The Canadian Shield also known as the Laurentian Plateau is a region of land within Canada that comprises two types of rocks: Igneous and Metamorphic (“Canadian Landforms: Rocks and Minerals” n,d). It is the exposed area of the Earth’s crust. It spans from Newfoundland and Labrador to Alberta with half of it concentrated in Ontario (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Physiographic Regions in Canada. The Canadian Shield colored in green shows how vast it is.
Geoscientist's use a combination of qualitative and quantitative properties to classify and categorize rocks and minerals. There are six qualitative properties that are used to identify rocks and minerals: Color, Lustre, Streak, Texture, Cleavage, and Hardness. A sample of rock that can be found in the
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Streak, cleavage, and hardness require additional tools and physical contact to determine. There are areas of the rock that contain flecks of black/grey. Additionally, the rock is shown to have a surface pattern of bands of grey colored lines.
Since the rocks are from the Earth’s crust, a natural deduction is that the rock sample shares a similar chemical composition. The Earth’s crust predominantly contains silicon and oxygen which bond together to form a group of minerals known as silicates (SiO4). A tetrahedral chemical structure indicates a crystal-like structure. Silicates often bond with other cations such as iron, magnesium, sodium, aluminum, potassium, and calcium which gives rise to new physical and structural properties (“Earth121: Minerals (Part One)”
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This particular sample of granite is phaneritic in texture as described by its visible crystals. The rate at which the rocks cool determines the size of the crystals, in this case, a steady cooling rate produces larger crystals (“Characteristics of Igneous Rocks” n.d). The rate at which rocks cool is also related to the temperature of cooling which determines a rocks mineral composition (“Characteristics of Igneous Rocks” n.d). A low cooling temperature yields rocks with higher amounts of potassium, aluminum, and silicon (“Characteristics of Igneous Rocks” n.d). This is evident by the abundance of potassium feldspar, which also makes granite a felsic
The Starved Rock Member of the Saint Peter Sandstone is preserved as a northeast-southwest trending belt of strata that is ...
Introduction: Have you ever wanted to come to Canada? If you are planning to come, have you wondered where in Canada you want to go? Well there are lots of amazing places in Canada but the Canadian Shield is the best! The Canadian Shield is one of the 7 Canadian landforms, the Canadian Shield is the largest landform and covers most of Canada. The Canadian Shield covers about 5 million km square (Bastedo J. 2006 Para 2.
When standing on top of the butte, the rock that makes up a majority of the area is quartzite. Quartzite is a metamorphic rock that forms when existing rock is exposed to extreme amounts of heat and pressure (4). The quartzite that is found on Kamiak Butte was formed sometime around 1.47 to 1.4 billion years ago during the Paleozoic period of the Precambrian era. Many of the metamorphic rocks have been fractured and decayed due to physical and chemical weathering, but because quartzite consists of one of the strongest minerals quartz...
Tarbuck E., Lutgens F., Tasa D., 2014, An Introduction to Physical Geology, 5th Ed, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Canada's heartland is southern Ontario and Quebec stretching from Quebec City to Windsor. This heartland, occupying the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, coincides with several favourable physical characteristics such as fertile Class 1 and 2 soils in addition to humid continental climate for optimal agricultural conditions. However, the "hinterland regions display harsher or more limiting physical characteristics. The Cordillera, Interior Plains, Canadian Shield, and Appalachian regions yield tremendous resource wealth, but their soils,
Shown in the picture above is volcanic extrusive igneous rock known as andesite. They were imported here to Laguna Beach to help minimize erosion (Merton Hill, p. 10-11). Extrusive Igneous rocks are formed on Earths surface due to lava quickly cooling or mixing with different materials such as ash or cinders from an eruption. There are two different types of extrusive igneous rocks; Plutonic and Volcanic. Andesite is known for being gray in color and being made up of very coarse grainy textures, which make it much harder to break down than sedimentary rocks. Unlike loose gravel and other sediments igneous rocks are known for being able to slow down seismic waves from earthquakes which cause less damage to surface structures.
Central Intelligence agency , "Canada ." Last modified November 12, 2013. Accessed November 27, 2013. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html.
Stone Mountain rises in sharp contrast to the surrounding flat, rolling landscape creating a geomorphic monadnock. Geologists appear to have consensus of the volcanic origins and underground formation of t...
The Canadian Shield is a landform region that covers almost more than half of Canada, it was formed about 3 billion years ago and was formed by volcanic eruptions. The Canadian Shield has some of the world's oldest rocks and has a lot of trees, lakes and rivers, some things the Canadian Shield provides us with is minerals, water from hydroelectric power and trees. it is a medium populated area and the population is very scattered, most of the people live in the southern area.
Basically these are the general features of the Earth and I am going to give you
Dheeraj Patel Journey Around Canada 2. How do the natural characteristics of Canada influence human activity, and how might human activity influence Canada’s natural characteristics? (B1) In the Central part of Canada there are many different human activities that affect natural characteristics. In the Central part of Canada there are many interior plains landforms.
Chapter 2: Canada’s Physical Base emphasizes reasoning for which its physical geography attributes to its regional geography, along with the population distribution and developing core regions. This chapter outlines main geological structure, landforms, climate, and impact on human a...
The Hudson plains are in parts of Ontario and Manitoba. Their area is about 350 000 km squared. The west edge of the Hudson Plains is around Churchill in north Manitoba, the eastern edge is around Fort Rupert, the northern edge borders Hudson Bay and James Bay and the southern edge is near Kapuskasing, Manitoba. Moosonee and Churchill are major cities in the Hudson Plains area, and lesser known cities include Attawapiskat, Fort George, Eastmain, Fort Albany, Lake River, Winisk, Fort Severn, and Shamattawa.
One very important piece of information is that gemstones and crystals are grown during the cooling, formative stages of Earth’s development and so it has lead me to the conclusion that they are gifts from nature. According to physics, gemstones and crystals consist of natural balances and solid sta...
There are two types of Igneous rocks. The first is intrusive, which is when the magma slowly cools beneath the earths surface. Because the magma is cooling slowly it allows the rocks end result to form crystal- like pigments. Examples of intrusive igneous rocks are Diorite, Gabbro, Granite, Pegmatite, and Periodotite. All of these rocks are course and grainy. The other type is an extrusive Igneous rock. This lava erupts onto the surface of the earth and cools rapidly also forming crystals, the lava cools so fast that at times it allows the rocks to form as clear-like glass. Examples of these rocks are Andesite, Basalt, Obsidian, Pumice, Rhyolite, Scoria,