1. Understanding Landform Patterns

2. Pop Quiz!
Anyone who can name 5 or more out of the 7 Physiographic Regions of Canada will get a Prize!
You have 2 minutes

3. What Patterns have we already Scene?
Earthquakes
Tsunami
Volcanoes

4. Landform Patterns
Earthquakes and Volcanoes take place on or near PLATE BOUNDARIES
Especially on the “Ring of Fire”

6. Landform Patterns Everything on Earth exists there for a reason
Mountains
Rivers
Plateaus
Volcanoes
Plains
Different types of rock
We can examine these patterns in order to understand WHY

7. Landform Patterns in History
During earth’s 4.6 Billion year history, pieces of land have been built up and torn down many times over
Scottish Geologist James Hutton first advanced his idea in 1785.
Unfortunately, his theory was rejected, as most scientists thought the earth was only about 6000 years old.

8. Landform Patterns in History
In 1912, German Geographer Alfred Wegener proposed that all of the continents were once joined together in a huge land mass called…
Pangea
His theory was also criticized by scientists at the time, but it led to the modern theory of Plate Techtonics

9. Plate Techtonics
The theory that all Continents were once joined together and are gradually drifting apart as the Earth’s Plates move apart.
What are the 5 Continents?
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Africa
Australia (Oceania)
Antarctica

10. Pangea 4.6 Billion Years Ago

11. Pangea 4.6 Billion Years Ago

12. Slowly Moves Apart

13. Modern Day 2019

14. Shields, Plains and LowLands

15. Change Over Time!
Pangea was built around “Old Shield Regions” or “Old Plates”
The land was created from widespread Volcano Eruptions Billions of years ago.
Therefore, originally, all of the Rock in Pangea was this type of rock:
Igneous Rock (Volcanic Rock)
Solidified Magma from inside the Earth.

16. Igneous Rock

17. Change Over Time!
Later, over Millions of Years, heat and pressure altered some part of these “Old Shield” Regions
This formed this type of Rock:
Metamorphic Rock (Changed Rock)
Typically the Hardest types of rock

18. Metamorphic Rock

19. Shield Regions
As Pangea Broke apart over the years, the Shield Regions were scattered across this earth as the Core (Centre) of Continents
Today’s Shield regions are made up of a combination of:
Igneous and Metamorphic rocks
This major “Physiographic Region” in Canada is the:
Canadian Shield

21. Canadian Shield
Physiographic Regions: The process by which regions with relatively homogeneous (Similar) physical geography are determined.
Today, shield regions are heavily worn, and carved by the relentless forces of Erosion through Water, Ice, and Wind
“Ancient Shield” such as the Canadian Shield often have widespread areas of Bare Rock

26. Erosion What is Erosion?
Erosion is the process by which the surface of the Earth gets worn down.
Erosion can be caused by natural elements such as wind and glacial ice.
But anyone who has ever seen a picture of the Grand Canyon knows that nothing beats the slow steady movement of water when it comes to changing the Earth.

28. Change Over Time!
The Erosion of the Shield regions created the rest of the continent
Rivers and Glaciers carried eroded materials called Sediment ancient seas
There, it accumulated into “thick, layered beds which slowly solidified” to produce this type of rock:
Sedimentary Rock (Layered Rock)
Sometimes you can even break the layers apart with your bare hands!

29. Sedimentary Rock

30. Plains and Lowlands
New land emerged around the “Ancient Shield” as the seas filled in
These are called Plains and Lowlands
They are underlaid by Horizontal layers of Sedimentary rock
Plains are broad areas of level (flat) land
This major “Physiographic Region” in Canada is called the:
Interior Plains
The Farmland there is called the:
Canadian Prairies

32. Interior Plains/ Canadian Prairies

33. Can see for km’s in the distance!

34. Lowlands
Lowlands are Plains that are located along coastlines of seas, oceans, and lakes
For example, the major Canadian Physiographic Region that we live in is called the:
Saint Lawrence Lowlands
The other major Lowland Region is called the:
Hudson Bay Lowlands
They are both near large bodies of water!

36. Saint Lawrence Lowlands

38. Hudson Bay Lowlands

40. Fold Mountains HUGE mountain chains cross continents in bands
One chain runs the entire length of the West Coast of North America and into South America and Antarctica. This is called the:
Rocky Mountains
It is then called various different mountain chains as it progresses into the U.S.A and South America
It is however the exact same chain of mountains all the way down!

41. Rocky Mountains

42. Fold Mountains
Massive mountain chains that spread throughout the world
1. Runs down the West Coast of the Americas from North to South
2. Crosses Europe and Asia from West to East
Fold Mountain Systems:
Huge crumpled ridges where plates collide
Built from think layers of Sedimentary Rock deposited in ocean basins

43. Fold Mountain Regions
As currents in the Mantle drag plates together, these layers are arched up in parallel ridges; sort of like a Wrinkled Carpet
Rock cannot bend much, so the fold often Snaps, causing Earthquakes and movements along cracks called Faults a famous fault is called the:
San Andreas Fault in California

44. San Andreas Fault

45. Fold Mountain Regions As a result of Earthquakes and Movement
Sedimentary rock layers have sometimes been heaved up and stand on end
The pressure of the extreme folding has created areas of Metamorphic rock in some fold mountain regions
These mountains Divide the flow of Rivers
Elevation causes Climate Regions, which in turn create conditions for unique communities of plants and animals.

47. Fold Mountain Regions

48. Fold Mountains