(This is the full-length entry about the Canadian Shield. The growing season of about 120 days coincides with . Clothing allows us to stay comfortable in areas with cooler temperatures. Ejecta from the meteorite impact was found in the Rove Formation in May 2007. Even in the driest month there is a lot of rain. The age of the Canadian Shield is estimated to be 4.28 Ga. The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Lowlands are a humid continental climate, meaning that there is little precipitation and a large temperature range. The average temperature in Quebec is 4.8 C. Deciduous Forest 4. Given the prominence of the boreal forest throughout the Canadian Shield, forestry is also a prominent industry. (See also Geological Survey of Canada. We want to hear from you. The Canadian Shield is a collage of Archean plates and accreted juvenile arc terranes and sedimentary basins of the Proterozoic Eon that were progressively amalgamated during the interval 2.451.24 Ga, with the most substantial growth period occurring during the Trans-Hudson orogeny, between c. 1.901.80 Ga.[5] The Canadian Shield was the first part of North America to be permanently elevated above sea level and has remained almost wholly untouched by successive encroachments of the sea upon the continent. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the ancient geologic core of the North American continent. There are two types of deposition processes: wet and dry. Standard reports, Table 4.0, Area (1000 ha) of forest and non-forest land in Canada. Deciduous trees include red and mountain maple; white and paper birch; trembling aspen; black ash; and balsam poplar. Its warm in the summer, but it gets cool in the fall, and cold in the winter. Canadas largest iron ore deposit, however, is known as the Labrador Trough or New Qubec Orogen, and runs in a strip through northeastern Qubec and western Labrador. According to the triangular graph of physiography, climate, soils and natural . Canadian Shield . Introduction to Decision Making Using Climate Scenarios, Understanding Ranges in Climate Projections, Understanding Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs). Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, has the lowest mean annual temperature of any major city in Canada: -5C. [16] The Canadian Shield also contains the Mackenzie dike swarm, which is the largest dike swarm known on Earth.[17]. In the southern parts, the climate is seasonal; the average temperature in the winter is -. Omissions? The Churchill and Grenville provinces contain deposits of uranium, lead and zinc. As the exposed part of the North American puzzle piece, the Canadian shield is made of hard rock, both igneous (formed by the rapid cooling of liquid rock) and metamorphic (rock that has been changed by enormous heat and pressure). Because a large portion of the worlds boreal zone lies in Canada (28% or 552 million hectares), this countrys boreal forest affects the health of the environment worldwide. The current surface expression of the Shield is one of very thin soil lying on top of the bedrock, with many bare outcrops. [2] In total, the exposed area of the Shield covers approximately 8,000,000km2 (3,100,000sqmi). Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. With the exception of the Canadian Shield, the rocks of the North American Craton are buried deep within the continent and covered by soil and other material. The Canadian Shield once had jagged peaks, higher than any of today's mountains, but millions of years of erosion have changed these mountains to rolling hills.[4]. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. The true extent of the Shield is greater still and stretches from the Western Cordillera in the west to the Appalachians in the east and as far south as Texas, but these regions are overlaid with much younger rocks and sediment. First Nations-Food Beaver (Sometimes Eaten As Food) 23. This area lies between the western border of the Shield and the Canadian Rockies. Adapting to a changing climate requires confronting and dealing effectively with a wide range of uncertainties. The growing season of about 120 days coincides with summer daylight averaging about 15 hours, while winter daylight averages about 8.5 hours. The cold, highly saline water of the northern Atlantic sometimes forms an anomaly called the cold blob that results in unseasonably warm temperatures in the maritime provinces. At 5 million km2, the Shield makes up roughly 50 per cent of Canadas land mass. Metals mined here include copper, nickel, gold and palladium. It is the world's largest continental shield covering 8 million square km (3 million square miles) and mostly consists . During this glaciation, the Shield was covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, a