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Geography 2011 > physical geography (lec 1) > Flashcards

physical geography (lec 1) Flashcards

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1
Q

Ontario (meaning)

A

Iroquois word for Lake Ontario meaning ‘sparkling water’ or ‘rocks by the water’

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2
Q

Toronto (meaning)

A

native word tarantou = ‘place of meaning’

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3
Q

Ontario Stats

A

2nd largest province next to Quebec, 412,582 square miles or 1,068,582 square km

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4
Q

Water

A

Thames river flows south

Water is very important to development of Ontario

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5
Q

Ontario’s 2 regions

A

Canadian Shield (laurentian plateau) & Interior Plains and Lowlands

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6
Q

Where is the Canadian Shield?

A

Relatively high rocky region in the middle of Ontario, in the northwestern and central portions which covers over half the land area in the province

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7
Q

How is the Canadian Shield soil?

A

mostly infertile - rich in minerals and studded with lakes and rivers

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8
Q

Interior Plains and Lowlands: where?

A

Plains in the northern part by hudson bay and the lowlands in the south

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9
Q

Where are the Hudson Bay Plains? Hows the land?

A

Interior plains, in the extreme north and northeast, mainly swampy and sparsely forested

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10
Q

Where are the Lowlands?

A

Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Valley in the south where agriculture and industry are concentrated

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11
Q

What gave us the higher rocky shield?

A

Years of glaciation: the ice created the shape of the rocks being flattened

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12
Q

Drainage Basins?

A

There are many for fresh water in Ontario - not all of it goes to the great lakes, a good portion goes into Hudson Bay

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13
Q

Describe the Canadian Shield

A

In the middle/high area of Ontario, symbolizes cliche ontario, lots of resources, extends well beyond Ontario, lots of lakes and forests, Niagara Escarpment*

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14
Q

How can Canada be summed up?

A

Rocks, Lakes, Forests

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15
Q

Rock

A

mostly igneous and metamorphic, between 1.5 and 3.5 billion years old, high mountains eroded down into rocky ridges, very hard rock which takes a long time to break down

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16
Q

Lakes

A

thousands, result of glaciation over millions of years: massive ice sheets scoured and gouged the earth therefore changed the drainage patterns, glaciers scraped the soil from the rocks

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17
Q

Forest

A

since last ice age (15,000 yrs ago) in Southern ON, gotten some trees - 6000 years ago in Northern Quebec: the land has become covered with a thick boreal forest of coniferous trees covered the North

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18
Q

What kinds of trees?

A

Jack pine, balsam fir, white and black spruce

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19
Q

Where are trees?

A

Continue north to treelike where trees dwindle and tundra begins and its too cold for trees to thrive

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20
Q

How is the soil for trees?

A

we have thin acidic soil supported the boreal trees = which are very good for lumber

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21
Q

How much of ON is covered in forest?

A

80%

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22
Q

What about replanting?

A

in the last 20 years there has been lots done to replant

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23
Q

What are the biggest threats to forests?

A

Environmental such as invasive species and fires

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24
Q

From North to South = what are the tree types?

A

Deciduous –> mixed -> boreal -> boreal barrens -> tundra

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25
Q

why are we losing tundra?

A

warmer climate

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26
Q

people in the Canadian Shield?

A

Few people there! with the exception of forestry/mining/native canadian villages,

27
Q

Hudson Bay Plains (describe)

A

Third largest wetland in the world! vast sodden plain, slopes towards sea gradient of <1m/km, nothing there - no trees/very flat

28
Q

what are HBP composed of?

A

mostly muskeg and peatlands (peat moss) not very good soil usage for agriculture

29
Q

What underlies the HBP?

A

permafrost (in most of the region)

30
Q

Where are the HBP

A

furthest north and not easy to get around

31
Q

How big the HBP?

A

The drainage basin of the Hudson Bay lowlands is bigger than the lowlands itself

32
Q

Permafrost?

A

There is a permafrost line but it is very small at the top of Northern Ontario

33
Q

Great Lakes/St Lawrence lowlands soil?

A

rich soil good for agriculture

34
Q

Whats the difference between the 2?

