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Geography of Canada

Location: Northern North America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and North Packfica Ocean, north of the conterminous US.

Canada is the second-largest country in world after Russia, but much of that land is wilderness and is only very sparsley populated. Nearly 90% of the population is concentrated within 160 km of the Canada-US border. Canada also has the world's longest coastline.

Geographic coordinates: 60 00 N, 95 00 W

Map references: North America

Area:

Area - comparative: slightly larger than the US

Land boundaries:

Coastline: 243,791 km

Maritime claims:

Maritime border countries: Greenland, France - French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Climate: varies from temperate in south to subarctic and arctic in north

Terrain: Canada has a varied terrain. The west of the country is extremely mountainess with the Rocky Mountains being the largest range. The center area of the country is a vast sedimetary plain that makes up most of the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The north of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec is located on the vast rocky Canadian Shield which cannot support agriculture but does have large mineral reserves. The south of Ontario and Quebec is rich agricultural land that is the centre of Canada's produce and dairy farms. It is also the most heavily populated part of the country. The maritime provinces have the Adirondack Mountains, but these are quite short and the provinces are generally flat.

Elevation extremes:

Latitude and longitude extremes: Natural resources: iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydropower

Land use:

Irrigated land: 7,100 km² (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: continuous permafrost in north is a serious obstacle to development; cyclonic storms form east of the Rocky Mountains, a result of the mixing of air masses from the Arctic, Pacific, and North American interior, and produce most of the country's rain and snow

Environment - current issues: air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affecting lakes and damaging forests; metal smelting, coal-burning utilities, and vehicle emissions impacting on agricultural and forest productivity; ocean waters becoming contaminated due to agricultural, industrial, mining, and forestry activities

Environment - international agreements:

Geography - note: strategic location between Russia and US via north polar route;

See also : Canada, List of Canadian national parks