giant expanse of ice as much as 3 km thick. Winters are about six too eight months long. Climate. This arrangement was caused by severe glaciation during the last ice age, which covered the shield and scraped the rock clean. The multitude of rivers and lakes throughout the region is caused by the watersheds of the area being so young and in a state of sorting themselves out with the added effect of post-glacial rebound. Comparable to sandpaper on wood, these forces slowly wore down the mountains, so that by about 800 million years ago, the low-relief surface of the Shield had been created. Identifying port numbers for ArcGIS Online Basemap? Although these mountains are now heavily eroded, many large mountains still exist in Canada's far north called the Arctic Cordillera. The Canadian Shield is a U-shaped subsection of the Laurentia craton signifying the area of greatest glacial impact (scraping down to bare rock) creating the thin soils. Climate data web site is a gateway to information on matters such as past weather, climate normals, historical radar, almanac averages and extremes, and engineering climate data. The Canadian Shield formed over 3 billion years through processes such as plate tectonics, erosion and glaciation. If you were to overlay a map of the Canadian Shield with this week's population density map, you would see that Canada's major population centers do not extend into the Shield. (Weather station: Ottawa Int'L. The crust, also known as the North American Craton, extends from northern Mexico to Greenland and consists of hard rocks at least 1 billion years old. While gold mines still operate near Kirkland Lake and Timmins, there are no longer any active mines in Colbalt or Rouyn-Noranda a reality not uncommon for early mining towns. How would you describe the Canadian Shield? Various minerals and precious stones have been mined or continue to be mined on the Shield, including gold, silver, copper, zinc, nickel, iron, uranium and diamonds. Taiga Cold in the winter and warm in the summer, the taiga is the worlds largest land biome. It does not store any personal data. The boreal ecozone principally spans 8 countries: Canada, China, Finland, Japan, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Climate The climate of the Canadian Shield varies. This arrangement was caused by severe glaciation during the ice age, which covered the Shield and scraped the rock clean. In the southern part, there are very cold snowy winters, while the summers are warm and long. Since it is such a wide region, there are varying climates, soils, natural vegetation all across the Boreal Shield. In the southern parts, the climate is seasonal; the average temperature in the winter is -. Just another site canadian shield climate graph Read on to discover 10 major geographical features that shape the climate of Canada. Canadian Shield 1. It has over 150 volcanic belts (now deformed and eroded down to nearly flat plains) that range from 600 to 1,200 million years old. These particles will have a pH level below 5.6. [20], The Canadian Shield is one of the world's richest areas in terms of mineral ores. ), The Canadian Shield refers to the exposed portion of the continental crust underlying the majority of North America. Web. (It also reaches into parts of the United States, in New York, Wisconsin and Minnesota.) Antarctic tundra occurs on Antarctica and on several Antarctic and subantarctic islands, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Kerguelen Islands. The human population tends to be scarce in the taiga, but many mammals are present in the area, such as caribou, wolverines, weasels, minks, otters, grizzlies, and black bears. Wildlife Caribou 4. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The Canadian boreal region spans the landscape from the most easterly part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the border between the far northern Yukon and Alaska. Unique geographic features and formations can significantly impact the climate in an area. The Canadian Shield is dominated by the boreal forest ecosystem. This arrangement was caused by severe glaciation during the ice age, which covered the Shield and scraped the rock clean. Weathered Precambrian pillow lava in the Temagami Greenstone Belt, Folded Precambrian gneiss of the Canadian Shield in Georgian Bay, Ontario, Typical Canadian Shield landscape: spruce, lakes, bogs, and rock. The Canadian Shield is a collage of Archean plates and accreted juvenile arc terranes and sedimentary basins of the Proterozoic Eon that were progressively amalgamated during the interval 2.45-1.24 Ga, with the most substantial growth period occurring during the Trans-Hudson orogeny, between c. 1.90-1.80 Ga. [5] The Canadian Shield was the first 3 What kind of climate does the Canadian