Geological Features/Landforms in Central/North America

Chirripó National Park is named for its most prominent feature, Cerro Chirripó, the highest mountain in Costa Rica. Five ecosytems found in the park include lowland tropical wet forest, premontane tropical wet forest, lower montane wet forest, montane wet forest and subalpine wet forest (páramo).

Nicoya Peninsula lies along the northern section of Costa Rica's Pacific coast. The Gulf of Nicoya separates the Nicoya Peninsula from the mainland of Costa Rica and encompasses a marine and coastal landscape of wetlands, rocky islands and cliffs.

Ometepe Island is located in southwest Nicaragua, formed by two volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicargua. It is the lake's largest island. The two imposing volcanoes, Maderas and Concepcion, define its topography. The island was designated a Biosphere Reserve in 2010.

The Petén Basin is a geographical/archaeological subregion of Mesoamerica and a center of Maya civilizations such as Tikal and Calakmul. It is primarily located in northern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico. The Maya Forest is the largest remaining tropical rain forest in the Americas

The Sierra de las Minas mountain range, that runs through the country's southeast highlands, is one of the truly wild places in Guatemala. Protection of the area is particularly important because it contains an estimated 60 percent of Guatemala’s remaining cloud forest.

The Sierra Madre is a mountain system that is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges that consists of an almost continuous sequence of ranges. These mountain ranges form the western 'backbone' of North America, Central America, South America and West Antarctica.

The Solentiname Islands are an archipelago located in the southeastern part of Lake Nicaragua. They are made up of four larger islands: Mancarroncito, Mancarrón, San Fernando and La Venada. Along with some 32 smaller islands with rocky headlands, they afford shelter to numerous aquatic birds.

The Sonoran Desert, also called Desierto de Altar, is an arid region covering 120,000 sq mi. This North American desert ecoregion covers large parts of northwestern Mexico in Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur, as well as parts of the southwestern U.S. It is Mexico's hottest desert.