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Chapter 20 – Geological History of Canada

Canada: A Young Nation, But An Old Country

 Canada has been in existence since 1867
o Act of Confederation brought together Ontario, NB, NS, and Quebec
o Last to join was Newfoundland in 1949
 NA continent was assembled by plate tectonics processes that brought
together many smaller land masses
o Process of continental building has taken more than 4 billion years
 Construction of NA began at least 4000 million years ago with formation of
Acasta Gneiss of Northwest Territories (Slave province of Canadian Shield)
 NA was complete by 65 million years ago
o Modern landscape is result of glaciation in last 2.5 million years
o Last ice sheet left 12000 years ago and melted in Labrador 6000 years
ago

What Are the Main Geological “Building Blocks” of North America?

A Geologic Jigsaw
 Northern part of continent is underlain by exposed part of ancient core or
craton of NA
o Called Canadian Shield and consists of old Archean and Proterozoic
rocks
 Craton is composed of several geologic provinces
 Geologic provinces – regions of similar rocks, usually covering many
thousands of square kilometres, with characteristics that differ significantly
from rock types present in adjacent areas
o Subdivided into sub-provinces, which are fault-bounded units
containing similar rock types, structures, and mineral deposits
 Provinces and sub provinces are now widely recognized to be terranes
 Terranes – discrete fragments of oceanic or continental material that have
been added to a craton at an active margin by accretion
o Welded together by plate tectonics processes
 NA craton is largest in the world

The North American Craton versus the Canadian Shield

 Shield is the exposed part of the craton
 Term “shield” was introduced by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess around
1912
 CS is large landform called peneplain (almost a plain), which is surface of
low relief and great areal extent and age
o Created 800 million years ago through erosion and bevelling
 Ancient craton created by fusion of separate geological provinces buried
around its margin by younger sedimentary cover strata

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The Geologic Jigsaw of the North American Craton

 Rocks get younger from interior of NA to
coasts
 “Geological provinces” first used by Sir
William Logan
 Uniformitarianism – current geologic
processes are past events being repeated

How Did the North American Continent Evolve?

Stages in the Evolution of the NA Continent

 Within oldest part of continent, geologic
processes are rimmed by intensely deformed
rocks that form ancient orogens
 Orogens – consist of crushed and deformed
rocks that represent remains of mountain
belts or volcanic arcs formed during collision
 Geologists suggest NA can be broken down into five different stages
o Each stage is characterized by major plate tectonics event
 Wilson Cycle – process of repeated continental aggradation and breakup
o Resulted in development of supercontinents

Stage 1 – Arctica: NA in the Archean

 Some of oldest rocks on Earth are found in Slave Province
o 2.96 – 4.05 billion years old
o Formed Arctica
 Arctica began to form by 2.5 billion years ago, but not completed by 2 billion
years ago
 Focus of mineral-exploration activity
 Subprovinces – composed of distinct rock type
 Plutonic subprovinces – composed of granites
 Greenstone subprovinces – consist of metamorphosed sea-floor volcanic
rocks, such as basalt
 Metasedimentary subprovinces – consist of deep-sea Archean ocean
sediments
 Southern part was major glaciation (Gowganda glaciation)
o One of oldest glaciation recorded on Earth
o Dated around 2.4 billion years ago

Stage 2 – Nena and Rodinia: NA in the Proterozoic

 Southern part of Canadian Shield was added to Arctica about 1.9 billion years
ago to form larger land mass called Nena

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 Created major Himalayan-type mountain range near northern end of Lake

Huron
o Destroyed by erosion, but deep roots remain

Stage 3 – The Grenville Orogeny and Formation of Rodinia

 Greenville orogeny – result of long-lived collision between South and North
America
o Eastern NA was formed by accretion of smaller land masses
 As result of collision, huge supercontinent called Rodinia was created
 Grenville orogenic belt is dominated by gneisses, highly metamorphosed
sediments, and igneous rocks
 CS forms one of most extensive and ancient landforms in world and is
remarkable because geologists have little detailed knowledge of how such a
landscape formed

