Canada has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing a land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is to the northeast with a shared border on Hans Island. To the southeast Canada shares a maritime boundary with France's overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the last vestige of New France. By total area, Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, however, Canada ranks fourth, the difference being due to it having the world's largest proportion of fresh water lakes. Of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories, only two are landlocked while the other eleven all directly border one of three oceans.
The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton, the ancient geologic core of the North American continent. Glaciation has left the area with only a thin layer of soil, through which exposures of igneous bedrock resulting from its long volcanic history are frequently visible. As a deep, common, joined bedrock region in eastern and central Canada, the Shield stretches north from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, covering over half of Canada and most of Greenland; it also extends south into the northern reaches of the United States.
Ellesmere Island is Canada's northernmost and third largest island, and the tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of 196,236 km2 (75,767 sq mi), slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total length of the island is 830 km (520 mi).
Barbeau Peak is a mountain in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. Located on Ellesmere Island within Quttinirpaaq National Park, it is the highest mountain in Nunavut and the Canadian Arctic. The mountain was named in 1969 after Marius Barbeau, a Canadian anthropologist whose research into First Nations and Inuit cultures gained him international acclaim.
Eureka is a small research base on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Qikiqtaaluk Region, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is located on the north side of Slidre Fiord, which enters Eureka Sound farther west. It is the third-northernmost permanent research community in the world. The only two farther north are Alert, which is also on Ellesmere Island, and Nord, in Greenland. Eureka has the lowest average annual temperature and the lowest amount of precipitation of any weather station in Canada.
The Queen Elizabeth Islands are the northernmost cluster of islands in Canada's Arctic Archipelago, split between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Northern Canada. The Queen Elizabeth Islands contain approximately 14% of the global glacier and ice cap area.
The British Empire Range is a mountain range on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada. The range is one of the most northern ranges in the world and the Arctic Cordillera, surpassed only by the Challenger Mountains which lies immediately to the northwest and the United States Range slightly further east. The highest mountain in the range is Barbeau Peak.
Mount Whisler is a mountain of the British Empire Range on Canada's Ellesmere Island. It is the second highest peak of the British Empire Range, of Ellesmere Island, and of the Arctic Cordillera. It is located about 12 km (7.5 mi) northeast of Barbeau Peak, the highest peak in the Cordillera. The Henrietta Nesmith Glacier completely surrounds Mount Whisler.
The Innuitian Mountains are a mountain range in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, Canada. They are part of the Arctic Cordillera and are largely unexplored, due to the hostile climate. They are named after the northern indigenous people, the Inuit. In some locations the Innuitian Mountains measure over 2,500 m (8,202 ft) in height, and 1,290 km (802 mi) in length. The highest point is Barbeau Peak on Ellesmere Island at 2,616 m (8,583 ft). There are no trees and minimal wildlife in the Innuitian Mountains due to the harsh cold climate as well as being located north of the Arctic tree line. This region is mostly barren with vast areas of permafrost. There are metallic mineral resources including iron and zinc and fossil fuel resources such as coal.
The Arctic Lands is a physiographic region located in northern Canada. It is one of Canada's seven physiographic regions, which is divided into three divisions—the Innuitian Region, Arctic Coastal Plain, and Arctic Lowlands.
The Arctic Cordillera is a terrestrial ecozone in northern Canada characterized by a vast, deeply dissected chain of mountain ranges extending along the northeastern flank of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago from Ellesmere Island to the northeasternmost part of the Labrador Peninsula in northern Labrador and northern Quebec, Canada. It spans most of the eastern coast of Nunavut with high glaciated peaks rising through ice fields and some of Canada's largest ice caps, including the Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island. It is bounded to the east by Baffin Bay, Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea while its northern portion is bounded by the Arctic Ocean.
The Challenger Mountains are a mountain range on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada. The range is the most northern range in the world and of the Arctic Cordillera. The highest mountain in the range is Commonwealth Mountain 2,225 m (7,300 ft). The United States Range is immediately to the east of the Challenger Mountains.
The Innuitian orogeny, sometimes called the Ellesmere orogeny, was a major tectonic episode responsible for the formation of a series of mountain ranges in the Canadian Arctic and Northernmost Greenland. The episode started with the earliest Paleozoic rifting, extending from Ellesmere Island to Melville Island. However, the cause of the orogen remains poorly understood.
The Innuitian Region is a physiographic division of Canada's far north. It is one of three physiographic divisions of the Arctic Lands physiographic region, along with the Arctic Coastal Plain, and the Arctic Lowlands.The Queen Elizabeth Islands comprise most of the region, which is also considered to be part of the Arctic Archipelago.
The Prince of Wales Mountains are a mountain range running along the central-east coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. The range is one of the most northern ranges in the world and of the Arctic Cordillera, which is a vast deeply dissected mountain range from Ellesmere Island to the northernmost tip of Labrador. The Prince of Wales Icefield lies mostly in the range.
Commonwealth Mountain is a mountain on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. It lies in western Quttinirpaaq National Park, which is the most northerly extent of Canada, and is the second most northerly park on Earth after Northeast Greenland National Park.
The Sawtooth Range is a jagged snow-capped mountain range on central Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. It lies between the Fosheim Peninsula and the Wolf Valley. The Sawtooth Range is a subrange of the Arctic Cordillera. It also runs through a Canadian Forces Station, called Eureka, a base used to study atmospheric changes.
The uninhabited Marvin Islands are located in the Arctic Ocean across the mouth of Disraeli Fiord, in northern Ellesmere Island within the Quttinirpaaq National Park. Ward Hunt Island lies to the northwest. The island group is a part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada.
Hat Island is an uninhabited island located in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is situated in Eureka Sound, at the confluence of Bay Fjord, east of Ellesmere Island's Raanes Peninsula and 19.6 km (12.2 mi) west of Stor Island. It is a member of the Sverdrup Islands group and the Arctic Archipelago. It is also a member of the Queen Elizabeth Islands and the Arctic Archipelago.
