Pattern of Canada’s Landforms

Canada has three basic types of landforms.1. Shield2. Highlands3. Lowlands

They form a pattern.

• The core (geologically speaking) of the country is the Canadian (or Precambrian) Shield, the ancient (4 billion years in places) hard rock from which all the other areas were created.

• A surrounding series of plains or lowlands, made of sedimentary rock, in part eroded from the ancient Shield, including the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands, the Interior Plains, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, and the Arctic Lowlands

• A mountainous rim, also made up of, in part sediments from the ancient Shield. Unlike the lowland areas, the mountainous rocks have been uplifted by tectonic forces.

• these include the Appalachians (the oldest and hence the lowest due to longer erosion), the Innuitian Mountains of the very far north, and the Western Cordillera (the youngest, and highest, is actually a series of several different ranges dominated by the famous Rocky Mountains.

The Creation of Canada’s Landforms!

The next few slides contain a series of hand drawn images illustrating the creation of Canada’s Landform regions.

1. Precambrian Canada

Erosion

Deposition Deposition

TransportationTransportation

Plate Collision

Folded Mountains

2. Paleozoic Canada

Landforms not seen (in the back) - Hudson Bay Lowlands, - Arctic Lowlands, - Innuitian Mountains

Western Cordillera

Interior Plains

Canadian Shield

Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands

Appalachians

4. Cenozoic Canada

Plate Collision

3. Mesozoic Canada

Glaciers!!! – ended about 20 000 years ago

This is how much ice was over Toronto!

The Canadian Shield

Key Terms (Page 130-133):

- Drainage – deranged (no pattern)

- Exposed Bedrock – cannot go any deeper

- Impervious – all the water stays on top

- U – shaped and act as a bowl (Hudson Bay in the middle)

- Forests (Deciduous and Coniferous), Lakes and Rivers

- Tree line

- Many minerals

THE LOWLANDS

The Interior Plains (Prairies)

Key Terms (Pages 134-1135)

- Excellent Soil – Wheat - Grain

- Dry – Grassland – no trees

- Flat

The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Lowlands

Key Terms (Pages 135-137):

- Niagara Escarpment – differential erosion

- Lake Iroquois and Davenport Rd.

- Urban Heartland – most of the trees are gone

- Two parts – divided by Canadian shield at Kingston

- Rolling Land – many glacial features – Moraines and Drumlins

- Excellent Farming

- Mixed Forest – Deciduous and Coniferous

THE HIGHLANDS

The Appalachians

Key Terms (Pages 139 – 140):

- Old folded mountains – rounded tops - erosion

- Go into the USA

- Go into Atlantic Ocean – Grand Banks

- Vegetation cover all the way to the top of mountains

The Western Cordillera

Key Terms (Page 141 – 143):

- Young folded mountains – sharp and high

- Three parts – Coastal Mountains, Interior Plateau and Rocky Mountains

- Coast – Fiords

- Highest mountains in Canada – Mount Logan – 6000m

- Alpine Glaciers

- Tree line - altitude

Hudson Bay – Arctic Lowlands (Page 137-138)

- Hudson Bay Lowlands – marshland

- Arctic Lowlands group of northern islands

- Tundra and Permafrost

- Tree line

Innuitian Mountains (Page 140-141)

- Far north – covered in snow.

- Very young

The End!