The Canadian Shield

The Canadian Shield consists of over eight million square kilometers of pre-Cambrian “shield”, and is the exposed portion of the ancient geological core of North America. It also includes a small portion of the northeastern United States. Three locations within the Canadian Shield which exhibit varying characteristics in their underlying physical environments are: Baffin Island, an island which belongs to the Canadian territory of Nunavut; La Veredrye Wildlife Reserve in Montcerf-Lytton, a municipality in Quebec, Canada; and Big Falls, a small town in north-central Minnesota.

These three locations display three very different climate patterns. Below are climographs representing the climate normals for each location.

One characteristic that is shared by the entirety of the Canadian Shield is very thin soil due to glaciation.

Baffin Island's soil is primarily permafrost, a permanently frozen layer beneath the earth's surface.

Source: nrdc.org

The soil of La Veredrye Wildlife Reserve is primarily podzolic soil.

Source: diyinfozone.com

The soil in Big Falls, MN has been found to be mostly complex and ponded. The series is known as Greenwood.

Sources:

June 26, 2. (2019, November 21). Permafrost: Everything you need to know. Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/permafrost-everything-you-need-know

Kylie. (2019, May 10). Behind the Canadian Shield. Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/behind-canadian-shield

National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). (n.d.). Climate data online data tools. Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools

National Geographic Society. (2012, October 09). Permafrost. Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/permafrost/

Podzolic. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://soilsofcanada.ca/orders/podzolic.php

Soil Composition: Understanding Soil. (2011, July 29). Retrieved February/March, 2021, from http://www.diyinfozone.com/soil-composition-understanding-soil

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