Wikibooks: Canadian History/The Geography of the Lands

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Pacific
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Canadian_History/The_Geography_of_the_Lands

= Geography of the Lands = Canada is the second largest country in the world encompassing 9 970 610 km² of land. It is surrounded by three oceans the Arctic the Pacific and the Atlantic. Canada is comprised of ten provinces and three territories the provinces all lying in the South and the territories in the North. Canada’s climate is fairly moderate with temperate weather to Arctic conditions in the North. It also has a mild terrain generally having flatlands with mountainous areas in the West and lowlands in the East. There are eight physical regions in Canada the Appalachian Region the Coastal Plains the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Lowlands the Interior Plains the Canadian Shield the Western Cordillera the Intermountain Region and the Arctic. When Europeans came to Canada they altered the physical environment changing the wilderness to a more urban setting. = Coastal Plains = = Overview = The Coastal Plains are a low land area along the East coast. It is separated from the inland by other features (mountains rivers). It is roughly 3200 km long and 50 to 100 km wide. = Topography = Consists of flat or gently rolling hills. As well swamps and marshes are common because most of the land is between 30 and 200 m above sea level. The Mississippi Delta is found in the gulf of the Coastal Plains. It creates a great stretch of fertile land. Rivers carry sediment across the plains. This sediment is either left behind in places and eventually forms floodplains or carried to and left in river mouths/shallow water and form deltas. = Climate = The climate in the coastal plain region varies greatly. In the North there are long and snowy winters and hot humid summers. In the South there is a sub tropical climate with mild warm winters. There are also hurricanes from late summer to early winter violent storms with winds between 120 and 240 km/h formed over large bodies of water. = Vegetation = The soils in the Coastal Plains region are extremely sandy therefore the plants that grow there adapt to that environment.There are a ...