Rodinia Breaks Apart

 Supercontinents are unstable and self-destruct over time
o Their large extent prevents heat from escaping from Earth’s interior
 Process of continental breakup commences with formation of triple junction
o Consists of interlinked grabens that eventually grow and widen into
new ocean basin
 Initial breakup of Rodinia started around 750 million years ago
o Finished about 570 million years ago
 Last tear occurred along eastern margin of NA to form ancestral Atlantic
Ocean called Iapetus Ocean
o Closely resembled modern Atlantic Ocean
 Cambrian explosion – beginning 542 million years ago
o Most major animal phyla appeared

Stage 4 – Pangea: NA in the Late Paleozoic and Some of the Mesozoic

 Iapetus Ocean was beginning to close by about 480 million year sago
 Land mass called Baltica approached eastern seaboard of NA (Laurentia)
o Eventually collided to form Laurasia
 Collision caused major orogenic event – Taconic Orogeny
o Arc of volcanic islands rose high about active subduction zone off
eastern NA and huge volcanoes spewed ash into continental interior
 Closure of Iapetus Ocean resulted in buckling of outer margins of the NA
craton and formation of downwarped sedimentary basins
o Appalachian basin
 Canada’s first oil strike – 1858; Petrolia in southwestern Ontario

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How Were the Atlantic Provinces Added to Canada?

 Taconic Orogeny marks beginning of construction of Pangea
 Completed when Laurasia docked with Gondwana
 This caused Acadian Orogeny and later Alleghenian Orogeny

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o Result of Appalachian Mountains

 In eastern Canada, large terranes were added to NA as micro-continents during
these three Orogenies
o How modern-day Atlantic provinces came into being
 During late Carboniferous, the Alleghanian Orogeny produced Maritime Basin
o Composed of many smaller interconnected basins separated by active
faults and lay within highlands of Appalachian mountain belt
 Cyclothems – repeated cycles of coal, fluvial, and marine deposits
 Clearest evidence for plate collision occurs in Newfoundland
 NFL is made up of three distinct geological zones
o Western part formed eastern edge of Laurentia
o Central part is composed of rocks that made up floor of Iapetus Ocean
o Eastern part is fragment of Eurasia and Africa

Where Did British Columbia Come From?

Stage 5 – Canada in Mesozoic: Pangea Breaks Apart and British Columbia Is Swept Up
 Pangea started to break up 200 million years ago
 Northern part of Pangea (Laurasia) was beginning to detach around 165 million
years ago forming Tethys Ocean
 Area of BC was chains of volcanic islands, hot spots, ocean-floor rocks, and
microcontinents
o These land masses were eventually swept up and accreted onto western
NA to form mountain belts of BC, Alberta, Yukon, and NW territories
 Referred to as Canadian Cordillera
 Canadian Cordillera is subdivided into five main geological belts
o Result from accretion of far-travelled terranes
 Oldest collisional event has historically been referred to as Columbian Orogeny
 Second major orogenic event occurred between 150 and 100 million years ago
o Called Laramide Orogeny
 Large Wrangellia terrane (WR) was broken during faulting and is now found in
several different areas of western NA
o Composed of old oceanic crust
 Yakutat Terrane (YA) is in process of docking against Alaska with its easternmost
margin defined by major fault and high mountains
 During formation of Cordillera, strata along margin of Rodinia were compressed
to form mountains in interior of BV
o Sediment from eroding mountains was shed into Western Interior
Sedimentary Basin
 Hydrocarbon traps – where oil and gas that would otherwise escape to Earth’s
surface become trapped
 Western Canada’s first major oil discovery – 1913 at Turner Valley (Calgary)
 Saskatchewan – world’s largest producer of potash

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Where Can We Find Dinosaurs in Canada?

 Western Interior Sedimentary Basin is famous no only for oil and gas but also for
its rich fossil remains
 More than 150 dinosaur special have been identified in Dinosaur Provincial Park
and Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology
 Museum is named after geologist J.B. Tyrrell
o Found first fossil remains in Alberta in 1884
 Canada’s oldest dinosaur fossils were found in Nova Scotia

Why Did the Dinosaurs Disappear So Suddenly?

