Olivia's Blog

Formation of the Regions

Appalachian Region- The Appalachian Region was formed by erosion and glaciers wearing down the mountain ranges. Rock layers slowly covered the vegetation of the region and eventually the layers became large deposits of coal.

Canadian Sheild Region- The Canadian Sheild Region was once a volcanic mountain range. Over time erosion and weathering have worn the land down to being a very flat, bare rock, lakes, and wetland landscape this is how the Canadian Sheild was formed.

Arctic Region-  The Arctic Region was formed by pressure put on at the edge of the Canadian Sheild that pushed up the sedimentary rock to form fold mountains.

St. Lawrence Lowlands- This region was formed by retreating ice. The ice sheets pushed soils from the Sheild to the Lowlands. When the ice sheets melted big lakes were formed.

Interior Plains-This region was formed by soils carried by rivers from the Canadian Sield. The soils were carried to the regions edge. The soil then formed horizontal layers of sedimentary rock, This then became large areas of flat land, rolling hills, and river valleys.

Cordillera Region– This region was formed by a plate collision that caused the earths crust to buckle. It then caused pushing and folding volcanic rock into mountains.  Plate tectonics formed plateau’s, valley’s and trenches. Erosion from glaciers and rivers created the ruggged mountains.

Tropography of the Regions

Artctic Region

The topography in the Arctic Region consists of fold mountains. They extend more than a 1000 km across the northern islands. To form these fold mountains sedimentary rock on the northern eastern edge of the Canadian Shield is pushed up to form the range of mountains.

The British Empire Range on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut.

Cordillera Region

The topography in the Cordillera Region consists of mountain ranges, plateaus, trenches, river valleys, volcanoes, and glaciers. The plateaus, trenches, and river valleys are formed by the movement of plate tectonics. The mountain ranges are formed by erosion from rivers and glaciers.

Whistler Mountain, part of the Fitzsimmons Range of the Coast Mountains.

Interior Plains 

The topography in the Interior plains consists of rolling hills and river valleys. These are created by layers of sedimentary rock.

Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta, part of Canada’s Northern Boreal Plains.

Five Themes of Geography

There are five different themes of geography. The first one is regarding location. There are two differnt types of location, absolute and relative. Absolute location is a location you could pin point on a map eaither using longitude and latitude or an address. 49.2625° N, 122.7811° W is the absolute location of Port Coquitlam. Relative location is a location that could refer to more than one direction depending on where your starting point is. When saying Port Coquitlam is East of Vancouver you are using a relative location. The second theme of geography is regarding place. There are two different ways to describe place. There is physical landscape and cultural landscape. Physical landscape is what non- man made features are in that location like trees, bodies of water, and mountains. One of Port Coquitlams physical features is the fraser river. Cultural landscape is the man made features of a location like pools, golf coarses, and buildings. Gates park is an example of a cultural landscape. The third theme of geography is regarding regions. There are three types of regions, formal, functional, perceptual. A formal region is boundaries that can be found on a map like countries, provinces, and cities. Port Coquitlam in it self is a formal region. A functional region is one that is grouped together for a functional reason, these are not formaly labeled. The tri-cities are grouped together in Port Coquitlam for  educational purposes this would be considered a functional region. A perceptual region is a region we make up in our heads that only locals are familiar with an example of this would be the South side of Port Coquitlam verse the North side and the sterotypes we have made up. The fourth theme of Geography is movement. Movement is the sharing of knowledge, ideas, objects, and people. We recieve food from places like California and the products then end up in some of the Port Coquitlam markets, this would be considered movement. The fith and final theme of geography is human and environmental interaction. This is how humans effect the environment and how we bennifit from it. when you drive around Port Coquitlam you are creating pollution that will harm the environment this is an example of  environmental interaction.