A

2 separate lowlands divided by a portion of the Canadian shield called the Frotenac Axis (kingston to st lawrence river)

35
Q

Why isn’t the GL/SL deciduous forests?

A

Would be - but got cut up for the development of farm land so the forests are no longer continuous!

36
Q

St.Lawrence Lowland

A

Rift Valley (faults/cracks in earths crust made millions of years ago) split the valley which WAS part of the Cdn shield, creating the lowland!

37
Q

Why is there such a flat landscape?

A

After the last ice age - high ocean levels allowed the Atlanic Ocean to creep inwards as far as Ottawa

38
Q

What is a moraine?

A

Where a glacier moves the land into hills

39
Q

Great Lakes Lowlands

A

our end of the province!

40
Q

Dominant feature of the GLL?

A

Niagara escarpment - rock that didn’t get eroded in the glaciation - it’s what remained.

41
Q

Where does the Niagara Escarpment run?

A

Westward from New York State, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and illinois; over 1000km long stretching from NY state to Tobermory, then into Michigan via Manitoulin island

42
Q

Climate in SLL?

A

area is protected: can’t be build on, very hard rock, due to escarpment blocking some of the weather has its own sort of sub climate

43
Q

Niagara Falls point of no return?

A

LESS than one mile in

44
Q

Why are the falls moving?

A

Mocing back because over time the water falls and erodes the wall underneath = makes a gap, eventual the chunks fall off and it moves back = it has eroded KMs! eventually looking like a series of rapids

45
Q

What does the falls do?

A

Supplies us with hydro electricity, takes more water at night for hydro*

46
Q

SLL landscape?

A

some glacial landforms remain - predominantly flat

47
Q

SLL agriculture?

A

land class 1 = makes the most money agriculturally! Niagara fruit belt*, the farmland is best to convert to urban use: if climate was year round wed be able to grow anything!

48
Q

Who lives in the SLL?

A

Majority of Ontarians

49
Q

Climate in SLL?

A

very difficult to characterize/getting harder to predict, mostly ‘humid continental - warm humid summers with cold winters’

50
Q

SLL annual precipitation?

A

75-100cm (30-39inches), some - more “maritime”

51
Q

Major Air sources in SLL?

A

Cold, dry, polar air from the north = harsh winters
Pacific polar air passes over the prairies = warm air that picks up lots of moisture causing big snowfalls
Warm moist subtropical air from the Atlantic ocean and the gulf of Mexico = cause big heat waves and gives us snow/rain/storms
Air from Atlantic Ocean = hurricane/unusual
Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean = heat waves

52
Q

Precipitation trend?

A

General trend increases from northwest to southeast: snow accumulation varies greatly across the province (north seems like they get more but it just doesn’t melt) closer to the water = more precipitation

53
Q

What lake could freeze over?

A

Lake erie would be the only possible one because its so shallow!

54
Q

Where are the most lightning strike per year?

A

London! averaging 34 days of thunderstorm activity per year

55
Q

Ontario averages how many tornado touchdowns a year?

A

15 ! rarely destructive

56
Q

Great Lakes

A

hold 1/5 of all the surface fresh water in the world! Combined shorelines of the GLs = 45% of earths circumference

57
Q

Species in the GLs

A

more species than anywhere else: more than 150 fish types

58
Q

5 great lakes are….

A

the biggest continuous body of fresh water

59
Q

GL basin

A

covers an area of 750,000 square kilometres,

60
Q

How many Ontarians live in the great lakes basin region?

A

more than 98%!

61
Q

Who gets their drinking water from the Great Lakes?

A

70% of residents

62
Q

How many trees does Ontario have?

A

80 billion

63
Q

4 Forest Regions in Ontario

A

Hudson Bay Lowlands (subarctic barrens) 19% of Ontario’s Forests

  • Boreal Forest (largest forest region in Ontario and Canada) 58%
  • Great Lakes-St Lawrence 19%
  • Deciduous Forest (southern Ontario) 3%
64
Q

Ontario: species?

A
  • 80 different mammmals
  • 400 kinds of birds
  • 80 reptiles and amphibians
  • 20,000 types of indects
  • 3300 species of plants
  • more than 1000 fungi/algae

Geography 2011 (4 decks)

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