Talk:Geography of the United States

message: your article mentions that prostitution is legal in las vegas, which is incorrect. Nevada state law provides that any county with a population of less that 400,000 people may allow prostitution. this exludes Clark county, in which las vegas is located, because it has a population of over 400,000. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.113.55.21 (talk) 12:17, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  las vegas 

message: I have added a  tag to this sentence:The United States shares land borders with Canada and Mexico, and water borders with Russia, Cuba, and the Bahamas.According to Territorial waters, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the U.S. all claim 12 miles.  Can the U.S. be said to border nations separated from it by the high seas?  Kablammo 21:34, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The CIA Factbook page on the US says under "Disputes, International": "The Bahamas and US have not been able to agree on a maritime boundary". This doesn't really answer your question, but kinda pokes at it. Pfly 05:31, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good source.  It makes a distinction between territorial waters (12 nm) and exclusive economic zones (200 nm).  It does not appear that the Bahamas are within 24 nm of the US.  Perhaps the issue is competing claims over the continental shelf.  In any even the statements about Cuba, the Bahamas, and "numerous smaller nations" are unattributed and they should be deleted unless citations are given.  Kablammo 13:05, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

text: I have changed or deleted the questioned assertions and removed the tag.  Kablammo 22:46, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Borders 

message: This is an article about geography, not cultural stereotypes.  The discussion of regional stereotypes may have a place in some other article (if properly referenced and even-handed) but they do not belong here.  Kablammo 16:06, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The whole section on culture is unsalvageable, in my humble opinion. Struck it in its entirety.  Note that a separate Culture of the United States article already exists.  I would suggest a rewrite, if it must be dealt with here, as a summary of the region, climate, and nature-related sections of the aforelinked main culture article. MrZaiustalk 16:37, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cultural regions 

message: Aside from the aforementioned deletion of the original research-laden unsourced culture section, note that we could also use a section on the environment and flora & fauna. As such, assessed as start class for the relevant Wikiproject. MrZaiustalk 16:55, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Missing sections

message: The article states:
Lowest point: Death Valley, Inyo County, California 282 feet below sea level (-86 m).
This is not correct.  The lowest point is the bottom of the Lake Superior rift valley, at 733 feet below sea level.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.42.71.103 (talk) 18:17, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Elevations 

message: This article seems to deal with only the physical geography of the U.S., while I argue that human geography of any region is just as important as the physical geography. "Geography" is a broad a term, and should mean both physical and human geography. What I suggest then is that either a section be created to discuss this aspect, or perhaps another article like Human geography of the United States be made. ~ UBeR (talk) 03:05, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Makes sense to start it as a section here and make a new page if it gets long enough. I'd try to add to it if I can. Any ideas on what aspects of human geography would make a good start? Population patterns (regional, urban/rural, etc)? Transportation? Pfly (talk) 04:11, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Human geography 

message: I am prepared to believe that Alaska'a coastline is more than half the US total. However, this article lists total US coastline at 12,380. This article posted on the alaskan gov site, claims that the Alaskan coastline is 33,000 miles long with a possibility of 44,000.  This seems a bit high IMO. The article Geography of Alaska is vague and simply claims "half." The count at neap high tide, or whatever, needs to be the same as the geodetic survey. So some sort of resolution is needed. The actual figure for the coastline should be footnoted. The Alaskan article needs to be specific and be footnoted. Thanks. Student7 (talk) 00:17, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Coastline discrepancy

message: I notice that this article uses Mm for millions of square kilometres. I believe it would be clearer if the article stuck to square kilometres throughout. What do others think? Michael Glass (talk) 05:32, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mm vs km 

message: I have back up everything I changed with footnotes linking to information.
The statement that "some" publication list china as 3rd and "many" list US as third is misleading. Most english language publications mirror CIA factbook figures. That is why it seems "many" when CIA factbook is the ONLY publication in the world that does these rankings. I removed this sentence and the following sentencing about depending on the "status of taiwan." This is just wrong bull$*@W. Note that taiwan has NEVER been calculated into PRChina's territorial figure. I put a footnote there for you to see. If you don't understand how this dispute ever got started, then YOU SHOULD NOT BE EDITING THIS PAGE.
Furthermore, the statement that "(including inland water), Russia and Canada is larger than US" IS WRONG! Including inland water, Russia, Canada, and CHINA is larger than US. In fact, including the US share of great lakes CHINA is still larger than US. Go see Encyclopedia Brittanica's figure for both countries. It is the ONLY publication that correctly states US and China's territorial extent.
It is only with the addition of COASTAL WATERS for US and exclusion of such waters for China, US becomes larger and this onyl happened in 1997. Go see this link: http://www.theodora.com/wfb/abc_world_fact_book.html
PLEASE know your facts before editing!
:You may be precisely right about how the figures have been calculated. I would wonder whether some calculations might inlcude Tibet as part of China. My guess is that China would include it. Most western counts would omit it. Student7 (talk) 22:00, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  I changed some inaccurate statements 

