

and natural resources in the United States Read

on to find out more about the resources that are

beneath the earth’s surface!

Editorial Offices: Glenview, Illinois • Parsippany, New Jersey • New York, New York Sales Offices: Needham, Massachusetts • Duluth, Georgia • Glenview, Illinois Coppell, Texas • Sacramento, California • Mesa, Arizona

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What is a natural resource?

Nature is truly amazing Just take a look around

you Almost everything you see started out as a

natural resource Natural resources are useful

materials that come from the earth

The toothpaste you used this morning contains sand

Sand is a natural resource The paper this book was

printed on came from a tree Our forests are natural

resources The gasoline that powers the car or the bus

you ride in started out as oil Oil is a natural resource

How about cars? Cars are made from natural

resources too Car bodies are formed from sheets of

steel Steel is made mostly of iron, which is found in

rock Iron is an important natural resource

Trees are a natural resource.

3

Five Regions in One Country

The United States is the fourth-largest country in the world It is big enough to be divided into five

different regions A region is a large land area that

has special features

The five regions of the United States have very

different physical environments You can tell one

type of physical environment from another by

observing its landforms and its climate Landform

is a scientific word for the different shapes found

on Earth’s surface Deserts and mountains are two examples of landforms Climate refers to the kind of weather a place has from year to year

This map shows the five regions of the United States

Northeast region

Southeast region Southwest region

West region

Midwest region

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The five regions of the United States look very

different You will find mountains in the West and

flat plains in the Midwest The Southwest is very

hot and dry all year round The Northeast can get

very cold and snowy during the winter The South is

warmer than some other regions

This is a hot, dry climate in

the Southwest region.

Check This Out

Did you know that the first

letters of the four directions on

a map—North, East, West, and

South—spell the word NEWS?

5

Where is that from?

Natural resources come from nature The five regions of the United States have very different resources in their soil, rocks, and waters Let’s look at

a few states and their natural resources

Texas is a very large state in the Southwest It is famous for its oil Oil is a natural resource that is found beneath the ground It comes from wells, or

deep holes in Earth’s surface We use oil for fuel Fuels

provide us with heat, light, and other forms of energy

This is an oil well.

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The state of Wisconsin is in our nation’s Midwest

This state has lots of cows, farmland, and trees

Wisconsin is known for its dairy products, such as milk

and cheese This state also produces the most paper

in our country

Idaho is a state in the Northwest Much of its land

is used for farming Idaho is famous throughout the

world for its plentiful potato crops The soil in Idaho is

good for growing wheat and trees

Midwestern states, such as Wisconsin, have cows and livestock.

You probably already know how valuable our forests are They provide homes for animals and oxygen for

us to breathe They shade us from the Sun

Trees are also important to the building industry

Lumber comes from trees It is wood that has been cut into boards Wood from trees is also used to make paper and furniture

You might be surprised at some of the other things that are made from trees Medicines, fabrics, bowling balls, football helmets, hairspray, paints, tires, cough drops, and gum all come from trees

The best thing about trees, though, is that they

can be replaced by planting new ones That makes them a renewable resource If we are careful, they will

never disappear!

Many potato crops are grown

in Idaho.

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Gold is a very valuable mineral A mineral is a

natural resource that has never been alive Gold

was first discovered in California back in 1848 This

discovery caused thousands of people to move out

west The big westward movement became known as

the Gold Rush

Can you dig it?

Gold is usually found buried in rock Sometimes it is

mixed with loose soil People panned for gold in the

Old West by swirling water from muddy streams in

pans to help separate the tiny gold flecks from the dirt

Later, people dug deep holes called gold mines

in the earth to search for larger chunks of gold A

miner’s job was to get the nuggets, or chunks of gold,

out of the mine

Thousands of people headed west hoping

to find gold nuggets such as these.

9

Many of the people who took part in the Gold Rush wanted to find some gold for themselves Others followed the crowd looking for different kinds of work

Let’s see what might have happened out west in

1849 after gold was discovered Many people traveled far to look for gold, but there were other jobs to do

The Miner Forty-Niners

The gold miners were nicknamed “forty-niners”

because the busiest year for gold mining in California was 1849 Between the discovery of gold

in 1848 and the end of the Gold Rush in 1850, about eighty thousand people moved to California

Miners panned for gold

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The miners had to buy supplies, so some people set

up stores to sell things The miners had to eat, so other

people grew food, cooked, or set up places for miners

to buy meals The miners might get injured or sick, so

doctors were needed People were able to find many

things to do even if they were not looking for gold!

Some mines were in

the mountains.

10

Then what happened?

Not many gold miners got rich By 1850 the Gold Rush was over A lot of miners decided to go back to the states they came from Some of the mining towns were deserted They became known as “ghost towns”

after everyone left

Some people ended up staying in the area, though

Many of them took up farming and communities

were formed A community is a place where people live, work, and have fun together California became this country’s thirty-first state at the end of 1850

11

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How did fuels get under

the ground?

Oil, coal, and natural gas are fuels We burn them to

produce heat, electricity, and other forms of energy

All of these fuels were formed millions of years ago

and are buried in the ground

You are probably wondering how all that oil, coal,

and natural gas ended up getting stuck under tons

of rock

Let’s take a look at how oil forms Coal and natural

gas form almost the same way

Oil is sometimes called

“black gold” because it is such

a valuable natural resource.

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How Oil Is Formed

Suppose it is three hundred million years ago, even

before the dinosaurs roamed Earth Billions of tiny

plants and animals were living in Earth’s oceans

When these ocean creatures died and sank to the

bottom of the water, they formed a muddy layer Over

time, the plant and animal bodies were buried under

more and more layers of mud It got pretty hot under

there, and the mud turned to rock Much later, those

dead plants and animals turned into thick, gooey oil

1859

America’s first oil field is drilled in Pennsylvania

1930s

Lots of oil is found

in Texas.

1839

The first steam shovel

is invented This invention makes it much easier to dig coal from the ground.

A Fuel Time Line

15

Will our natural resources last forever?

Not every natural resource is like a tree After a tree

is cut down, a new one can be planted in its place

That is why forests are called renewable resources!

Unfortunately, oil, coal, and natural gas are not like that Once we find and use all the oil, coal, and natural gas in Earth’s crust, they will be gone forever

We cannot “plant” new supplies That is why it is so important to conserve our resources

1973

The price of oil goes way up

in the United States People have to wait in lines for hours at gas stations to fill

up their gas tanks.

2004

Scientists predict that plankton, sunflowers, and bananas may be the fuels of the future.

1997

The gas-electric hybrid car is introduced in Japan It can run

on gas or electricity.

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Glossary

climate the kind of weather a place has from year

to year

communities places where people live, work, and

have fun together

fuel a resource that can be used to produce light,

heat, or other forms of energy

landform a shape or part of the earth’s surface, such

as a mountain or a desert

mineral a natural resource that has never been alive

natural resources useful materials that come from

the earth

physical environment a region’s landforms

and climate

region a large land area that has special features

Vocabulary