All About Canadian Shield and Hudson Bay-Arctic Lowlands
Two of Canada's Physiographic Landform Regions
Canada is divided into seven physiographic regions based on relatively similar physical geographical characteristics and landforms, which are Innuitian Mountains, Western Cordillera, Interior Plains, Hudson Bay-Arctic Lowlands, Canadian Shield, Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands and Appalachians.
We will be focusing on two of them
- The Canadian Shield
- Hudson Bay - Arctic Lowlands
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The Canadian Shield
It refers to the exposed portion of the continental crust underlying the majority of North America especially Canada
It's extent in Canada:
It extends from Labrador in the east to include nearly all of Québec, much of Ontario and Manitoba, the northern portion of Saskatchewan, the northeast corner of Alberta, much of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut and into the Arctic Archipelago.
It consists of some of the oldest rocks mainly igneous and metamorphic
They were folded by mountain-building movements and cut down by erosion until the area was reduced almost to a plain
Vegetation:
The Canadian Shield is dominated by the boreal forest ecosystem
It's elevation varies
It was warped and folded in places, so parts of it now stand much higher than others, especially around its outer edges. In the north the rim is about 2,000 m above sea level.
Fjords with walls from 600 - 900 m high extend many miles into the mountain masses.
Some Prominent landscape features:
- Labrador Highlands
- Laurentide Escarpment
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The Hudson Bay - Arctic Lowlands
- It is typically split into two sub-regions: The Hudson Bay Lowlands and Arctic Lowlands
- It is located more specifically in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut
- This region formed in the Paleozoic Era, when the enormous weight of a glacier sunk the Canadian Shield and the area became lowlands when the glaciers retreated
This region consists of sedimentary (~40%), igneous and metamorphic rocks
A few major waterways near this region include Hudson Bay and James Bay
It also consists of part of the Arctic Archipelago which has 94 major islands and 34, 369 minor islands
Vegetation:
- Hudson Bay Lowlands: he Hudson Bay Lowlands are covered by a swampy forest and it’s vegetation includes bushes,trees that are spread apart, stunted tamarack, and black spruce as its in mainly transitional forest.
- Arctic Lowlands: It has poor vegetation with low growing shrubs and seeds (no trees).the Arctic Lowlands only consist of low growing shrubs and seeds (no trees) as most is barren land with some tundar forest.
Poor vegetation in arctic lowlands can also be attributed to the continuous permafrost that is part of the arctic archipelago
It's elevation is relatively lower than the Canadian shield mainly about 200-300 m
The elevation is 0-100 m around the edges and it is higher at some parts of the arctic lowlands