message: The article should be consistent when referring to The United States as either a single entity or as a collection of entities. Since the article begins "The United States IS a country" (not "The United States ARE a collection... ") there should not be sentences in the article such as "The United States experience disasters"; it would instead appear "The United States experiences disasters". Only when "states" is in lower-case is it not the proper noun, and therefore a plural entity. I corrected the article to reflect this. VIOLENTRULER (talk) 10:56, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plurality 

message: Most states have their own page for geography (eg Geography of California). What is the best way of cross-linking those pages with this page please? John a s (talk) 22:54, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  State Geography 

message: "It contains the highest point in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney (14,505 ft/4,421 m). Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m).[1] "
These two sentences state the same thing. Propose to remove one or the other. 72.220.110.184 (talk) 07:25, 30 April 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Please do. You needn't feel obliged to discuss this sort of thing. It is "automatic" for the discovering editor. Just do it and fill in the edit summary as to the reason. Student7 (talk) 13:07, 5 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Physiographic Divisions 

message: The following statement is incorrect - "By land area only (exclusive of waters), the United States is the world's third largest country, after Russia and Canada, with Canada second and China fourth"
By land area alone, China is larger than the United States (9,569,901 v 9,158,960). However, it actually IS the 3rd largest by area, because  Canada drops to 4th largest by land area only. 
By total area: Russia, Canada, China, United States.
By land only: Russia, China, United States, Canada. 
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area
The CIA World Factbook is not a good source because its figures use only China's land area, but use ALL water area for the United States, including territorial waters, which should not be included.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.22.40.208 (talk) 21:43, 26 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Area 

message: The largest lake is listed as Lake Superior but that lake is not wholly within the US. This should be changed to Lake Michigan.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.209.138.2 (talk) 17:02, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Largest Lake 

message: The number given in the new edits from the CIA's factbook does not match what's on Geography of Canada, "Canada ranks fourth in land area (i.e., total area minus the area of lakes and rivers)—China is 9,326,410 km2 (3,600,950 sq mi) and the U.S. is 9,161,923 km2 (3,537,438 sq mi)".  from the infobox there Total	9,984,671 km2 (3,855,103 sq mi), of which 91.08%
is land, and 8.92% water; that apparently, per the text where "freshwater" is specified, doesn't include large oceanic areas such as Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the inter-insular waterways and gulfs of the Arctic and the BC Coast; and lakes and rivers include Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes.  "Covering 9,984,670 km2 or 3,855,100 sq mi (land: 9,093,507 km2 or 3,511,023 sq mi; freshwater: 891,163 km2 or 344,080 sq mi), Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia and slightly larger than Europe. In total area, Canada is slightly larger than both the U.S. and China; however, Canada ranks fourth in land area (i.e., total area minus the area of lakes and rivers)—China is 9,326,410 km2 (3,600,950 sq mi) and the U.S. is 9,161,923 km2 (3,537,438 sq mi)".Skookum1 (talk) 05:53, 12 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  re CIA figures on Canada's land area 

message: The inclusion of territories and possessions within the geographic extent of the United States reflects the recent consensus arrived at for the United States article. The previous intro sentence omitted the Northern Mariana Islands in the referenced FAM, and the US State Department now includes the five insular territories and minor outlying possessions as within the constitutional framework of the United States as referenced at Common Core Document to U.N. Committee on Human Rights, December 30, 2011, Item 22, 27, 80; Homeland Security Public Law 107-296 Sec.2.(16)(A); Presidential Proclamation of national jurisdiction  TheVirginiaHistorian (talk) 11:32, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Intro sentence 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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message: usa's size only land and inland waters is 9,526,517 wich is smaller than china
china is 9,596,961  — Preceding unsigned comment added by I dont have a username for this (talk • contribs) 22:21, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  usa's size is wrong 

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