The Canadian Shield has a deep, common, joined bedrock region in the Eastern and central Canada; and stretches north from the great lakes to the artic ocean, covering over half of Canada. It covers approximately 4.8 million km2. It also extends South into the northern region of the united states. The Canadian Shield is a physiographic division, consisting of five smaller physiographic provinces, the Laurentin Upland, Kazan Region, Davis, Hudson and James. The Canadian Shield is U-Shaped but almost semi circular. The shield was originally a region of very large mountains and some volcanic activity, but over the millennia the area was eroded. Mountains have deep 'roots', and float on the denser mantle below. As mountains erode, their roots rise, and are slowly eroded as well. The rocks that now form the surface of the Canadian Shield were once far below the earth's surface. The high pressures and temperatures at those depths created many forms of minerals in the rocks. The origin and age of the Shield were among the great mysteries of Canadian history.
The Canadian Shield is more than 3.96 billion years old.The exact age and origin of the Canadian Shield is unknown though as it remains a great mystery.The Canadian Shield once had jagged peaks higher than any of our mountains today. A few million years of advancing and retreating glaciers have actually carried pieces of the shield into southern Ontario and the northern United States. In 1851-52, Alexander Murray examined the country below Gananoque, Bytown [Ottawa], the St Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and the perimeter from Kingston to Lake Superior. A.C. Lawson made an important contribution by working out the Precambrian succession in the 1880s, but a more current time scale was not developed until the 1950s by a man named C.H Stockwell. Stockwell divided the Shield into 3 great provinces - Superior, Churchill and Grenville - and 23 subprovinces.The Shield has had a profound effect on Canadian history, settlement and economic development. In pre-European times it was the home of nomadic hunters, who developed the birchbark canoe to travel its myriad waterways. Similar canoes were used by the Coureurs De Boi , voyagers and explorers to get into the continent.
The Canadian Shield is more than 3.96 billion years old.The exact age and origin of the Canadian Shield is unknown though as it remains a great mystery.The Canadian Shield once had jagged peaks higher than any of our mountains today. A few million years of advancing and retreating glaciers have actually carried pieces of the shield into southern Ontario and the northern United States. In 1851-52, Alexander Murray examined the country below Gananoque, Bytown [Ottawa], the St Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and the perimeter from Kingston to Lake Superior. A.C. Lawson made an important contribution by working out the Precambrian succession in the 1880s, but a more current time scale was not developed until the 1950s by a man named C.H Stockwell. Stockwell divided the Shield into 3 great provinces - Superior, Churchill and Grenville - and 23 subprovinces.The Shield has had a profound effect on Canadian history, settlement and economic development. In pre-European times it was the home of nomadic hunters, who developed the birchbark canoe to travel its myriad waterways. Similar canoes were used by the Coureurs De Boi , voyagers and explorers to get into the continent.