Landform regions of Canada
The Canadian Shield and Appalachians

Class: Geography
Name: Samira Kaynan
The Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield, also known as the Precambrian Shield or Laurentian Plateau, covers about half of Canada as well as most of Greenland and part of the northern United States; an area of 4.4 million square kilometers (1.7 million square miles).
The shield was the first part of the continent to be permanently raised above sea level. Subsequent rising and falling, folding, erosion and continental ice sheets have created its present topography.
Mining and Economics:
The Shield is one of the world’s richest areas in terms of mineral ores. The shield is a rich source of metallic minerals such as iron, nickel, copper, zinc, uranium, and gold, silver, platinum. The Canadian Shield is often called the storehouse of Canada’s metallic minerals. In addition, rich diamond deposits have recently been found where ancient volcanoes once existed. Throughout the Shield there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and one of the best known, is Sudbury, Ontario.
How were mineral deposits formed in the rock of the shield?
Minerals were present in molten rock, or magma, beneath earth’s crust. As the manga rose toward the surface, it intruded (forced molten rock into an existing rock formation) into cracks in the shield rock.
Rock type and soil:
Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. It is composed of mainly granite and gneiss. The shield has a thin layer of soil above massive bedrock.
Landforms:
In the Canadian Shield there are lots of trees and rocks. The rocks in this region are old, for they were formed millions of years ago. The region is full of igneous rock, which later turned into metamorphic rock. The region is well above sea level, as it is in a very mountainous area. The mountains, though, have been slowly eroded over the years. Erosion of these mountains has deposited many materials. The barren rock in this region has left all of the valuable materials inside exposed.
Tourism: The tourists are attracted to the Canadian Shield because of the CN tower, Niagara Falls, and the amazing camp grounds.

The drainage pattern:
Most of the water in this region drains into the Hudson Bay, James Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the water drains into the many swamps and bogs scattered in this region. Some rivers, like the Nelson River, lead water into the Bay.
Appalachians
Appalachian Mountains, also called Appalachians, Blue Ridge Appalachian Mountains great highland system of North America, the eastern counterpart of the Rocky Mountains. Extending for almost 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to central Alabama in the United States, they form a natural barrier between the eastern Coastal Plain and the vast Interior Lowlands of North America.
Rock type and soil:
There are three different kinds of rocks found in the Appalachian Mounts. One type is called metamorphic rocks. The other types are called sedimentary and igneous rocks, which are a type of rock formed when rocky material experiences intense heat and pressure in the crust of the earth.
What types of mineral are found in the Appalachians?
Minerals like Iron and Zinc are found in the plateaus (flat area) of these rocks. These minerals found in the rock affect the economic activity of this region.

Iron