Landscape


Most of Canada's Northern region is covered with permafrost, (frost extended underground for hundreds of meters, making the ground permanently frozen).

Canada's Northern region is also made up of Tundra. Tundra has icy, cold snow, that covers the ground all year long. Short grasses, bushes, some flowers, lichens, and other small plants can grow and bloom in the Tundra, but other plants like trees, cannot break through the frozen ground with their roots. During the summer, the ground may thaw (if warm enough) a few centimeters to a few meters, forming lakes, ponds, swamps, and muskeg.

The elevation of the broad flat land of the Mackenzie Valley, decreases as you go north. The Mackenzie River flows between very high gravel banks. People do not live in this area, but rather choose to live along (by) Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes.

Glaciers and icecaps can be found across the mountainous western and eastern sides of Canada's Northern region. Mount Logan (the highest mountain in Canada) at 5950 meters, is located in the Yukon territory. Ice cover which never melts, is the polar ice pack. Ice in the channels of the far Arctic Islands, never breaks up. These northeastern islands are joined together, as one large land mass, by permanent sea ice. In warmer summer temperatures, a narrow strip of ice along the shore, may melt.

Ravines, fiords, high cliffs, valleys, rounded hills, lakes, and barren rocky flatlands make up the plateau landscape of Canada's Northern region. The Yukon River created broad valleys, which made it easier to build roads, attracting people to form settlements.

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