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Note: Alaska and Hawaii are shown out of
position for reference only and are not to scale.
Blank
Minnesota State Outline Map
Minnesota is the northernmost state outside of
Alaska; its isolated
Northwest Angle in
Lake of the Woods is the only part of the 48
contiguous
states lying north of the
49th
Parallel. Minnesota is in the U.S. region known
as the Upper Midwest.
The state shares a Lake
Superior water border with
Michigan and Wisconsin
on the northeast; the remainder of the eastern
border is with Wisconsin.
Iowa is to the south,
North Dakota and
South Dakota are west,
and the Canadian
provinces of
Ontario and
Manitoba are north. With
87,014 square miles (225,365 km²), or approximately
2.25% of the United States, Minnesota is the 12th
largest state.
Geology and terrain
Minnesota
contains some of the oldest rocks found on earth,
gneisses some 3.6 billion years old,
or 80% as old as the planet. About 2.7 billion years ago,
basaltic lava
poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial
ocean; the remains of this
volcanic rock formed the
Canadian Shield in northeast
Minnesota.[10]
The roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of
Precambrian seas formed the
Iron Range of northern Minnesota.
Following a period of volcanism 1.1
billion years ago, Minnesota's geological activity has been
more subdued, with no volcanism or mountain formation, but
with repeated incursions of the sea which left behind
multiple strata of sedimentary rock.
In more
recent times, massive ice sheets at least one
kilometer thick ravaged the
landscape of the state and sculpted its current terrain. The
Wisconsin glaciation
left 12,000 years ago. These glaciers covered all of
Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by
steep hills and streams that cut into the
bedrock. This area is known as the
Driftless Zone for its absence
of glacial drift. Much of the remainder of the state outside
of the northeast has 50 feet (15 m) or more of
glacial till left behind as the
last glaciers retreated. 13,000 years ago gigantic
Lake Agassiz formed in the
northwest; the lake's outflow, the
glacial River Warren,
carved the valley of the
Minnesota River, and its bottom created the fertile
lands of the Red River
valley. Minnesota is geologically quiet today; it
experiences earthquakes
infrequently, and most of them are minor.
The state's
high point is Eagle
Mountain at 2,301 feet (701 m), which is only 13 miles
(20.9 km) away from the low of 602 feet (183 m) at the shore
of Lake Superior.
Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation,
much of the state is a gently rolling
peneplain.
Two
continental divides meet
in the northeastern part of Minnesota in rural
Hibbing, forming a triple
watershed.
Precipitation can
follow the Mississippi River
south to the Gulf of Mexico,
the St. Lawrence Seaway
east to the Atlantic Ocean, or
the Hudson Bay
watershed to the Arctic Ocean.
The state's
nickname, The Land of 10,000 Lakes, is no
exaggeration; there are 11,842 lakes over 10 acres
in size. The Minnesota portion of
Lake Superior is the largest at 962,700 acres (3,896 km²)
and deepest (at 1,290 ft, 393 m) body of water in the state.
Minnesota has 6,564 natural rivers and streams that
cumulatively flow for 69,000 miles (111,000 km). The
Mississippi River begins
its journey from its headwaters at
Lake Itasca and crosses the
Iowa border 680 miles (1,094 km)
downstream. It is joined by the
Minnesota River at
Fort Snelling, by the
St. Croix
River near Hastings,
by the Chippewa River
at Wabasha, and by many smaller
streams. The Red River,
in the bed of glacial Lake Agassiz, drains the northwest
part of the state northward toward Canada's
Hudson Bay. Approximately 10.6 million
acres (42,900 km²) of wetlands are contained within
Minnesota's borders, the most of any state except Alaska.
Flora and fauna
Three of
North America's
biomes converge in Minnesota:
prairie grasslands in the
southwestern and western parts of the state, the
Big Woods
deciduous forest of the
southeast and east-central, and the northern
boreal forest. The northern coniferous
forests are a vast wilderness of pine
and spruce trees mixed with patchy
stands of birch and
poplar. Much of Minnesota's northern forest has been
logged, leaving only a few patches of
old growth forest today in
areas such as in the
Chippewa National Forest and the
Superior National Forest
where the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has some 400,000
acres (1,600 km²) of unlogged land. Although logging
continues, regrowth keeps about one third of the state
forested.
While loss
of habitat has affected native animals such as the
pine marten,
elk, and bison,
whitetail deer and
bobcat thrive. The state has the
nation's largest population of timber wolves
outside Alaska, and supports healthy populations of
black bear and
moose. Located on the
Mississippi Flyway,
Minnesota hosts migratory waterfowl such as
geese and ducks, and game birds
such as grouse,
pheasants, and turkeys. It is
home to birds of prey including
the bald eagle,
red-tailed hawk, and
snowy owl. The lakes teem with the
sport fish such as walleye,
bass,
muskellunge, and northern pike,
and streams in the southeast are populated by
brook,
brown, and rainbow trout.
Climate
Minnesota
endures temperature
extremes characteristic of its
continental climate; with
cold winters and hot summers, the record high and low span
174 degrees Fahrenheit (96.6 °C).
Meteorological events include rain,
snow, hail,
blizzards,
polar fronts, tornadoes,
thunderstorms, and
high-velocity straight-line winds.
The growing season varies from 90 days per year in the
Iron Range to 160 days in
southeast Minnesota near the Mississippi River, and mean
average temperatures range from 36 °F (2 °C) to 49 °F
(9 °C). Average summer dewpoints
range from about 58 °F (14.4 °C) in the south to about 48 °F
(8.9 °C) in the north. Depending on location, average annual
precipitation ranges from 19 in (48.3 cm) to 35 in
(88.9 cm), and droughts occur every 10 to 50 years.
Protected lands
Minnesota
is home to a variety of wilderness, park, and other open
spaces. Minnesota's first state park,
Itasca State Park, was
established in 1891, and is the
source of the
Mississippi River. Today Minnesota has
72 state parks
and recreation areas,
58 state forests
covering about four million acres (16,000 km²), and numerous
state wildlife preserves, all managed by the
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. There are
5.5 million acres (22,000 km²) in the
Chippewa and
Superior National
Forests. The Superior National Forest in the northeast
contains the
Boundary
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which encompasses over a
million acres (4,000 km²) and a thousand lakes. To its west
is Voyageurs National
Park, the state's only national park.
Interactive Minnesota State Map
Explore the state of Minnesota with the dynamic map below. You can
zoom, pan and even get a satellite map view.
Move your cursor over the markers on the map to
learn more about Minnesota.
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