Home: Canadian
Shield
The Canadian Shield Region
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The Canadian Shield makes up nearly half of Canada's total area and is composed of Precambrian rocks - ancient, rounded rocks that form the nucleus of
most of North America. In Canada, the Shield stretches from Labrador through to
northern Quebec, Ontario, eastern and northern Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan and the very northeast corner of Alberta. However, the Canadian Shield in Alberta is not wholly restricted to a small northeastern corner of the province but actually
plunges under the plains and mountains, forming the foundation under the rest of the province - over
6, 000 metres or 6 kilometres below the surface. This foundation indicates that Alberta has existed as rocky terrain for at least two billion
years - the span of Alberta's geological
history.
Numerous rounded and bare areas of hard Precambrian rocks, abundant angular lakes, and marshy depressions, and a highly disorganized drainage system characterize the Canadian Shield
region of the province.
Check out the Provincial
Museum of Alberta Habitat Gallery Audio!
The free downloadable
RealPlayer plugin from RealNetworks
is required to listen to the audio.
All kids and fun-loving adults will want to check out the Flash Zone to interact with species of the
Canadian Shield, including the Fireweed and the
Northern Shrike!
The free downloadable
Flash Player plugin from Macromedia
may be required.
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Jackpine forests
cover isolated spots of the region with unique undergrowth of pale reindeer
lichens, dusty green sage and bearberry. Vast sand dune landscapes grade into pine forest and provide
habitat for plant species found nowhere else in the province.
Granite headlands and bright sand beaches stretch from Fidler Point to White Sand Point and beyond. The region is not well suited for agriculture because, climatic limitations aside, much of the land is steeply sloping and inadequately drained.
Vegetation is sparse and rooted primarily in the rocks. The landscape has yet to be touched by industrial activity and therefore the region remains one of Alberta's best-kept secrets, unknown to many Albertans themselves as the majority of the
population resides in the lower one third of the province.
The Canadian Shield Natural Region contains two quite different Subregions. The Kazan Upland Subregion includes most of the exposed Canadian Shield in Alberta north of Lake Athabasca and is characterized by exposed, glaciated bedrock. The other subregion is the Athabasca Plain, which includes part of the north shore of Lake Athabasca and the Canadian Shield south of the Lake Athabasca, and is characteristically glacial outwash deposits shallow over Canadian Shield bedrock.