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Canada's Landform Regions
What is a landform?
What's a region?
Describe the physical region you live in. (think/pair/share)
How many landform regions do you think Canada has?
Canada’s Landform Regions
Canada is a land of great physical diversity. This should not be surprising considering that fact that Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world and has the longest coastline in the world. When we study Canada’s Landform regions we are studying the TOPOGRAPHY of Canada.
Topography: refers to the natural and human features of the landscape, the study of the land.
Canada’s landmass can be broken up into seven distinct landform regions; •
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The Canadian Shield
Great Lakes ­ St. Lawrence lowlands
Appalachians Mountains
Interior Plains
Western Cordillera
Arctic Lowlands
Innuitian Mountains
The Canadian Shield
• This is the geographic foundation of Canada, the largest of the landform regions, it extends from Quebec through Ontario and Manitoba and into the North West Territories.
• It covers more than half of Canada and is 4 800 000km2 • Some of the oldest rocks in the world are found here (3.8 billions years old)
• The landscape is mostly flat with rounded hills of rock, which at one time were the largest mountains in the world.
• The shield is made up of two main types of rock, Igneous Rock and Metamorphic Rock.
• The shield contains vast amount of minerals such as gold, lead, nickle, copper and zinc.
• More recently diamonds have been found in the Canadian Shield
• Many cities on the shield rely on mining for jobs, such as ? ____________, ______________
• The shield is not well suited for framing because of it’s thin acidic soils.
• The shield is well suited for recreation due to its large number of scenic rivers, lakes, waterfalls and vast forests.
• Most of the shield was created by glacial movements. As the glaciers moved across the Canadian Shield, they scraped away tons of rock and soil. This movement of the ice created many holes in the rock that were filled with water as the glaciers melted.
• Due to the large number of rivers located in the Canadian Shield, many provinces have created Hydro electric dams in this region. The largest being in Quebec
Great Lakes ­ St. Lawrence Lowlands
• This is the smallest of the seven landform regions
• This region is divided into two parts, The Great Lakes lowlands and the St. Lawrence Lowlands
• Central Huron is located in the Great lakes portion of this region.
• The two regions are separated by a small portion of the Canadian Shield near the Ontario/Quebec border.
• The landscape is made up mostly of rolling hills and lovely meadows and open fields.
• At one point before farming was introduced to the lowlands, the area was covered by vast forests, with an great deal of wildlife.
• The Glaciers carried large amounts of soil into this region and then dumped it throughout the region, creating some of Canada’s richest farmlands.
• The Great Lakes were created by glaciers carving out large holes that would eventually fill with water to form the Great lakes that we have today.
• The St. Lawrence Lowlands was created by earthquakes. The lowland is a Rift Valley, two earthquake faults are slowly moving apart from each other which is causing the St. Lawrence valley to slowly sink lower and lower into the earth.
• With a mostly flat landscape the region is ideal fro transportation routes such as railroads and highways.
• The flat landscape has also allowed some of the largest cities in Canada to form. Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London and Kitchener/Waterloo are located in this region.
• This region contains 50% of Canada’s population, but only takes up 14% of Canada’s entire area.
• This region also has 70% of Canada’s manufacturing industries.
• The region has a very mild climate by Canadian standards.
• The most southerly point in Canada is located in this region at Point Pelee Island.
Appalachians Mountains
• These mountains stretch from the state of Georgia in the USA to the Cost of Newfoundland in the Maritime regions of Canada.
• These mountains are the oldest mountain range in Canada, they were formed about 300 million years ago.
• The mountains are made mostly of Sedimentary rock which was pushed up into the sky when the North American plate collied with the Eurasian Plate during the formation of Pangea.
• These mountains have rich deposits of non­metallic minerals such as coal. However there are some deposits of iron and zinc that can be found in this region.
• Millions of years of erosion have reduced the high mountain peaks of the Appalachians into rolling mountains and hills.