Shield have? What Are The Features Of A Polar Climate? In the southern parts, the climate is seasonal; the average temperature in the winter is -.4 degrees F (-18 degrees C), and in the summer it is 77 degrees F (25 degrees C). Running nearly 1,000 miles down the Pacific coast from the Yukon to the Fraser valley, this jagged chain features steep slopes, glaciers, and jutting fjords as long as 120 miles. This is because the Canadian Shield has unusually large areas of relatively exposed rock from the Archean eon, roughly 2.5 to 4 billion years ago. Quebec is a city with a significant rainfall. What is the climate of Canadian Shield? We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The population in the Canadian Shield is somewhere around 7 million . Get summary information about how climate change is affecting areas you care about so you can see how climate change is impacting local areas of interest. The main regions of Canada are the mountainous west coast, flat central prairies, eastern forested plains, and frozen north.Almost every region in Canada is home to an abundance of forests, rivers, and lakes. See more current weather Annual Weather Averages Near Ottawa Averages are for Ottawa Int'L. The range's highest peak is Nunavut's Barbeau Peak at 2,616 metres (8,583ft) above sea level. East of the Shield is the maritime area, separated from the . Some of the highest producing hydroelectric dams include Churchill Falls, Labrador, and James Bay, Qubec. Climate refers to the average weather in an area. Temperate grassland 5. savanna (tropical GL) 6. Desert. ClimateData.ca provides high-resolution climate data to help decision makers build a more resilient Canada. Large . Currently the Ekati and Diavik mines are actively mining kimberlite diamonds. Everything You Need to Know About Life in the Canadian Shield. Download data at both local and regional scales to include data into your own work. In total, the Canadian Shield covers approximately 8 million square kilometers. The Canadian Shield makes up about 50 per cent of Canada. Of the three provinces that makeup the Canadian prairies, Manitoba is the most humid and thus typically receives more rainfall than Alberta and . It was split into Greenland, Laurasia, Scotland, Siberia, East Antarctica and is now roughly situated in the Arctic around the current North Pole. Mammals. The Canadian Shield stretches from Labrador to the Arctic. This climate is considered to be Dfb according to the Kppen-Geiger climate classification. The southern temperate regions receive up to 1016mm (40) of rainfall evenly throughout the year. Far Western Canada, comprising most of British Columbia, is laced with towering mountain ranges. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions 2023 worldatlas.com, Major Geographical Features That Shape The Climate Of Canada, Australia's Most Famous Geographical Features, Mexico's Most Famous Geographical Features, The Important Features Of The Mediterranean Climate. Corrections? This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Mountains have deep roots and float on denser mantle, much like an iceberg at sea. 4 degrees F (-18 degrees C), and in the summer it is 77 degrees F (25 degrees C). The Canadian shield is covered by a thin layer of soil and forms the nucleus of the North American cratonan old and stable part of the continental crust that has survived the merging and splitting of continents and supercontinents for over 500 million years. Climate is not only wholly dependent on these regions, however. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Other birds include boreal owls , great horned owls, blue jays and white-throated sparrows, while mammals include caribou, deer, wolves, lynx, moose, black bears and beavers . The area is dominated by coniferous forests, particularly spruce, interspersed with vast wetlands, mostly bogs and fens. In places the old mountain ranges may be recognized by hills several hundreds of metres in height. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article The Shield can be thought of as a jigsaw puzzle of different crustal blocks, sometimes known as provinces, welded together over time. Canada is home to 28% of the worlds boreal forests, with 75% of Canadian forests part of the global boreal forest ring. Kimberlites formations where diamonds can be located are scattered throughout the Shield, with the largest deposit located near Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories, about 300 km northeast of Yellowknife. The forest industry harvests about 400,000 ha of timber each year across the Boreal ecozone . They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The boreal forest area gives way to the Eastern Canadian Shield taiga that covers northern Quebec and most of Labrador. Climate. The Innu