1. Creating Canada’s Landform Regions

2. Linking to Tectonics…
The movement of the earth’s plates, and the resulting folding, faulting, and volcanic activity, have combined with the forces of weathering and erosion to create a variety of landscapes that affect the way we live.

3. Landforms are the physical structures that make up the appearance of the earth’s crust.
Some examples (but not all..) are:
Mountains, Valleys, Plains, Hills, etc.
Think of landforms this way…
If you were a giant and could pick up the earth, you would feel bumps, grooves, flat areas and sharp areas….
(You know, hills, valleys, plains, mountains…..)

4. Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta
Landforms were created by different physical processes, some that build the land up or add new crust, and some that tear (destroy) the land down by processes of erosion.

5. So, let’s recap:
Over millions of years, Canada’s physical landscape has changed.
300 million years ago, the super continent of Pangea existed
200 million years ago the continents drifted apart creating their modern locations
Some continents collided and pushed the crust up to create mountains (Himalayas)
some earthquakes happened where one piece of land shifted and rose up
volcanoes erupted along fault lines to create volcanic mountains.

6. Plate Tectonics???
This is not NEWS to you!!

7. Building Landscape
The three main forces responsible for mountain building are 1) Folding 2) Faulting 3) Volcanism

8. Forces That Destroy Landscape
Weathering and Erosion

9. FOLDING
When plates move, different kinds of pressure are emitted, causing different effects to the physical land.
Some mountains are formed by horizontal compression (squeezing together) of rock layers as continents come together causing the rock layers to buckle and fold.
See how one plate (right side) is folding because two plates are colliding.

10. FAULTING
Again, earthquakes at plate boundaries can create different landforms. Faulting occurs when the crust cracks where two plates meet. Some mountains are formed by the rising and tilting of large blocks of the earth’s crust (tilted or block mountains). Such movements occur along fractures in the earth’s crust called faults (faulting occurs)

11. FAULTING (cont.)
Faulting often has 2 plates moving apart
creating a valley
OR 2 fault lines can also squeeze a piece of
crust in the middle causing it to pop up (block
mountains)

12. Volcanoes add lava (rock) to existing
VOLCANISM
Volcanoes add lava (rock) to existing
landscape, eventually creating mountains
Check out time lapsed video of Mt. St. Helens growing back!!
Mt. St. Helens after it erupted
Mt. St. Helens before it erupted

13. Weathering vs. Erosion Weathering is what breaks the rock into
smaller pieces…
Erosion is the actual removal of the
rock pieces…
…… (think of wiping dirt off a table)

14. There are 3 main forces of weathering and/or erosion.
1. Wind Water Ice

15. When water freezes & turns into ice, it expands almost 10 %.
Wind
Blows small pieces of rock or dirt around; these pieces can hit other rock, further weathering it (sandblaster!!!)
Ice
When water freezes & turns into
ice, it expands almost 10 %.
(Think about a can of coke that
exploded in the freezer.)
Nature’s Freeze/Thaw Cycle When water freezes in a crack in the rock it expands Cycle weakens the rock and eventually causes it to crack and break off (think about pot-holes on the road)
Water
Water in many forms breaks down the landscape.
Rain
Water falling (dripping and waterfalls)
Waves