Our Natural Environment

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Our Natural Environment

• Social Studies
• Ms Lydon

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Atlantic Canada as a Region

• Canada, with its area of 9 970 610km squared is
  the second largest country in the world.
• With a country so large people usually identify
  with most with those who live in a region close
  to their local community.
• Geographers define a region as an area that
  shares common features that make it different
  from other areas.
• What do you think some of these features may be?

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Atlantic Canada as a Region

• These features may include language, ways of
  making a living, cultural expressions, physical
  environment, climate, or location.
• New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island,
  Newfoundland and Labrador make up Atlantic
  Canada.
• Why? These provinces shores border on the
  Atlantic Ocean, they are located next to each
  other, and can be identified by certain physical
  features.

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NORTHERN TERRITORIES
Pacific Region (or WEST COAST)
PRAIRIEREGION
ATLANTIC REGION
CENTRAL CANADA
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Regions of Canada

• Atlantic Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince
  Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick
• Central Quebec, Ontario
• Prairie Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
• Pacific British Columbia
• Northern Territories Yukon, Northwest
  Territories

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Distance and Time

• Time distance, or the time it takes to get
  between given points.
• Times Zones- In 1879 Sir Sandford Fleming
  suggested that the globe be divided into 24 time
  zones, one for each 15 degrees of longitude.
• Time zones to the East are one hour ahead, and
  time zones to the West are one hour behind.
• Fleming's plan was adopted at the 1884
  International Prime Meridian Conference in
  Washington, D.C.

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Canada Time Zone Map                            
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                                  
                                     
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Landforms in Atlantic Canada

• Mountain- defined as a mass of land that is
  significantly higher than the surrounding areas.
• Often considered a landmass with an elevation of
  600 m or more.
• The highest land in.
• Nova Scotia- is found on Cape Breton Island
  (highlands)
• New Brunswick- much of Northern New
  Brunswick(Mount Carleton)
• PEI-the highest land is found in the central
  region. (Queens County)
• Newfoundland- is the Long Range Mountains which
  run along the Western side.(Lewis Hills and Mount
  Caubvick)

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Landforms in Atlantic Canada

• The mountain and upland systems of Newfoundland
  are part of the Appalachian Mountains, which
  extend across the rest of the Atlantic region and
  into the United States as far south as Georgia.
• These mountains were formed by folding a bending
  of the earths crust. They were once high and
  jagged, but erosion over their 300 million year
  history has reduced them to rolling hills
  separated by wide valleys.
• In Labrador the land is an extension of the
  Canadian Shield, a vast area of rock that
  stretches across central Canada. Some areas have
  been eroded by glaciers but some are rugged and
  high.

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Mount Carleton, New Brunswick
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The Power of a Glacier

• A fiord is a long narrow inlet of the sea,
  bordered by steep mountain slopes. All fiords
  were once river valleys.
• During the ice age, glaciers scoured these
  valleys, making them deeper and the sides
  steeper. Making the valleys a U shape rather than
  V shape.
• Ice melted and the sea drowned the valley
  creating the fiords.
• Fiords are found along the coast of Labrador.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• A river can be defined as a long, narrow body of
  water that flows in a channel from high to low
  land and empties in to a body of water such as an
  ocean or lake.
• A lake can be defined as a body of water
  completely surrounded by land.
• A pond is a fairly small body of still water.
• The type of water forms found in a area depends
  upon underlying rock structure.

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Margaree River
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Bay
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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Areas with igneous bedrock overlain with thin
  soils tend to have numerous lakes and ponds.
  (rock formed from magma, after volcanic activity)
  
• For example NFLD, NB, southwestern and eastern
  shore of Nova Scotia, and northern Cape Breton.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Areas with sedimentary bedrock (rock formed by
  build up of layers of rock particles) overlain
  with think soils and tend to have more rivers and
  streams.
• For example St. John River Valley and much of
  Prince Edward Island.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Some areas are waterlogged- this means the areas
  is neither solid ground nor open water. Such
  areas are known as wetlands.
• Wetlands make take the form of bogs, fens,
  swamps, or marshes.
• Bogs are composed mainly of peat. Which is a
  thick mass of decomposing plants, formed over
  thousands of years.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Bogs are composed mainly of peat. Peat is a thick
  mass of decomposing plants, formed over thousands
  of years.
• Mosses, low shrubs, and sparse black spruce or
  tamarack grow in bogs.
• The water table in a bog is near the surface in
  the spring but lower the rest of the year. Bogs
  are fed only by rain or snow.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Fens are also made up of peat and share the same
  type of vegetation as bogs. Unlike bogs, Fens are
  fed by streams.
• As a result the water table is usually at or
  above the surface of the peat land.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Swamps occur where water collects in pools. In
  areas with forest, swamps contain mature trees
  such as black spruce.
• In thicketed areas, swamps contain tall shrubs
  such as alder and willow.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Marshes are areas that are either permanently or
  seasonally covered by water.
• Stands of sedges, grasses, and rushes are divided
  by channels that carry off water very slowly.
• Cattails and water lilies are typical marsh
  plants.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• The major bodies of water that influence Atlantic
  Canada are the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St.
  Lawrence.
• A gulf can be defined as a very large area of the
  sea that is partially enclosed by the land.
• There are also a variety of other smaller
  features. During the ice age the Atlantic Region
  was covered by a large sheet of ice. The weight
  of the ice pressed down coastal areas, and
  river valleys were flooded by the sea once the
  ice sheet melted.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Much of the eastern edge of Atlantic Canada,
  along the Atlantic Ocean, became a drowned
  coastline---very irregular, broken with deep
  bays, and dotted with offshore islands.
• A bay can be defined as a partially enclosed body
  of water that has an opening to the sea.

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Water Forms in Atlantic Canada

• Ocean waves pound the coast, and they act as
  powerful agents of erosion. Some weak parts of
  the rock is broken off in particles and boulders.
• These pieces then become grinded down by wave
  action until both are reduced to rounded rocks,
  pebbles, and gravel.
• The material is then deposited to from new
  features such as sand bars, bay beaches, and sea
  caves

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Picture of a famous tourist attraction in Albert,
New Brunswick, the Hopewell Rocks found along the
Fundy Coastal Drive.
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People in their Environment

• The character of a regions grows from the way
  people interact with the land and environment
  around them.
• Brainstorm some ways our cultural identity is
  shaped from the way we interact with the land.

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Class Ideas..

• Economy
• Past times
• Tourism
• Hobbies