Why have population maps indicated a stark divide in population density of the United States on either side ot the 100th Meridian?
score:15
The answer is related to the map you posted about rainfall. The population of the eastern third of the continental US is denser because of settlement patterns that reflect the local availability of water resources. This quirk of human geography occurs because of the need for irrigation. As detailed by Harvey Leifert in "Dividing line: The past, present and future of the 100th Meridian":
In his 1878 “Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States,” [John Wesley] Powell identified the “arid region” as the land west of the 51-centimeter-per-year rainfall line, which closely tracked the 100th meridian. This amount of rainfall per year is about the minimum that permits farming without irrigation, and it also greatly influences the types of crops that can be grown. The line Powell noted as dividing the arid and humid sections of the continent has become known as the “effective” 100th meridian.
That population is much denser on the east side of the line is apparent in historical demography nearly as soon as masses of settlers arrived there in the mid-1800s; check out this neat animated map.
With more limited water, farms had to be bigger to make money west of the line. Possibly related to farming conditions and market size, insurance was more available east of the line.
More post
- 📝 Who was the first US president to graduate from a public university?
- 📝 What does the skull and crossbones on the Nazi uniform represent?
- 📝 What name is taken if a man marries into a noble house?
- 📝 How long did it take a typical capital warship to ramp up to flank speed?
- 📝 Was there ever any doubt which side the USA would join?
- 📝 What quality were Japanese troops in Japan in 1945?
- 📝 How would an Allied promise to "supply" Romania sway that country?
- 📝 Reception of Acemoglu-Robinson 'extractive institutions' thesis?
- 📝 How do kings secure their treasury?
- 📝 Why is the charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations signed "HOWARD"?
- 📝 The role of science in enabling the survival of civilisations
- 📝 Did Saladin speak any European languages?
- 📝 What percentage of slaves originally brought from Africa were purchased from slave traders as opposed to having been captured by Europeans?
- 📝 What is "Egyptland" in the context of the 1960s black civil rights movement in the US?
- 📝 As many Germans fled Nazism, did some spies mix in?
- 📝 Are there any tanks with the gun and autoloader outside the main turret?
- 📝 In medieval Europe, were children born in an annulled marriage automatically illegitimate?
- 📝 How is it possible that the Basque language survived until today?
- 📝 Why were 40,000 German troops left in Prague instead of pulled back to defend Berlin?
- 📝 Financial ramifications of peerages created since the 19th century
- 📝 Specialization of labor among the ancient Maya
- 📝 Who cataloged the ships that visited Alta California?
- 📝 Compare skeleton crew to normal crew on a galleon
- 📝 What was Lenin's "New Economic Policy" and what complications did it have?
- 📝 How did thieves get into Egyptian pyramids?
- 📝 Who started trams in Delhi?
- 📝 Where can I buy a tank trap?
- 📝 Did ancient Romans anticipate the fall of Rome?
- 📝 What was character of Chmielnitski's rise?
- 📝 During the Great Depression in America, was there an increase in popularity of Communism?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why have population maps indicated a stark divide in population density of the United States on either side ot the 100th Meridian?
- 📝 Why didn't Hitler have more submarines in the English channel?
- 📝 If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union have multiple airplane manufacturers?
- 📝 Why did the population of Anchorage, Alaska, increase by so much in the 1970s?
- 📝 Why do the horses on this vase have too many legs?
- 📝 Why didn't the Greeks or Romans have an Industrial Revolution?
- 📝 Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
- 📝 Why do old kitchen stoves have circular openings in the upper surface?
- 📝 Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
- 📝 Why did the film "The Longest Day" have the "cricket" training scene if the Allies received no intelligence about the hedgerows in Normandy?
- 📝 Why did the USSR have two sources of currency?
- 📝 Why does the amount of days in an year on average of the Gregorian calendar only have 4 decimal places (365.2425)?
- 📝 Why did Stephen Ambrose believe that the election of Aaron Burr would have led to the end of the USA?
- 📝 Why did the population of Descartes, France increase by so much in the 1960's?
- 📝 Why have officers in the U.S. Army tended to "top out" at the level of Major?
- 📝 Why did the British have so few destroyers going into World War II?
- 📝 Why do all my history books divide Chinese history after the Han dynasty?
- 📝 Why do some 17th and 18th century maps depict Ottoman sanjaks north of the Danube in Wallachia?
- 📝 Why do the bases of these pillars have grooves in them?
- 📝 Why did helmets have this metal thing between the eyes?
- 📝 Why does the US House of Representatives have a ceremonial mace, but the Senate does not?
- 📝 Why did Russians have guns towards the end of the Mongol Yoke, but not the Mongols?
- 📝 Why would a rifleman have his bayonet fixed to the rifle in a non-combat situation?
- 📝 Why were Muslims in Western Thrace and Christians in Constantinople excluded from the population exchange?
- 📝 Why did the Eastern U.S. population decrease so much during WWII?
- 📝 Why do Wikipedia's and Guinness World Records's measurements of the Achaemenid Empire's percentage of world population differ?
- 📝 Why did the Roberts Treaty of 1833 have a Portuguese translation annexed to it?
- 📝 Why would the heads of the Manhattan Project have been imprisoned in the event of its failure?
- 📝 Why does the Ħaġar Qim seem to have drilled holes / pitted dots on its stoneworks?
