Natural Resources Canada

Canada’s landscape is very diversified and comprises several distinctive areas, called physiographic regions, each of which has its own topography and geology. The physical geography of Canada comprises two great parts: the Shield and the Borderlands. The Shield consists of a core of old,...

This map shows the location of the Shield physiographic regions. The Shield is divided into five great regions: Kazan Region, Davis Region, Hudson Region, James Region and Laurentian Region. Each of these five regions is divided by subareas, and each of these subareas has its own geological...

Nine zones indicate the areas where various trees, shrubs and flowers are most likely to survive. These zones are calculated based on average climatic conditions and altitude of each area. The harshest zone is 0 and the mildest is 8. Each major zone is divided into subzones a and b (for example...

Canada is a vast country comprised of a multitude of very different landscapes: Atlantic provinces, the Appalachians, St. Lawrence and Great Lakes lowlands, Canadian Shield, The Prairies, mountain ranges and high plateaus of the Canadian Cordillera, and northern Canada.

Most unconsolidated materials covering the Canadian landmass have glacial origins. Some sediments were entrained by glaciers and deposited at a distance without being sorted. Other sediments were picked up and reworked by glacial melt water, or transported and deposited by river or wind action....

An earthquake is the rapid shaking of the Earth’s surface that follows the sudden release of energy within the Earth. They are most commonly caused by movements along the edges of the plates that make up the Earth’s crust. Each year, more than 3500 mostly small earthquakes are recorded in or near...

Floods are part of the natural hydrological cycle (the seasonal fluctuation of water levels) and occur along rivers and streams somewhere in Canada every year. Flooding is a common natural hazard that has caused 260 known disasters since 1900, resulting in the loss of 235 lives and 8.7 billion...

Fire danger rating is the process of systematically evaluating and integrating the factors that determine the ease of a fire starting and spreading, the difficulty of control, and the resulting impacts based on an assessment of ignition risk, the fire environment (fuels, weather, and topography)...

Forest fires are an important part of the Canadian landscape. The number of fires and area burned can vary dramatically from year to year, but there are more than 8000 reported wildfires in Canada during a typical year, burning an average of 2.5 million hectares or 25 000 square kilometres. Only...

A hotspot is a mark on an infrared satellite image indicating a heat source typical of burning vegetation. A hotspot may represent one fire or be one of several hotspots representing a larger fire. Hotspots are located and mapped as part of the Fire Monitoring, Mapping and Modeling System (Fire...

Forest fires are an important part of the Canadian landscape. The number of fires and area burned can vary dramatically from year to year, but there are more than 8000 reported wildfires in Canada during a typical year, burning an average of 2.5 million hectares or 25 000 square kilometres. Only...

Every year in Canada, thousands of people are evacuated from their homes and workplaces due to the threat of wildfire, and thousands more are put on evacuation alert. The wildland-urban interface refers to residential, industrial or agricultural developments that are located within or near...

Landslides are the downslope movements of sediment and rock. They can be found in any part of Canada, even in areas with very little relief. They happen in bedrock or in loose sediment, on land or under water. They can be large or small, rapid or slow, and generally occur without warning. This...

Avalanches are a mass movement of snow and ice down a hillside. They occur when unique circumstances of climate and topographic factors come together. This maps shows major avalanches beginning with the Rogers Pass avalanche in 1906 and extending to the 1999 avalanche in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Quebec.

Hail is precipitation consisting of ice pellets with a diameter of 5 millimetres or more. Hailstorms can occur anywhere in Canada. The most common period when hailstorms occur is from May to July, usually occurring with afternoon thunderstorms. Hailstorm with large hail pellets is spectacularly...

« Hurricane » is one of the names given to a tropical storm whose winds revolve around a center of low pressure called the eye, at a minimum speed of 120 kilometres per hour. At a center of hurricanes vortex - the eye - there is calm area of blue sky. Around this central column, there are very...

Tornadoes are columns of air that spin at a high rate of speed. They are small in scale but can be very violent. The area affected by a tornado's passage is between about 40 and 400 metres in width and between 1.7 and 36 kilometres in length. During a tornado the damage is due to wind as well as...

The magnetic field of the Earth is influenced by the electromagnetic environment of the solar system. The disturbed interplanetary environment changes the conditions of the natural electromagnetic environment of our planet and affects normal operation of space and ground technological...

The magnetic field of the Earth is influenced by the electromagnetic environment of the solar system. The disturbed interplanetary environment changes the conditions of the natural electromagnetic environment of our planet and affects normal operation of space and ground technological...

Storm surges occur in coastal areas when strong onshore winds and low atmospheric pressure during passing storms raise water levels along the shore above predicted levels. Storm surges occur on all four Canadian coasts (Pacific, Arctic, Atlantic and Great Lakes). The most severe known surges in...