Why is the Canadian Shield so important?

The Canadian Shield is rich in natural resources, including minerals, forests and freshwater. Mining began in the region in the mid-19th century and was key to Canada’s economic development.

What is the Canadian Shield in simple words?

Canadian Shield. noun. Also called: Laurentian Shield, Laurentian Plateau (in Canada) the wide area of Precambrian rock extending west from the Labrador coast to the basin of the Mackenzie and north from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay and the Arctic: rich in mineralsSee shield (def. 7)

What does the Canadian Shield Cover?

The Canadian Shield stretches from Labrador to the Arctic. It covers parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta. It covers much of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. It is 5 million km2.

What are 3 fun facts about the Canadian Shield?

Canada’s Shield is one of the oldest on Earth, with areas dating from 2.5 to 4.2 billion years. It is full of rivers, lakes, and a dike swarm that is the largest dike swarm known to Earth. The Canadian Shield is made up of deep-rooted mountains and spruce, lakes, bogs, and rock.

How does the Canadian Shield affect the economy?

Due to the Canadian Shield’s extensive natural resources, the region produces significant economic activity through its lumber industry and widespread mining operations.

What is the other name for the Canadian Shield?

The correct answer is option 2 i.e. Laurentian. The Canadian Shield is another name for the Laurentian Plateau.

Can you build on the Canadian Shield?

Homes built on the Canadian shield often have a shallow foundation with a crawlspace instead of a full basement. Laying the foundation on an outcropping of the Shield requires more care and skill than pouring on flat ground, since the concrete forms must conform to the contours of the rock.

Is the Canadian Shield habitable?

But did you know that most of it is uninhabited? This is due to its geography and climate that gets inhospitable to humans as you go further up north. A bulk of the population lives in large cities near the US border, Canada’s only neighbouring nation.

What type of rock is Canadian Shield?

The Canadian Shield is the ancient core of the North American Continent. It is composed mainly of highly metamorphosed granite, with smaller areas of metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous rocks and some areas of relatively horizontal but still quite ancient sedimentary rocks.

When was the Canadian Shield formed?

The first was about 1.8 billion years ago, when several continental fragments coalesced to form the stable crust underlying the Canadian Shield and northern interior platform.

Is Niagara Falls in the Canadian Shield?

The Niagara Region is located on a portion of a great plain which runs east to west from the northern Laurentian Highlands (Canadian Shield) approximately 161 kilometres north of Toronto, Ontario to the southern Allegheny Plateau which form the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.

What plants grow in the Canadian Shield?

Lichens and ferns are common ground cover growing over rocks and on deadfall, with some jack pine uplands in addition to aspen trees and black spruce bogs. Common understory species include Bearberry, Common Blueberry, Bog cranberry and Labrador Tea.

What can you do in the Canadian Shield?

You can fish, camp, hike, hunt, swim, water ski, canoe, boat, horseback ride, cycle, go on nature walks, etc!. The Canadian Shield like the other physical regions offers Canadians more and more resources for ourselves, our developing economy and for future trade links with people all around the world.

What animals are in the Canadian Shield?

In addition to fish, lakes are often spotted with a mix of waterfowl including wood ducks, Canada geese and American black ducks. 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 .

How old are the rocks in the Canadian Shield?

The age of these rocks is in all cases greater than 540 million years, and radiometric age dating has revealed some that are as old as 2 to 3 billion years.

What is the climate of the Canadian Shield?

The Northern Canadian Shield Taiga is noteworthy for containing nearly one-quarter of the linear extent of the tree line—the transition from taiga to tundra—in North America. The climate of this ecoregion is low to high subarctic, characterized by short, cool summers and very cold winters.

Where is the Canadian Shield located for kids?

Canadian Shield, one of the world’s 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,

What does Canadian Shield look like?

The physical features of the Canadian Shield includes rocks , bares and plateaus . The Canadian Shield has uplands which are high or hilly areas, and there are also a lot of rivers , lakes , streams and wetlands.

What kind of rock is the Canadian Shield?

The Canadian Shield is the ancient core of the North American Continent. It is composed mainly of highly metamorphosed granite, with smaller areas of metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous rocks and some areas of relatively horizontal but still quite ancient sedimentary rocks.

Is Niagara Falls in the Canadian Shield?

The Niagara Region is located on a portion of a great plain which runs east to west from the northern Laurentian Highlands (Canadian Shield) approximately 161 kilometres north of Toronto, Ontario to the southern Allegheny Plateau which form the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.

How was Canadian Shield created?

The Canadian Shield formed over 3 billion years through processes such as plate tectonics, erosion and glaciation. Plate tectonics refers to the movement and collision of the Earth’s outer crust. When these crustal plates collide they may weld together, forming larger landmasses.