Landforms of Canada

CGC1P

Rock Cycle

MAGMA

IGNEOUS

SEDIMENTARY

METAMORPHIC

Cools and hardens

Weathers, erodes, and deposits

Stresses or heats

Heats and melts

Regions and Landforms

• Sometimes things are easier to understand if we divide them up

• A region is an area with certain characteristics that set it apart from other areas

• A landform region is an area of the Earth's surface with certain physical landforms that set it apart from other areas

Regions and Landforms

• Just like a tree stump Canada's oldest part of the country is the centre, it is called The Canadian Shield

The Canadian Shield

• This region covers almost half of Canada. It is shaped like a doughnut, with Hudson Bay as its hole

• Massive volcanic eruptions formed this area is stages 3 million years ago

The Canadian Shield

• This region is covered with thousands of lakes and swaps that were caused by moving glaciers

• The Canadian Shield is made up mostly of igneous rock

• You can find many different metallic minerals here, including: gold, silver and nickel

The Canadian Shield

• Mining, hydroelectric power and forestry are all important resources in this landform region

• Scattered is how you would describe the population distribution of the Canadian Shield

The Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands

• This is a low-lying area located around The Great Lakes and along The St. Lawrence River

• This region is mostly made up of sedimentary rock

• This rock really came from the Canadian Shield because of erosion

• Most of this rock is 0.5 billion years old

The Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands

• Why are the lowlands not made up of igneous rock?– They are formed from eroded sediment from

the Canadian Shield that hardened into sedimentary rock, not by volcanism

• What major impact did Glaciers have on this area?– Advancing glaciers scraped out basins, and

when the glaciers melted they filled the basins and formed The Great Lakes

The Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands

• This region is very heavily populated, especially along the waterways

• 2/3 of Canadians live in this region

• The fertile farmland is being threatened by urban sprawl

• Why is this region so densely populated?

The Appalachians

• A key feature of the Appalachian regions is its many harbours

• It has a unique mix of landforms and people• These now old mountains began to form 250

million years ago• List the three steps that caused these

mountains to form and become what they are today (hint: plate movement, erosion, and raising sea levels)

The Appalachians

• 1. Plate movements folded up sedimentary rock on the ocean floor, forming mountains

• 2. Erosion ground down the mountains, forming hills with plains between them

• 3. Rising sea levels drowned low areas to create jagged coastline

• Currently, the Appalachian region has about one-tenth of Canada's total population

The Interior Plains

• In the 19th century this region was called The Great Lone Land

• This region could be described as large, wide-open area, without mountains or trees to limit the horizon

• Most of the Interior Plains is 200 million year old sedimentary rock

The Interior Plains

• There use to be inland seas in this area, and as they filled with sediments fossilized sea life was chemically changed into oil and natural gas COOL!!

• The Interior Plains is really suited to agriculture because of the thick layer of soil that was left behind from the Ice Ages

Western Cordillera

• The word Cordillera means mountains, and it is a fairly young geological region

• This is a complicated landform region

• During the dinosaur age, plate movements folded the Earth's crust to form the oldest part in this region, The Rocky Mountains

Western Cordillera

• Then, 65 million years ago, volcanic eruptions built the Coast Range along the Pacific Ocean

• The interior plateau, which is an area of elevated land was formed by lava

• Alpine glaciers sharpened mountaintops into jagged peaks and cut wide U-shaped valleys between them

• This landform region is rich in resources, these include: coal deposits, metallic minerals, forests, orchards, tourists

• One-eighth's of Canada's population live here

The Innuitians

• The Innuitians are younger than the Appalachians, and older than the Rockies

• They are mostly located on Ellesmere island

• There is evidence that this region was once covered by a warm tropical sea, but not anymore, now these mountains are covered by large glaciers

The Innuitians

• How were the Innuitian mountains formed?

• They were formed by the movement of plates, which folded up sedimentary rock from the ocean floor

• The same process that created the Appalachian and the Cordillera region

The Arctic

• This region is mostly made up of islands formed from sedimentary rock

• This region was scraped bare by moving ice and then drowned by rising sea levels

• The surface is very stony, with outcrops of bare rocks and very little vegetation

Conclusion

• Many different landform processes have shaped our country

• Four factors have created a country with seven different landform regions

• They are: size, time, mountain building and erosion

Canada’s Geologic History

• Precambrian Era (4,600 millions to 570 million years ago)

Vulcanism

Fault

Ancient SeaIgneous Rock

Canada’s Geologic History

• Paleozoic Era (570 million to 245 million years ago)

Igneous Rock

ErosionErosion

Sediments

Sediments

Canada’s Geologic History

• Mesozoic Era (245 millions to 66 millions years ago)

Erosion

SedimentsSediments

Mountains Forming

Igneous Rock

Canada’s Geologic History

• Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago to present)

Mountains Forming

Igneous Rock

Sedimentary Mountains

Eroding

Sedimentary Plains

PACIFIC OCEAN ROCKY

MOUNTAINS INTERIOR PLAINS CANADIAN

SHIELD

APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS

ATLANTIC OCEAN