• During the last ice age the weight of the ice sheets pushed the Appalachians down into the earth, creating some of the deepest natural harbours in the world.
• This region is made up of the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and a small portion of Quebec.
• The region has a small population size, and no major cities other than Halifax.
• The main economic activity in this region is fishing, with small amounts of forestry activites.
The Interior Plains
• The interior Plains of Canada a part of the larger Great Plains of North America Which extend from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.
• In Canada they cover an area from Manitoba to the Western edge of Alberta up into the North West Territories.
• They cover 1.8 million km2, spanning almost 1300km in the southern region and shrinking to just 247km in the far north.
• The Interior plains are actually made up of three different plateaus (levels) that are very flat.
• These different levels were formed because of the hardness of the rock. The lower levels are made of softer rock therefore they have eroded much quicker than the upper plateaus.
• The Interior plains are made up of Sedimentary Rock.
• This rock was formed when large inland seas covered Canada. These seas contained sediments (small pieces of dirt). The Sediment settled at the bottom of these ancient seas, and was compacted by the glacial ice sheets that covered Canada.
• Part of the sediment was made up of dying animals and decaying plant life. When these materials were compacted by the ice sheets it formed very large quantities of Oil and Coal.
• A very large glacial lake covered the southern portions of the Interior plains after the last ice age. As the land rebounded the sediments at the bottom of the lake were exposed. Today this are is the very fertile farming region of Southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Western Cordillera
• This landform region stands along the west coast of Canada, and occupies most of British Columbia and the Yukon.
• This landform region contains the highest and youngest mountains in Canada.
• The rugged appearance of these mountain ranges tells us that they are geologically young.
• The collision of the North America Tectonic plate with the Pacific plate is responsible for the creation of these mountain ranges, which are almost 680km wide.
• The heavier Pacific plate forced it's way under the lighter North American plate, causing the land to fold, that is why these are known as “Fold Mountains”.
• The Western Cordillera is made up of three separate mountain chains.
• The smallest of these ranges is the Coast Range ­ located along the Pacific Coast in B.C
• The second inland range is the Columbia Mountain Range, this range is separated from the Coast Range by the Okanagan Valley ­ rich, fertile agricultural lands.
• The final mountain range is probably the most famous­ The Rocky Mountains. These are the largest and the highest of the three ranges.
• Since the region is so mountainous it is very lightly populated, with most people living in farming and mining cities located in river valleys.
Vancouver and Victoria are both built on flat river valleys.
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The continuing movement of the North American and Pacific plates •
makes this area of Canada the most active earthquake region in the country.
Since 1930 the government has recorded over 100 earthquakes off the •
coast of B.C. that were 5.0 on the Richter scale or higher, if these quakes ever occur inland they will cause massive destruction.
Hudson Bay ­ Arctic Lowlands
• This region is comprised of two separate areas.
• The first are is located around the southwestern edge of Hudson Bay and James Bay.
• This area is a very low­lying area covered by swampy forest.
• This area has little to no population due to it lack of transportation routes.
• The region is made up of mostly sedimentary rock that is covering the older igneous rock of the Canadian Shield.
• The Sedimentary rock was formed when the waters of Hudson Bay covered much of this land at the end of the last ice age.
• The second region (Arctic Lowlands) is made up of a series of islands in Canada’s far north.
• The landscape id made up of gentle rolling hills, but due to the harsh climate the land is permanently frozen. This type of land is called Permafrost ­ which means permanently frozen ground.
Innuitian Mountains
• The Innuitian mountains stand like ice watch towers in Canada's far north.
• They were formed in the Mesozoic era when the North American plate moved northward.
• Some of the mountains stand over 2500 meters in height.
• The mountains are made up of sedimentary rock.
• The mountains have no plant life on them because of the cold arctic weather.
• Vast areas are covered by ice and permanent snow.
• The mountains due contain a large amount of minerals that have yet to be mined because of their remote location.