Geography of Canada Planet Earth. 1.Geologic History 2.Plate Tectonics 3.Continental Drift 4.Earth’s Interior 5.Rock Cycle.

Geography of Canada

Planet Earth

Planet Earth

1. Geologic History

2. Plate Tectonics

3. Continental Drift

4. Earth’s Interior

5. Rock Cycle

Geologic History

• Precambrian Era• 4.6 billion years ago – 570 million

years ago.

-Appearance of single / multi-cell organisms

Creation of the Canadian Shield.

Vulcanism

Fault

Ancient SeaIgneous Rock

Geologic History

• Paleozoic Era – 570 million years ago – 250 million years ago.

• Sedimentary Rock formed bedrock of all provinces.

• Early plants and amphibians, sea life and insects.

Igneous Rock

ErosionErosion

SedimentsSediments

Geologic History

• Mesozoic Era – 250 million years ago – 66 million years ago.

• Formation of Rocky and Coastal Mountains.

• Inhabited by dinosaurs, plant life forms and reptiles.

Erosion

SedimentsSediments

Mountains Forming

Igneous Rock

Geologic History

• Cenozoic Era – 66 million years ago – present day

• Extinction of dinosaurs, human era (2 million years ago)

• Canada’s landforms take present shape, ice ages.

Mountains Forming

Igneous Rock

Sedimentary Mountains Eroding

Sedimentary Plains

PACIFIC OCEANROCKY MOUNTAINS

INTERIOR PLAINS

CANADIAN SHIELD

APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Plate Tectonics

• The Earth’s crust is divided into 12 major plates (both continental and oceanic plates).

• Heat from deep inside the earth causes plates to move, like crackers floating in a bowl of soup.

• Earth’s continents sit on plates, so when the plates move, the continents move with them

Plate Tectonics cntd.

• On average, the plates move about as fast as fingernails grow…an inch or so every year

Plate Tectonics Cntd.

• When plates move, they can:• They can collide, pull apart, or scrape against

each other which can create mountains, volcanoes or earthquakes.

Plate Tectonics Map

Plate Tectonics - Continental Drift

Plate Tectonics - Continental Drift

Plate Tectonics - Continental Drift

Antarctica

THE CONTINENTS TODAY

Plate Tectonics – Continental Drift

• In 1912, Alfred Wegener put forward a paper expressing his belief that the earth’s continents were moving (however, very slowly).

• His reasoning?

1) The fit of the continents

2) Fossil Evidence

3) Rock-type similarities

4) Evidence of Glaciers in Warm Climates• In 1968, John Tuzo Wilson, a Canadian

geophysicistproposed that “convection currents” in the earth’s “mantle” provided adequate energy to displace landmasses.

Plate Tectonics - Continental Drift

PROOF!

Earth’s Interior

Crust- 8-64 km thick- cold & fragile- Granite and Basalt

Mantle- 1800 km thick- hot & molten- Magnesium and Silicon

Outer Core- 2000 km thick- 3 - 4000°C- liquid Nickel and Iron

Inner Core- 1400 km thick- 5 - 6000°C- solid Nickel and Iron

Air

Land

Water

LITHOSPHERE

HYDROSPHERE ATMOSPHERE

Rock Cycle

MAGMA

IGNEOUS

SEDIMENTARY

METAMORPHIC

Cools and hardens

Weathers, erodes, and deposits

Stresses or heats

Heats and melts