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Note: Alaska and Hawaii are shown out of
position for reference only and are not to scale.
Blank
Missouri State Outline Map
Missouri's borders physically touch a total of eight
different states, as does its neighbor, Tennessee.
No state in the U.S. touches more than eight states.
Missouri is bounded on the north by
Iowa; on the east, across the Mississippi River,
by Illinois,
Kentucky, and
Tennessee; on the south by
Arkansas; and on the west by
Oklahoma,
Kansas, and Nebraska
(the latter across the Missouri River.) The two
largest Missouri rivers are the
Mississippi which
defines the eastern boundary of the state and the
Missouri that flows
west to east through the state connecting the two
largest cities, Kansas City and St. Louis.
Although
today the state is usually considered part of the
Midwest, Missouri is also
occasionally historically considered a
Southern state, the institution of slavery in the state
contributing in no small part to this. Residents of cities
farther north and the state's large metropolitan areas,
including those where most of the state's population resides
(Kansas City,
St. Louis,
Columbia), typically
consider themselves Midwestern, while in rural areas and
cities farther south (Cape
Girardeau, Poplar Bluff,
Springfield, and
Sikeston), people
typically consider themselves more Southern.
Topography
North of
the Missouri River lie the Northern Plains that stretch into
Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Here, gentle rolling hills remain
behind from a glacier that once had extended from the north
to the Missouri River. Missouri is made up of many large
river bluffs along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Meramec
Rivers. The Ozark foothills begin around Rolla, and the
Ozark plateau begins around Springfield
and extends into northwestern Arkansas, southeast Kansas,
and northeast Oklahoma.
Springfield in southwestern Missouri lies on close to
the northernmost part of the Ozark plateau. Southern
Missouri is the home of the Ozark
Mountains, a dissected
plateau surrounding the
Precambrian igneous
St. Francois
Mountains.
The
southeastern part of the state is home to the
Bootheel, part of the Mississippi
Alluvial Plain or
Mississippi embayment. It is in this part of the state
as well as the South Central part that speech patterns
comparable to those of Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee
still exist. This region is the lowest, flattest and wettest
part of the state, and among the poorest. It is also the
most fertile. Cotton and rice production are prominent in
this area. The Bootheel area was the location of the
epicenter of the New Madrid
Earthquake of 1811–1812.
Climate
Missouri
generally has a humid continental climate, with cold winters
and hot and humid summers. In the southern part of the
state, particularly in the Bootheel, the climate borders on
a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa). Due to its
location in the interior United States, Missouri often
experiences extremes in temperatures. Not having either
large mountains or oceans nearby to moderate its
temperature, its climate is alternately influenced by air
from the cold Arctic and the hot and humid Gulf of Mexico.
Interactive Missouri State Map
Explore the state of Missouri 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 Missouri.
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