Canada Geography
Canada - Geography - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Canada occupies the northern half of North America. It is bordered to the south by the contiguous United States, separated by the International Boundary, and to the northwest by Alaska. The country stretches from the Atlantic Ocean and Davis Strait in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; hence the country's motto. To the north lie the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean; Greenland lies to the northeast. Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60 degrees west longitude and 141 degrees west longitude ([3]); that is, Canada's territorial claim extends to the North Pole. The northernmost settlement in Canada (and in the world) is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island -- latitude 82.5°N -- just 834 kilometres from the North Pole.



Canada is the world's second-largest country in total area, after Russia, covering approximately 41% of the North American continent. Much of Canada's territory lies in Arctic regions, however, and thus Canada has only the fourth most usable land behind Russia, China and the United States. The population density is 3.2 people per square kilometre, which is extremely low compared to other countries. Eighty percent of Canadians live within 200 km of the United States along their international border, the location of the country's most temperate climates and arable soil. While Canada covers a larger geographic area than its nearest neighbour, it has only one-ninth its population. Vast and sparsely populated, Canada has historically depended economically on exporting its abundant natural resources.



The most densely-populated part of the country is the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence River Valley in the east. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and gouged with lakes and rivers— over 60 percent of the world's lakes are located in Canada. The Canadian Shield encircles the immense Hudson Bay.



The Canadian Shield extends to the Atlantic Coast in Labrador, the mainland part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The island of Newfoundland, North America's easternmost region, is at the mouth of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, and the first region to be settled by Europeans. The Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward from the southern coast of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, sandwiched between the Gulf to the north and the Atlantic to the south. The provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, an arm of the Atlantic that experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Prince Edward Island is Canada's smallest province.



To the west of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies, consisting of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, spread towards the Rocky Mountains, which divide the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.



Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the largest islands on Earth.



Canada has a reputation for cold temperatures. Indeed, the winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, with risks of blizzards and ice storms and temperatures reaching lows of -50°C in the far North. Southern British Columbia is an exception: it enjoys a very temperate climate with much milder winters than the rest of the country.



In the most densely populated regions, summers range from mild to quite hot, attaining highs of well over 30°C in Montreal and 15°C even in Iqaluit, Nunavut. In Vancouver, temperatures usually remain stable at around 5-25°C year round, whereas in parts of the central prairies, they can drop to -40°C in the winter and attain a high of 35°C in the summer. In the Great Lakes region, the most heavily populated area in the country, temperatures can range from -30°C to 35°C. The country experiences four distinct seasons.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada