Canada
WHAT DOES CANADA ‘LOOK’ LIKE?
Canadian Facts, Eh?
Canada is the second largest country in the
world (space wise, not population)
It is slightly smaller than all of Europe which is made up of 45 countries.
Canada is 4,800 kilometres from north to south and 5,000 kilometres from west to east.
It only borders 1 country, the United States.
90% of Canada is too cold for agriculture to take place.
So what’s Canada really?
It’s a great big, cold country that’s all by
itself.
These 3 facts: size, northern location, and isolation influence it’s physical geography.
Physical Geography includes:
Landforms, soils, surface waters, climate and vegetation. Landforms and Soils
The physical make up of Canada is the result of
geologic developments:
For example, the bringing together of several smaller continents more than 2,000 millions years ago accounts for the different types of rocks found in the Canadian Shield.
For example, the mountain systems are geological developments
(The Rockies).
The landscape of Canada was also affected by
glaciation and was under a thick sheet of ice called a glacier. Almost all of Canada was under ice a sometime during the last 1.5 million years. Now only 1% is under ice.
Physiographic Regions of Canada
Canada consists of 6 major regions that
make up its economic practices. These include: 1. Western Cordillera
2. Prairie Plains
3. Canadian Shield
4. Arctic North
5. St. Lawrence Lowlands
6. Atlantic Region
1. Western Cordillera
The Western Cordillera runs along the west coast
of North America. The Rocky Mountains are the eastern boundary, but in the US, the Western
Cordillera runs into the interior of the continent.
This region is made up of new rugged mountains.
Major provinces include British Columbia and
Yukon Territory.
Western Cordillera…
The west coast has a
maritime climate. The region is a major source of lead, zinc, copper, and gold. Therefore, the economies in the
Western Cordillera are based on logging, mining, and tourism.
2. Prairie Plains
The word prairie usually
refers to a type of grassland, and true prairies occur only in the far southern reaches of
Alberta and
Saskatchewan.
Plains…
It also refers to all of the farmland in the provinces
of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
This prairie definition comes from the human use of the land which is mostly farming
The prairies may also include the entire area of all
three of those provinces; a region known as the
Prairie Provinces. The Prairie Provinces are included among the provinces of Western Canada, and historically this region was called the
Canadian Northwest or simply "the West“.
Prairie Economics
Primary industries include agriculture (wheat, barley,
canola, oats), and cattle and sheep ranching.
Also, natural resources such as tar sands (Fort
McMurray, Alberta) and other forms of oil production can be found on the plains.
Secondary industries consist of the refinement of oils and agriculture processing.
Recent Growth in the Prairies
Some of the prairie region of Canada has seen rapid
growth from a boom in oil production since the mid20th century. Alberta has seen a record increase in population, second only to Ontario, and
Manitoba has experienced record immigration levels.
3. Canadian Shield
Largest region that includes most of Quebec,
Ontario, northern Manitoba, northern
Saskatchewan, Nunavut and half of the NWT.
A varied landscape with lots of bog, muskeg, drumlins, eskers and lake basins.
Has very rich mining opportunities including
nickel, uranium, gold, silver and copper.
Mostly covered by Boreal forest (conifer trees) but can also have areas of dense soil were many marshes and bogs are found.
4) Arctic North
The North region is
located above the lie of continuous permafrost bordering the Arctic
Ocean and Hudson Bay.
Permafrost is soil that remains frozen for more than 2 years.
It