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Minnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest state in the U.S.
Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the 32nd state in 1858. While the state's residents have been primarily white and Northern European, substantial influxes of African, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants have joined the descendants of European immigrants and Native American descendants of its original inhabitants.
Nearly 60% of Minnesota's residents live in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry, and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state, often referred to as Greater Minnesota, consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; eastern deciduous forests, also heavily farmed and settled; and the less-populated northern boreal forest. The state is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," and those lakes and the other waters for which the state is named, together with state and national forests and parks, offer residents and tourists a vigorous outdoor lifestyle.
The extremes of the climate contrast with the moderation of Minnesota’s people. The state is known for its moderate-to-progressive politics and social policies, its civic involvement, and high voter turnout. It ranks among the healthiest states by a number of measures, and has one of the most highly educated and literate populations.
The word Minnesota comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River, mnisota. Mni (sometimes mini, or minne) can be translated as "water". Mnisota is then translated as sky-tinted water or somewhat clouded water. Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. The names of many locations in the state contain the Dakota word for water, such as Minnehaha Falls ("waterfall", not "laughing waters" as is commonly thought), Minneiska ("white water"), Minnetonka ("big water"), Minnetrista ("crooked water"), and Minneapolis, which is a combination of mni and polis, the Greek word for "city".
Minnesota is the northernmost state except for Alaska; its Northwest Angle 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 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, and is the second-largest of the Midwestern states.
Minnesota contains some of the oldest rocks on earth, granitic 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. Following a period of volcanism 1.1 billion years ago, Minnesota's geological activity has been relatively quiet, with no volcanism, no mountain formation, and little earthquake activity. The roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. These seas began the flattening of Minnesota which continued with glaciation beginning 600,000 years ago. Massive glaciers at least one kilometer thick ravaged the landscape of Minnesota and created its current terrain. The last of four major glaciations, the Wisconsin glaciation, left Minnesota 12,000 years ago. The extent of these glaciers reached all of Minnesota except the far southeast and southwest. This untouched southeastern area is known as the Driftless Zone, and is characterized by rolling hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. The glaciers left their remains across the entire state as they retreated, with most areas having 50 feet (15 m) or more of glacial till. As the last glaciers retreated, gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest; the lake's outflow 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 strongest earthquake in the last century occurred near Morris in 1975, and rated between 4.6 and 4.8 in magnitude on the Richter scale.
Minnesota endures temperature extremes characteristic of its continental climate; with cold winters and hot summers, the record high and low span 174 degrees.[18] 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). Dewpoints range from about 6°F (-14°C) to 70°F (21°C).[19] Depending on location, average annual precipitation ranges from 19 inches to 35 inches, and droughts occur every 10 to 50 years.
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