Transcript Landforms of Canada

Landforms of Canada
CGC1P
Rock Cycle
MAGMA
Heats and
melts
Cools and
hardens
IGNEOUS
METAMORPHIC
Stresses or
heats
SEDIMENTARY
Weathers,
erodes, and
deposits
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 Sea
Igneous
Rock
Canada’s Geologic History
• Paleozoic Era (570 million to 245 million years ago)
Erosion
Erosion
Sediments
Igneous
Rock
Sediment
s
Canada’s Geologic History
• Mesozoic Era (245 millions to 66 millions years
ago)
Erosion
Sediments
Sediments
Igneous
Rock
Mountains
Forming
Canada’s Geologic History
• Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago to present)
Sedimentary
Mountains
Eroding
PACIFIC
OCEAN
Mountains Sedimentary
Forming
Plains
ROCKY
MOUNTAINS
INTERIOR
PLAINS
Igneous Rock
CANADIAN
SHIELD
APPALACHIAN
MOUNTAINS
ATLANTIC
OCEAN