QUIZ ANSWERS

MINERALS

1. a) True. About 30,000 people had reached Dawson by summer 1898.

2. c) Uranium. Atomic fission was being developed as an energy source.

3. b) Iron. The town sits in the Labrador Trough, one of the world’s richest iron regions.

4. a) True.

5. c) The Johnny Cash song. Richard Nemis, former president of Noront Resources and a big Johnny Cash fan, came up with the name after observing the circular shape of the region’s magnetic signature.

6. c) Both a and b. Most mined molybdenum, however, is used as an alloy in steel production.

7. d) Medicine Hat. Alberta’s first natural gas well was drilled near the city in 1883.

8. d) 4.54 billion years.

9. b) False. The Shield is mainly igneous and metamorphic rocks.

10. b) False. All of Canada’s uranium comes from northern Saskatchewan.

LANDFORMS

11. b) 5,959 metres. This height was confirmed using GPS in 1992.

12. d) Laurentian Mountains, Que. These rounded peaks contain Precambrian rocks more than 540 million years old.

13. b) The Continental Divide. Water drains in opposite directions on each side of this continental ridge.

14. a) 2.3 centimetres west-southwest (that’s nearly 2½ metres every 100 years).

15. c) Gros Morne National Park, N.L.

16. d) Drumlins. Usually formed in groups, drumlins align with the direction of glacial movement.

17. a) Milk River. The art was carved by the Blackfoot and Shoshone thousands of years ago.

18. c) Lack of glaciation. Large parts of Haida Gwaii were glacier-free during the last ice age.

19. b) 6. The Canadian Shield, Interior Platform, Appalachian Orogen, Innuitian Orogen, Cordillera and Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, and the Eastern Continental Margin.

20. a) True. The eruption, in northwest B.C., has been dated to around 1904.

WATER

21. d) 60. Amazingly, Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

22. b) 5. In order: Superior, Huron, Great Bear, Great Slave and Erie.

23. b) Groundwater. Nearly nine million Canadians rely on groundwater, compared to the roughly 8.5 million who depend on the Great Lakes.

24. a) Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

25. c) 200 nautical miles (371 kilometres).

26. b) Deepest lake in North America. The East Arm of Great Slave is 614 metres deep.

27. d) North to subarctic regions and the Arctic Ocean.

28. a) O’hara. Lake O’hara lies in B.C.’S Yoho National Park.

29. b) False. The world’s largest freshwater archipelago is Ontario’s Georgian Bay Islands, a collection of 30,000 islands in Georgian Bay.

30. c) The Fraser rises from the Rocky Mountains and runs 1,370 kilometres to the Pacific Ocean.

ICE AND SNOW

31. c) Two to three years. By the time they reach southeast Newfoundland, they’re typically about the size of 15-storey buildings.

32. c) 10-15. The majority of deadly backcountry avalanches are triggered by the victims.

33. d) New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island.

34. c) 94. Six of these are among the world’s 30 largest islands.

35. a) Density. Thousands of years of compression eliminate the bubbles that normally reflect the whole spectrum of white light.

36. b) False. One is found in Greenland (1.7 million square kilometres), the other in Antarctica (14 million square kilometres).

37. a) 20 centimetres. Ice this thick is generally capable of supporting up to 1,600 kilograms.

38. a) True. The Arctic Ocean’s straits, sounds and channels are more likely to trap ice as it forms and reforms.

39. b) Dry dock. These icebergs have a U-shaped channel or enclosure, at or near water level, and at least two pinnacles.

40. a) Columbia Icefield. This 215-square-kilometre icefield contains 30 or more glaciers.