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Types of Landforms
• Canada is made up of three distinct types of landforms:
 The Canadian Shield
• Lowlands
• Highlands
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The Lowlands
• There are three lowland regions surrounding the Shield:
• The Interior Plains
• The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
Lowlands
• Hudson Bay-Arctic Lowlands
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The Lowlands
• An area of land that is low in relation to the surrounding country.
• The bedrock under these lowland is formed mainly of sediments eroded from the Shield
• As rock particles collected, the weight of the upper layers compressed the lower layers into sedimentary rocks

Interior Plains
• It is found in the Yukon,
Northwest Territories,
British Columbia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan and
Manitoba.
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The Interior Plains
• During the Paleozoic era, sediments that eroded from the Shield and the Rocky
Mountains were deposited
• Part of the sedimentary rock consisted of coral reefs
• Today, the reefs are thousands of metres below the surface of the land and contain much of the oil and gas found in Alberta and
Saskatchewan

The Interior Plains
• During the Mesozoic era, shallow seas covered the region of Saskatchewan
• When the seas evaporated, thick layers
• of mineral deposits were left behind
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• Potash is mined from these layers and used as fertilizer in Canada and overseas
• The swamps on the edges of these ancient seas produced plants that were changed eventually into coal, which is mined today

The Interior Plains
• Erosion shaped the surface of the landscape
• the Interior Plains are mainly flat, but the landscape is also composed of some rolling hills, and deep, wide river valleys
• Overall, the land slopes gently downward from west to east
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The Interior
Plains
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• Glaciation also shaped the landscape
• Glaciers left deposits that produced rounded, gently, rolling landscape
• Glaciers melted and formed a large lake over much of what is now southern Manitoba and
Saskatchewan, but as land rose, it drained into the ocean
• Small portions of the lake remain today, known as Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba,

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Plains
• The soil that developed on these sediments is deep and fertile
• Grain is grown in many parts of the
Interior Plains it is known as Canada’s
“breadbasket”
• So much wheat is grown here
• Cattle is raised in places where the climate is too dry for crops

Great Lakes -
St. Lawrence Lowlands
• It is the smallest region in Canada
• The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
Lowlands is located at the southern regions of Ontario and Quebec. It extends from Quebec City, to Windsor,
ON.
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• Sedimentary rock formed here from the
Paleozoic era
• The Niagara Escarpment is best known in this region. It was formed by differential erosion (different rates of erosion cause different levels of elevation)

Great Lakes -
St. Lawrence Lowlands
• In the Great Lakes portion of the lowlands, glaciation created rolling landscapes
• While glaciers carried huge amounts of material from the Shield, flat plains with glacial hills and deep river valleys were formed

Great Lakes -
St. Lawrence Lowlands
• Glaciers gouged out The Great Lakes
• The lakes were larger then than they are now because of the enormous volume of water from the melting glaciers
• The meltwater drained into the ocean

Great Lakes -
St. Lawrence Lowlands
• The St. Lawrence Lowland was formed by a rift valley (tensional forces cause the earth’s plate to split apart. The centre block will drop down, forming steep walls)

• It is well-suited to agriculture because ot its excellent soils and warm climate
• The flat land is ideal for transportation routes and development of cities
• Canada’s two largest cities, Toronto and
Montr éal are located here
• It is best known as Canada’s industrial and urban heartland
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• Flat, low area covered by swampy forest
• The waters of
Hudson Bay covered much of this lowland at the end of the last Ice Age
• Has a layer of sedimentary rock
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• Made up of a series of islands located in the far north
• Have gently rolling hills and low elevations
• Contains a great deal of swamps with poor drainage
• Harsh climate does not permit farming - the ground remains frozen most of the year
• Oil, natural gas and lignite ( form of coal) is deposited here

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