• 35 features
  • Checked October 2026

US Physical Map Quiz

Tap the mountain range, river or lake each question names.

US Physical Map Quiz

Name Date

Tap this on the map: Appalachian Mountains

1 of 12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
More options

Write the name of each numbered feature.Answer key

  1. Rocky Mountains
  2. Mississippi River
  3. Appalachian Mountains
  4. Great Plains
  5. Pacific Ocean
  6. Atlantic Ocean
  7. Gulf of Mexico
  8. Missouri River
  9. Colorado River
  10. Rio Grande
  11. Sierra Nevada
  12. Great Basin
  13. Cascade Range
  14. Pacific Coast Ranges
  15. Colorado Plateau
  16. Columbia Plateau
  17. Ozark Plateau
  18. Sonoran Desert
  19. Florida Peninsula
  20. Ohio River
  21. Arkansas River
  22. Columbia River
  23. Snake River
  24. Lake Superior
  25. Lake Michigan
  26. Lake Huron
  27. Lake Erie
  28. Lake Ontario
  29. Great Salt Lake
  30. Alaska Range
  31. Yukon River
  32. Gulf of Alaska
  33. Bering Sea
  34. Brooks Range
  35. Alaska Peninsula

Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2. Licence: public domain.

Each feature is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a feature is answered.

Next step Put the state lines back: the 50 statesA blank map of the United States with state lines

All 35 features on the diagram

Show the list

Mountains, plateaus and plains 12

  1. Rocky Mountains The Rockies run north from New Mexico into western Canada.
  2. Appalachian Mountains Mount Mitchell in North Carolina is its highest peak.
  3. Great Plains Flat prairie, steppe and grassland east of the Rocky Mountains.
  4. Sierra Nevada A range lying mostly in California, west of the Great Basin.
  5. Great Basin It covers nearly all Nevada and much of Utah.
  6. Cascade Range A range through Washington and Oregon into Northern California.
  7. Pacific Coast Ranges Mountain ranges stretching along the West Coast.
  8. Colorado Plateau A plateau centered roughly on the Four Corners region.
  9. Columbia Plateau A basalt plateau from Cascade Range to Rocky Mountains.
  10. Ozark Plateau A highland in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, also called the Ozarks.
  11. Sonoran Desert A hot desert covering parts of Arizona and California.
  12. Florida Peninsula The peninsula that makes up much of Florida.

Rivers 8

  1. Mississippi River It flows south from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico.
  2. Missouri River The nation's longest river, from Montana to the Mississippi near St. Louis.
  3. Colorado River It crosses the Colorado Plateau and runs through the Grand Canyon.
  4. Rio Grande The fourth-longest U.S. river, rising in southern Colorado.
  5. Ohio River It flows from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois.
  6. Arkansas River A major Mississippi tributary, flowing east from Colorado.
  7. Columbia River It forms most of the Washington–Oregon border.
  8. Snake River The Columbia's largest tributary, beginning in Yellowstone National Park.

Lakes, gulf and oceans 9

  1. Pacific Ocean The largest and deepest ocean lies off the western coast.
  2. Atlantic Ocean The second-largest ocean lies off the country's eastern coast.
  3. Gulf of Mexico The sea along the United States' Gulf Coast.
  4. Lake Superior The highest, northernmost and westernmost Great Lake.
  5. Lake Michigan The only Great Lake wholly inside the United States.
  6. Lake Huron A Great Lake with Michigan on its south and west.
  7. Lake Erie The shallowest Great Lake, and the smallest by volume.
  8. Lake Ontario The Great Lake with the state of New York to its south.
  9. Great Salt Lake A salty lake in northern Utah, left behind by ancient Lake Bonneville.

Alaska 6

  1. Alaska Range Home of Denali, North America's highest mountain.
  2. Yukon River It crosses Alaska from Canada and ends in the Bering Sea.
  3. Gulf of Alaska The arm of the Pacific inside the curve of Alaska's south coast.
  4. Bering Sea The sea west of Alaska, a marginal sea of the Pacific.
  5. Brooks Range A range stretching about 700 miles across northern Alaska.
  6. Alaska Peninsula It divides Pacific Ocean from Bristol Bay.

How this list was compiled: The 35 features, their names and their outlines come from Natural Earth 5.1.2, the map data credited under the drawing. Each name was compared with the English Wikipedia article for the feature, and every detail line was read in the opening of that article and checked 2026-10-01. Rivers are listed as rivers (Ohio River) where Natural Earth prints the bare name, and the bare name is accepted as a typed answer. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_regions_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_regions_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_geography_marine_polys (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_geography_marine_polys.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19; from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_rivers_lake_centerlines (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_rivers_lake_centerlines.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 45°N 100°W. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This US physical map quiz asks 35 features on a map with no state lines: mountain ranges, plateaus and plains, 8 rivers, the five Great Lakes, both oceans, and 6 features of Alaska in a round of their own.

Read the full guide

Five sets, from the Rockies to Alaska

The quiz opens on the big features of the 48 states, a round of 12: the Rocky Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Great Plains. Start from lists four more sets: mountains, plateaus and plains, a US landforms map quiz of 12; rivers, a US rivers map quiz of eight; lakes, gulf and oceans; and Alaska, where the map moves north for six features.

What the map leaves out

Hawaii lies outside the frame. Peaks such as Denali are not drawn; the Alaska Range is. A tap counts for the shape on top, so for the Great Plains tap between the rivers.

  • West to east across the West: Pacific Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, Rocky Mountains, Great Plains.
  • The Missouri and the Ohio both end in the Mississippi. The Snake ends in the Columbia.

Questions and answers

What are the main physical features of the United States?

The Appalachian Mountains in the east and the Rocky Mountains in the west, with the Great Plains and the Mississippi River between them. West of the Rockies lie the Great Basin, the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range; in the north, the five Great Lakes.

Where is the physical map of the US labeled?

Press Show me the labels first. Every feature gets a mark, and a tap on a mark gives its name and one fact. For paper, open More options: the labeled print numbers all 35 features and lists their names in an answer key.

Is there a printable blank physical map of the United States?

Yes. Before you answer the first question, open More options. The blank print numbers every feature and leaves a line for each name: a blank US map with rivers and mountains for a worksheet or a test.

Which is longer, the Missouri or the Mississippi?

The Missouri. It is the longest river in the United States and joins the Mississippi north of St. Louis. The Mississippi, second in length, runs from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

More quizzes

Show 8 more

Browse Geography Quizzes