Canadian Geographic student geography challenge. Help designate an official bird for Canada. Help improve energy literacy in Canada. All about Energy. Grade 8 students exploring Parks Canada sites. Compare countries' statistics and explore our changing world. Innovative projects in the developing world. Commemorating Canada's Great War flyers.
The revolution of mapping in the First World War. Canadian pilots heroically earn their wings. Connecting the past and present. By Graeme Wynn. May 10, Excerpted from The Nature of Canada , a new book of essays about the history and future of Canada's environment and its impact on our national identity , published by On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press.
Share this page. Topics About Can Geo. Canada Charting Change. Commemorate Canada. Explore Podcast. Gear Reviews. Map archive. Ocean Bridge. Ocean Supercluster. The Franklin Expedition. The North. The Polar Blog. The Terror. Canadian Geographic Challenge. The National Bird Project.
Classroom Energy Diet Challenge. Energy IQ. Canada's Coolest School Trip. A Developing World. Canadian Hydropower Interactive Map. A Nation Soars. Drawn to Victory. Wings of Courage. When you take a close look at rocks, you can often see that they are not all one colour.
They may have different colours or spots that are shiny while other spots are dull. Rocks have these sections or layers because they are made of different minerals. People mine for minerals to make all kinds of useful things. Here are some common minerals that can be found in both Biosphere rocks and items around your home and cottage. Some of these rocks around Georgian Bay are feldspar, mica, quartz, and amphibole.
Quartz is hard, shiny, and usually white or pink. Mica is also quite common, and it is a dark mineral that reflects light at the right angle. Amphibole is black and often is the mineral that makes up black sand beaches! Can you see the different layers in this picture? Which minerals do you think are there? There are many places around the Georgian Bay to see the beautiful features of the Canadian Shield.
Some places your family can visit would be:. With your support, we can expand our impact in the Georgian Bay region through conservation and education.
The Shield can be divided into seven geologically distinct regions sometimes referred to as provinces. Each is home to rock of different ages, types and formation characteristics, as well as different mineral deposits. The Southern Province, for example, is home to the mining district of Sudbury , Ontario, known for its production of copper and nickel.
The Bear province includes deposits of copper and uranium , while the Slave province is being explored and mined for diamonds. The Churchill and Grenville provinces contain deposits of uranium, lead and zinc. Finally, the Nain province is the smallest of the seven regions, and is not a major mineral producer.
Lakes are largely the result of glacial erosion during the last ice age. Other evidence of past glacial structures include striations lines scraped into rocks and drumlins long hills of glacial sediment.
In addition to the thousands of small lakes throughout the Shield, the region also borders many of the larger lakes and waterways of Canada: the eastern shores of Great Bear Lake , Great Slave Lake , Lake Athabasca and Lake Winnipeg ;the northern shores of Lake of the Woods , Lake Superior and Lake Huron ;and the north shore of the St.
Lawrence River. The Canadian Shield is dominated by the boreal forest ecosystem. Common coniferous trees include white and black spruce ; jack, red, white and eastern white pine ; balsam fir ; tamarack ; eastern hemlock ; and eastern red cedar.
Deciduous trees include red and mountain maple ; white and paper birch ; trembling aspen ; black ash ; and balsam poplar. North of the boreal forest is the Arctic tundra ecozone, characterized by low-growing vegetation and few to no trees. Because most of the tundra is underlain by permafrost ,vegetation is not able to put down deep roots, stunting growth.
A wide range of wildlife calls the Canadian Shield home. Lakes and rivers in the south house a variety of fish species including trout , burbot and northern pike. 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.
Moving north into the tundra, wildlife, like vegetation, becomes increasingly sparse. Animals in the Arctic portion of the Shield include polar bears , Arctic fox ,Arctic hares , snowy owls and rock ptarmigan. The Canadian Shield is rich in natural resources, including minerals, forests and freshwater. 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.
The first modern hard-rock mine in the Canadian Shield, near Madoc, Ontario, opened in after gold was found there. Around the same time, silver was discovered near Cobalt , Ontario, in The town prospered during the silver rush of the early 20th century, before going into decline in the s. 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.
Today, the largest concentration of active mines on the Shield — and in the world — is located around Sudbury , Ontario. Metals mined here include copper, nickel, gold andpalladium.
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