Paleogeomorphology:

● What to put on the map first?

○ Logical starting point is Canada’s physical environment
■ Canada’s physical geography underlies its distribution of population and
the fundamental structure of its economy
■ “Circumstances defining a favourable base can change over time and
such changes have the power to alter the prospect for regional expansion
and contraction” - Bone
● How the basic structure of North America Evolved?

○
○ 4.5 Billion years old
■ North America landmass is young by comparison at a mere 66 million
years
■ Earth began as a fiery ball of lava in the Hadean period
● Since cooled to allow for the formation of water and continents
● Canadian shield is a remnant from the early volatile volcanic days
on Earth and contains some of Earth’s oldest igneous rocks
■ Evolution of present day continental configuration took 100s of millions
of years with many supercontinents such as Rodinia and Pangea forming
across this span of time
● Mountain Belts are often built from forces called convergence, stress, and strain
○ As two tectonic plates squeeze together, the rock is piled up in the middle of
formed mountains
○ This is how the rocky mountains were made roughly 60 million years ago
● An Epeiric sea is an inland sea caused by high sea levels
 ○ One covered most of the interior of North America during the Mesozoic era
○ High sea levels are often what led to the characteristic limestone caps of lowland
areas like Alberta Badlands
● Creatures that once roamed Canada

○
○ Dinosaur provincial park in alberta
● The North American Landmass through the years
○ The candian shield has formed North America’s core or its bedrock bottom
○ Epeiric seas have laid million of years of sediment and 3 principle mountain
chains have been created