Content deleted Content added
m →Climate and soil: cite report |
|||
| (5 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Short description|none}} <!-- This short description is INTENTIONALLY "none" - please see WP:SDNONE before you consider changing it! -->
{{More citations needed|date=April 2007}}
[[Image:Physio-al.jpg|right|frame|Physiographic regions in Alabama]]
Line 5:
The '''geography of Alabama''' describes a [[U.S. state|state]] in the [[Southeastern United States]] in [[North America]]. It extends from high mountains to low valleys and sandy beaches.
[[Alabama]] is [[List of U.S. states and territories by area|30th in size]] and borders four [[U.S. state]]s: Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. It also [[Gulf Coast of the United States|borders the Gulf of Mexico]].
==Physical features==
Line 19:
The valleys in the north and northeast are usually deep and narrow, but in the Coastal Plain they are broad and in most cases rise in three successive terraces above the stream. The harbour of Mobile was formed by the drowning of the lower part of the valley of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers as a result of the sinking of the land here, such sinking having occurred on other parts of the Gulf coast.
==Flora and fauna==
Line 51 ⟶ 56:
==Climate and soil==
{{Main|Climate of Alabama}}
The [[climate]] of Alabama is [[humid subtropical climate|humid subtropical]].<ref name=report>
The heat of summer is tempered in the south by the winds from the [[Gulf of Mexico]], and in the north by the elevation above the sea. The average annual temperature is highest in the southwest along the coast, and lowest in the northeast among the highlands. Thus at Mobile the annual mean is {{convert|67|°F|°C|abbr=on}}, the mean for the summer {{convert|81|°F|°C|abbr=on}}, and for the winter {{convert|52|°F|°C|abbr=on}}; and at Valley Head, in De Kalb county, the annual mean is {{convert|59|°F|°C|abbr=on}}, the mean for the summer {{convert|75|°F|°C|abbr=on}}, and for the winter {{convert|41|°F|°C|abbr=on}}. At Montgomery, in the central region, the average annual temperature is {{convert|66|°F|°C|abbr=on}}, with a winter average of {{convert|49|°F|°C|abbr=on}}, and a summer average of {{convert|81|°F|°C|abbr=on}}. The average winter minimum for the entire state is {{convert|35|°F|°C|abbr=on}}, and there is an average of 35 days in each year in which the thermometer falls below the freezing-point. At extremely rare intervals the thermometer has fallen below zero (-18 °C), as was the case in the remarkable cold wave of the 12th-13 February 1899, when an absolute minimum of {{convert|-17|°F|°C|abbr=on}} was registered at [[Valley Head, Alabama|Valley Head]]. The highest temperature ever recorded was {{convert|109|°F|°C|abbr=on}} in [[Talladega County, Alabama|Talladega]] county in 1902.
Line 62 ⟶ 67:
{{main|Wetumpka crater}}
Wetumpka is the home of "Alabama's greatest natural disaster."<ref name = "nfqpzf">[http://www.wetumpkalibrary.com/Default.asp?ID=207 "Wetumpka Impact Crater"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928230310/http://www.wetumpkalibrary.com/Default.asp?ID=207 |date=2007-09-28 }} Wetumpka Public Library, accessed Aug. 21, 2007.</ref> A {{convert|1000|ft|m|-2|adj=on}}-wide<ref name = "nfqpzf"/> meteorite hit the area about 80 million years ago. The hills just east of downtown showcase the eroded remains of the {{convert|5|mi|km|adj=on|spell=in}} wide impact crater that was blasted into the bedrock, with the area labeled the [[Wetumpka crater]] or astrobleme ("star-wound") for the concentric rings of fractures and zones of shattered rock can be found beneath the surface.<ref>"The Wetumpka Astrobleme" by John C. Hall, Alabama Heritage, Fall 1996, Number 42.</ref> In 2002, Christian Koeberl with the Institute of Geochemistry University of Vienna published evidence and established the site as an internationally recognized impact crater.<ref name = "nfqpzf"/>
==Public lands==
| |||