Canadian
Landforms
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Canada’s Landforms
Canada is made up of three distinct
types of landforms:
• The Canadian Shield
• Highlands
• Lowlands
The Canadian
Shield
• The Canadian Shield is a large geographic
area in eastern and central Canada
composed of bare rock dating to the
Precambrian Era (about 2 billion years old)
• It is also called the Precambrian Shield, or
Laurentian Shield.
• it covers approximately 8 million square
kilometers.
• The Canadian Shield is made up of some
of the planet's oldest rock, largely granite
and gneiss
• It covers about half of Canada
How Did
The Canadian Shield Form?
• from the eruptions of ancient volcano
belts in the Precambrian era
• Over the years the area was eroded.
Mountains have deep 'roots', and float on the
denser mantle below. As mountains erode,
their roots rise, and are slowly eroded as well.
The rocks that now form the surface of the
Canadian Shield were once far below the
earth's surface.
• the last ice age, glaciers covered the
area and scraped the rock clean as they
moved
Who Houses
The Canadian Shield?
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Manitoba Ontario
Quebec
Northwest Territories
Nunavut
Greenland
Duluth (Minnesota)
Wisconsin (Green Bay, St. Paul)
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Major Cities
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Sudbury
Timmins
Thunder Bay
ChicoutimiJonquiére
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The Shield’s Topography
• The topography varies because of the
vast area that it covers
• Boreal forest is the common vegetation.
Flora in the Canadian Shield is more
suited to the thin, sandy soil. There are
some deciduous trees, which benefit the
pulp and paper industry. There are no
trees above tree-line due to the growing
season being too short, lack of
precipitation, and permafrost.
The Shield’s Topography
• Chaotic patterns of bodies of water
• Therefore, the major industries include
pulp and paper, mining and hydro-electric
plants
• The rocks in this region are old.The region
is full of igneous rock, which later
turned into metamorphic rock. The
region is well above sea level, as it is in a
very mountainous area.
The Shield’s Topography
The rocks in this region are
old.The region is full of
igneous rock, which later
turned into
metamorphic rock. The
region is well above sea
level, as it is in a very
mountainous area.
Igneous Rock
• Igneous rocks are formed from
molten rock called magma.
They are mostly crystalline
(made up of interlocking
crystals) and usually very hard
to break.
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Basalt
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Pumice
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Gabbro
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Granite
Metamorphic Rocks
• Metamorphic rocks were once igneous or
sedimentary rocks, but have been
changed (metamorphosed) as a result of
intense heat and/or pressure within the
Earth’s crust. They are crystalline and
often have a squashed (foliated or
banded) texture
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Slate
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Gneiss
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Schist
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Marble
How were mineral deposits
formed in the rock of the Shield?
• Minerals were present in magma
beneath the earth’s crust
• As it rose toward the surface, it
forced its way into cracks and
cavities in the shield rock
• This took millions of years
• As it cooled, some minerals were
deposited in the magma itself
Minerals
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Gold
Nickel
Copper
Zinc
Lead
Diamonds
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• Mining companies are attracted to
the Shield because of the presence
of metallic minerals
• The mineral ores are smelted to
remove waste materials
Formation of lakes,
rivers, oceans
• The action of glaciers - the scraping and
gouging action of ice crated depressions
in the bedrock
• these depressions filled with water to form
the hundreds of thousands of lakes
• the sand, gravel, and clay deposited from
the glaciers dammed up rivers
• bodies of water were forced to flow in
different directions and resulted in a very
disorganized pattern of winding rivers,
lakes, and swamps
Where does our water go?
Canada’s Drainage Basins
• A drainage basin is an area that drains all
precipitation received as a runoff or base
flow (groundwater sources) into a
particular river or set of rivers.
• Canada’s major drainage regions are:
• Atlantic Ocean
• Hudson Bay
• Arctic Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Gulf of Mexico
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The Pacific Ocean Drainage
• The Pacific Ocean drainage area
drains the area west of the Rocky
Mountains. The Fraser, Yukon and
Columbia rivers are the largest rivers
draining this region.
The Arctic Ocean Drainage
• The Arctic Ocean drainage area is the
area flowing directly into the Arctic
Ocean or into the channels of the
Arctic Islands. The Mackenzie River
dominates the Arctic Ocean drainage
area.
The Hudson Bay Drainage
• The Hudson Bay drainage area is a huge
area that captures about 30% of total
Canadian runoff. Many of its river systems
such as the Nelson and Churchill River (of
Manitoba) drain eastwards from the
continental divide to Hudson Bay. As well,
many large rivers drain from the south and
east into Hudson Bay or James Bay. The
extensive area of drainage into Ungava
Bay is also considered to be part of the
Hudson Bay drainage area.
The Atlantic Ocean Drainage
• The Atlantic Ocean drainage area is
dominated by the Great Lakes-St.
Lawrence system but there are other
significant drainage basins such as
those of the Churchill River (of
Labrador) and the Saint John River in
New Brunswick.
Gulf of Mexico Drainage
• Gulf of Mexico drainage area is a
small portion of southern Alberta and
Saskatchewan drains south into the
Mississippi system which ultimately
drains into the Gulf of Mexico