 Massive meteorite impact that hit Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago
 This impact event is thought to have contributed to demise of dinosaurs as well as
75% of all plant species and 90% of plankton species in oceans

How Did the Canadian Rockies Form?

 Formed of layered sedimentary rocks that were displaced eastward by 150 km as
result of compression caused by collisional events along western margin of NA
 Rocks detached and folded and thrust over one another
 Harder limestones form slab-sided mountains in Front and Main ranges of
Rockies
 Mountains were formed as result of deep glacial erosion and mass wasting during
glaciations of past 2.5 million years
 Rockies are relatively young mountains

Where Did the Ice Sheets Develop?

Canada in the Cenozoic: The Arctic Cools Down

 Global climates during Mesozoic are considered to have been relatively warm and
equable
 Paleo-climatic evidence indicate that global climates began to cool down around
60 million years ago
 Formation of Antarctic Ice Sheet at about 40 million years ago marked beginning
of more pronounced global cooling
 Cooling phase was to result in formation of mountain glaciers and continental ice
sheets
 Key contributors - Radical changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation

Canada in the Quaternary: Ice Sheets Come and Go

 Over past 2 million years, Canada has been repeatedly covered by enormous ice
sheets
 Cordilleran Ice Sheet – western Canada and covered Rockies and BC
 Laurentide Ice Sheet extended from Prairies and read down to US

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o Was as max as 3km thick

 Nunataks – highest mountain peaks protruded through the ice
 Last major advance of ice sheet began about 100,000 years ago
o Northern Quebec and Labrador
o Oscillated in size until about 25,000 years ago
o Expanded to its maximum size around 18,000 years ago
o Last of it melted in northern Quebec about 6000 years ago

Canadian Landscapes Produced by Glacial Erosion

 Most extensive landscape created by glaciers and ice sheets is the Canadian
Shield
 High plateau of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Baffin Island, into which narrow,
steep-sided troughs are cut, forms classic Canadian landscape
 Glacial erosion created final striking form of Rocky Mountains
 Great Lakes – largest in the world

Canadian Landscape Features Produced by Glacial Deposition

 Deposits of glacial sediment allowed deep soils to develop in last 10000 years,
creating productive agricultural land
 Drumlin field – contains many hundred of hills
 Form of drumlin fields contrasts with haphazard look of glacial deposits forming
hummocky moraine
o Covers prairies of central and western Canada
o High-standing hummocks are randomly interspersed with hollows that are
often filled with water
 Erratics – findling boulders
 Megablocks – enormous slabs of rock
 Glaciomarine clays of eastern Canada underlie large areas of St. Lawrence Valley
o Deposited on floor of Champlain Sea as Laurentide Ice Sheet was
retreating northward about 11,000 years ago

Canada’s Geology: A Project in Progress?

 Evolution continues as entire country moves westward at velocities of up to 6 cm
a year
 Intracratonic earthquakes – occur in central and eastern Canada
o Record displacement along buried aulacogens
 Large areas of country continue to slowly rise in elevation recording unloading of
crust (isostatic rebound) following retreat of ice sheet
 Landslides, rock falls, and cliff retreat recording the continual processes of mass
movement, erosion, and sediment transport
 Major Canadian rivers continue to shape landscape
 Fraser River delta in BC has grown more than 25 km in past 10000 years
 If climate change continues, Canada will cool down and next Laurentide Ice Sheet

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will start to form over northern Quebec and Labrador in 5000 years
o Long before then, global warming will occur
o Raises many questions for Canadians

Why Is It Important to Understand the Geological History of Canada?

 Canada as become one of world’s most urbanized countries
o 80% of population living in urban areas
 As cities expand, hazards posed by earthquakes, landslides, and floods increase
 Issue of drinking water
o Protection of quality and quantity of ground and surface waters for future
uses
o Water is resource of future
o Groundwater is at risk from urbanization
 Much new mineral wealth remains to be discovered on Canadian Shield
 Search for our own origins and history of other organisms and past climates is
also dependent on our ability to interpret the geologic record
 All of these create a need for continuing research and investigation by geoscience
students
o New questions and new techniques

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