Landforms and Landmasses of Canada

Review

What is...

Elevation?

Relief?

Gradient?

Geology?

Describe what landforms are, and how they are built.

What are the 4 forces that create landforms?

Name the 4 landforms that we looked at last class

Canada’s Landform regions

A region is an area that is defined on the basis of the presence or absence of certain characteristics.

Think of an example of a landform around Salisbury. Describe it.

Landform regions

Landform regions are based on the following characteristics.

Age of rock (how old the rocks in the area are)

Type of rock (is it hard, soft, shale, granite, sedimentary)

Relief (is the area flat, mountainous, or a mixture)

Gradient (how steep the landscape is)

Process that has shaped the area (was there weathering, glacial erosion, deposition etc.)

Canadian Shield

Age of rocks: oldest rocks are 4 billion years old.

Type of rock: granite, bedrock, and Precambrian rock (igneous and metamorphic rock)

Relief: relatively flat with some low mountains. 5000 feet above sea level at the highest point

Gradient: Mainly flat areas (Plateaus), some relatively steep rock faces.

Process that has shaped the area:

- Moving water and ice carried Shield material to surrounding areas, building great thickness of rock. This eroded away at the large mountains and volcanoes that made up the area millions of years ago. (erosion, deposition)

Appalachian Mountains

Age of rock: 375 million years old

Type of rock: sedimentary

Relief: Mountains are on average 1000 m above sea level.

Gradient: Mainly rolling hills and broad valleys.

Process that has shaped the area:

- These mountains have been worn down by ice and water. (erosion)

Western Cordillera

Age of Rock: During Cenozoic era

Type of Rock: Sedimentary

Relief: series of parallel mountain ranges; the Coast Mountains, the Colombia Mountains, and the Rocky Mountains. Averaging 3000 meters above sea level.

Gradient: Mountains- steep, plateaus- flat, deltas- flat

Process that has shaped the area:

- Rich lands have developed from the sand and soil deposited by the rivers.

- Deltas have formed from large amounts of soil being deposited into the mouth of the river where it meets with the ocean.

Innuitian Mountains

Age of Rocks: formed during the Mesozoic era

Type of Rocks: Sedimentary

Relief: Mountains that are as high as 2000 meters above sea level.

Gradient: very steep mountains with relatively flat valleys.

Process that has shaped the area:

- not old enough for erosion to have worn the mountains down as much as in the Appalachians.

Arctic Lowlands

Type of Rock: Sedimentary

Relief: relatively low relief, plateaus

Gradient: flat lowland plains, and flat plateaus

Process that has shaped the area: Erosion due to glacial movement has worn away at the land to leave flatter areas.

Interior Plains

Age of Rock: early Paleozoic to the Cenozoic eras.

Type of Rock: chernozem; a rich soil ideal for wheat growth. It can be up to 25 cm deep. Also called “Black Earth”

Relief: Relatively close to sea level.

Gradient: flat plains divided by two escarpments; the Manitoba Escarpment and the Missouri Coteau.

Process that has shaped the area:

- Erosion carved out three prairie plains separated by two long steep slopes called escarpments.

Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Lowlands

Age of Rocks: from the Paleozoic era

Type of Rock: sedimentary, sand and clays

Relief: relatively close to sea level

Gradient: It used to be relatively mountainous, but 10 000 years ago when the area was covered over by the Champlain Sea the water deposited large amounts of sand and clay that filed in the valleys and made the land relatively flat.

Process that has shaped the area:

-The Champlain sea retreated and deposited sand and clay, leaving the area nearly level and with an excellent base for the formation of a fertile soil called “brown earth.”

Hudson Bay Lowlands

Age of Rocks: From the Paleozoic era

Type of Rocks: Sedimentary, Podzols

Relief: areas up to 2000 meters above sea level

Gradient: relatively flat

Process that has shaped the area:

-Seas, rivers and glaciers have deposited materials to make the area mainly flat.