made their home on the Shield in what is now Qubec and Labrador, while the Cree, Anishinaabeg and Mtis occupied large swaths of the region through Qubec, Ontario, Manitoba,Saskatchewan and Alberta. The shield, particularly the portion in the Northwest Territories, has recently been the site of several major diamond discoveries. Many mammals such as caribou, white-tailed deer, moose, wolves, wolverines, weasels, mink, otters, grizzly bear, polar bears and black bears are present. Hydrographical drainage is generally poor, the effects of glaciation being one of the reasons. Canadian Shield is a large area of Precambrian rock that forms the core of Canada. Temperature range is extreme, especially in the mid-continental areas, where seasonal fluctuations can be as great as 100C. into Greenland, Laurentia, Scotland, and Siberia, and is now roughly situated in the Arctic around the current North Pole. Few trees grow here, and farming is not practical. Located within the Golden Horseshoe, Toronto is the capital of Ontario, the financial centre of Canada, and the country's most populous city. They can occur at any time of the year and are most often caused by heavy rainfall, rapid melting of a thick snow pack, ice jams, or more rarely, the failure of a natural or man-made dam. With the exception of the Canadian Shield, the rocks of the North American Craton are buried deep within the continent and covered by soil and other material. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. The climate of the boreal forest is characterized by strong seasonal variation with short, moderately warm and moist summers and long, extremely cold and dry winters. The Canadian prairies generally receive about 12 to 15 inches of annual precipitation in the semi-arid areas, while the continental regions receive a bit more, averaging 16 to 20 inches a year. Animals in the Arctic portion of the Shield include polar bears, Arctic fox, Arctic hares, snowy owls and rock ptarmigan. The Canadian Shield is so large that the climate varies across it. . The Southern Province, for example, is home to the mining district of Sudbury, Ontario, known for its production of copper and nickel. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). * Each location provided here corresponds to a point location in Canada. Canadian Shield, one of the worlds largest geologic continental shields, centred on Hudson Bay and extending for 8 million square km (3 million square miles) over eastern, central, and northwestern Canada from the Great Lakes to the Canadian Arctic and into Greenland, with small extensions into northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York, U.S. The terrain consists of tundra except in mountainous regions of the east. 2016. In the northern parts, the climate is very cold. Some of the ancient mountain ranges can still be recognized as a ridge or belt of hills, but the present appearance of the physical landscape of the Canadian Shield is not so much a result of the folding and faulting and compression of the rocks millions of years ago as it is the work of ice in relatively recent geologic time. In addition to its rich natural resources, including substantial deposits of such mineral ores as nickel, gold, silver, and copper, and pristine northern ecosystems, the Canadian Shield also serves as a fertile area for human beings trying to better understand the origin of life. 1 What is the climate of Canadian Shield? Canadas first diamond mine called Ekati opened there in 1998. Sitemap. The region, as a whole, is composed of ancient crystalline rocks whose complex structure attests to a long history of uplift and depression, mountain building (orogeny), and erosion. Understand how SSPs differ from RCP scenarios and learn about key considerations when using SSPs in climate risk assessments. Click Here to learn more about the CCCS services. The Canadian Shield is so large that the climate varies across it. Typical Canadian Shield: pines, lakes, bogs, and rock. Ont., Canada). The kimberlite pipes in which the diamonds are found are closely associated with cratons, which provide the deep lithospheric mantle required to stabilize diamond as a mineral. Two main climate types are found in this region. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The origin of life traces to the Archean, with prokaryote fossils known from 3.5 billion years ago. Hydrologic drainage is generally poor, the soil compacting effects of glaciation being one of the many causes. Listing total number of features into an ArcGIS Online feature pop-up, Coldest 1. Forest-land - land spanning more than 0.5 hectares where the tree canopy covers more than 10% of the total land area and the trees can grow to a height of more than 5 metres.
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