Essay on The Physical Geography of Canada

The Physical Geography of
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

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