ArcView Glaciation Activity
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
Glaciation and the Oak Ridges Moraine.
ArcView GIS Lab
Student Task:
This activity has the student use some of the data files on ArcCanada related to glaciation. Its
purpose, apart from developing confidence with ArcView and exploring the ArcCanada CD, is
to have the student see how the direction of ice movement during the last ice age is related to the
pattern of drumlins and eskers found on the surface today.
It is assumed that the student knows the rudiments of continental glaciation and has heard of
eskers and drumlins. Detailed knowledge is not expected, however, as the activity asks the
student to research the topic more fully to explain certain patterns. The activity has two parts.
Part A, focussing on Southern Ontario, examines the patterns of glacial features and the direction
of ice flow. Part B reinforces the ArcView skills while examining the political significance of the
Oak Ridges moraine in comparison to other moraines in the region..
Note for Part B:
During the last retreat of the continental ice sheets, there was a pause in the warming trend, and
the ice started a minor re-advance. A large hunk of ice was left in what is now Lake Ontario and
it grew outwards in all directions during this time and met the main sheet which was advancing
from the north. A huge amount of unconsolidated material piled up between the lobes of these
two ice sheets. The result today is a long low range of irregular hills, called the Oak Ridges
Moraine, which stretches across Southern Ontario just north of Lake Ontario. It is an important
source of sand and gravel for the $1billion per year aggregate industry in the province. It is also
an important natural ecosystem that many wish to protect.
Glaciation
Part A: Ontario drumlins, eskers, moraines.
This part of Canada was heavily glaciated during the last ice age. The ice just left this area about
10,000 years ago and pattern of ice movement is still very much in evidence. Your task here is
to create a map of the area with eskers, moraines and drumlins on it and then to determine the
pattern of ice movement. Finally, you will print out a finished layout of your map to go with
your analysis.
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1.
Open the ON (for Ontario) folder (which should be in your “My Documents” folder.
Open the geolines.shp, moraines.shp, and CSD2001.shp files. Make sure the provincial
CSD2001 (Census sub-divisions) file is on the bottom of the Table of Contents (TOC).
2.
Double click on geolines.shp in the Table of Contents to open up the Layer Properties.
Choose categories from the list on the left, and Unique Value. ChangeValues Field to Type_e.
Then click the “Add all values” button near the bottom of the window. You can change the
colours now if you wish by clicking on each of the little boxes under Symbol. When you have
the colours the way you want them, click Apply and close the Layer Properties.
3.
Make sure the checkbox for geolines.shp is on.
4.
You can change the colour of the Moraines.shp layer now if you want and then turn it on
too. (Do this by double clicking on the colour in the legend.)
5.
You are going to change the zoom of this window and focus in on the northern part of the
province. First you have to give the view some map and distance units. (Notice that the little
scale window at the top of the map window is blank.)
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Do this by first going to View on the menu and then to Data Frame Properties. Ensure the
Map Units are set to Decimal Degrees and the Display Units to kilometres.
Change the zoom to the area of the province just north of Lake Ontario. (Set the scale to
1:4,000,000
and latitude and longitude of the
middle of the screen should be about 440N and 800W, which is just north of Toronto.)
Hit Return and the map redraws.
3.
Complete the exercises below:
a. Describe the pattern of drumlins just to the north and to the west of Lake Ontario.
b. What does that tell you about the pattern of ice movement? (You may need your
teacher to give you a few clues here.)
c. How do you suppose the long moraine just north of Lake Ontario was formed?
4.
Create a map in layout (View menu: Layout view) and add large arrows that indicate
the direction of ice movement. Here’s how:
From the tools at the bottom of the window, click on the square and change it to line.
change to
Draw the lines, double clicking at the end of each line. Then click on the line so that it is
surrounded by a box. Double click, and from the menu that pops up. Click on “Change
Symbol”. Scroll down (waaay down) to change the line to an arrow. You can also change its
colour and thickness.
5.
Be sure that your map is cartographically complete. From the Insert menu, you can
add a title, a scale, a legend, a north arrow, etc.
6.
From the File menu, choose Export map. Save it in your folder as a jpeg.
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Part B: Oak Ridges moraine:
The major significance of this moraine relates to its location in Canada’s most populated region.
Browse the information at http://www.stormco.org/ to learn more about this significance.
1. Zoom in on an area containing Lake Ontario and just north of it.
2. Change the legend of CSD2001.shp as follows, by double clicking on the layer to display
the Layer Properties, and then clicking on the Symbology tab.. This will create a
graduated colour map showing Population Density.
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Click the Classify button and change it to “Equal Interval”.
3. Make “Moraine” the active theme (by clicking on it once in the Table of Contents.)
Select the Oak Ridges Moraine, by clicking on the “Select Feature” tool
and
clicking on the Oak Ridges moraine (just northeast of Toronto). This moraine will now
be outlined in blue.
4. Now make the CSD2001.shp theme active.
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5. From the Selection menu, choose “Select by Location”. Change it to appear as follows:
6. Click “Apply”. Several census subdivisions will now be hilighted.
7. Open the table for the CSD2001.shp theme. (Right click (or option-click) on the layer,
and choose “Open Attribute table”.)
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8. Right Click on the top of the Pop2001 field (column), then choose “Statistics”. You will
see a window like this:
These are the stats for the selected CSD’s
only.
9. Which statistic do you think shows the total population living in the selected CSD’s?
Record this number.
10. Make a Layout in which you include the map (zoomed into the area of interest).
11. From the File menu, Export the map; save it as a jpeg.
12. From the Selection menu, choose “Clear Selected Features”.
You will now repeat this procedure to determine the population living around another assigned
moraine in Southern Ontario. We will compare the results to assess the relative political
importance of the Oak Ridges moraine.
Other moraines: (Add the theme “places_moraine.shp” first, and label the places, to help identify
where these moraines are.)
Between Sarnia and Goderich.
Between London and Kitchener (2 moraines)
North of Peterborough.
North of Georgetown.
In the Southwesternmost corner of Ontario.
Share your results so that everyone has results for each moraine.
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What to Hand in: (in MS-Word)
1. A summary table of the populations surrounding each moraine.
2. A paragraph summarizing the relative importance of each moraine. In this paragraph you
must explain why and how moraines affect and are affected by large populations.
3. Three maps: the map from part A and the maps from Part B for both the Oak Ridges
moraine and the other one you were assigned. These jpegs can be inserted into your Word
document. You can send attachments from Windows to Mac by e-mailing yourself. (First
Class is available on both).
4. Answers to all questions asked in these instructions (Part A, #3, and Part B #9)
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