Transcript Canada’s Landform Regions

February 18, 2015
Canada’s Landform
Regions
Today’s Agenda
• 3 basic types of landforms
• 7 landform regions
• Activity
Canada has three basic types of
landforms:
1. Shield
2. Highlands
3. Lowlands
Canada’s landform regions
Shield
1.
Canadian Shield - Core of Canada; covers more than half of Canada
Lowlands
2.
Great Lakes St. Lawrence Lowlands
3.
Interior Plains
4.
Hudson Bay – Arctic Lowlands
Highlands
1.
Appalachians – oldest and smallest of highlands, due to erosion
2.
Innuitian Mountains – very far north
3.
Western Cordillera – the youngest and the highest
Profile of Southern Canada’s
Landform regions
Canadian Shield
• The geologic foundation of Canada
• More than half of Canada is covered by the shield
• Some of the world’s oldest rocks are found here
• Made up of ancient mountains that have been eroded
Great Lakes – St. Lawrence
Lowlands
• Where the Niagara Region is found!
• Small but largely populated
• Made up of two parts: The Great Lakes and the St.
Lawrence Lowlands, separated by a thin wedge of
Canadian Shield
• Made up of many escarpments,
the largest being Niagara Falls itself
Interior Plains
• Stretch from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico
• Mostly flat land caused by erosion and deposited
sediments
• Known as “Canada’s Breadbasket”
– so much wheat is grown here
Hudson Bay – Arctic
Lowlands
• Found on the shore of Hudson Bay and James Bay
• Flat, low area covered by swampy forest
• Covered by water at one point that compacted rock,
silt, and sand to create sedimentary rock
• Made up of a series of islands
Appalachians
• Stretch from Georgia to Newfoundland
• Oldest highland region in North America
• Formed 300 million years ago
Innuitian Mountains
• In Canada’s far North
• 2500 metres in height
• Composed mostly of sedimentary rock
• Younger than the Appalachian mountains, therefore
erosion has not worn them down as much yet
• Barren (no vegetation)
• Trees cannot survive the cold there and the summer is
too short for vegetation to grow
Western Cordillera
• Found on the western side of Canada
• Consists of a range of mountains (young)
• Difficult travel routes here because the mountains
are in the way
• Great tourist area because of beautiful mountains
Activity
• Use pages 130 – 142 to fill in the chart
• For each of the landform regions, you will discover:
• The types of rocks and minerals found in that region
• What provinces or territories it is located in
• Characteristics (ex. Canadian Shield has rounded hills of
rock)
• The commercial use (ex. Interior Plains is used for mining
and farming crops and cattle)
• The geologic process that shaped the landform (ex.
Innuitian Mountains were formed by erosion and glaciers)