Browse "Geographical features"

Displaying 316-330 of 457 results
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Old Crow Plain

The vegetation is of the tundra type, with outliers of the boreal spruce forest; willow thickets line the course of the Old Crow River.

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Pacific Rim

The term Pacific Rim has been used to refer to all those countries with coastlines bordering the Pacific Ocean. However, in recent years the term has become synonymous with the Asia Pacific region which encompasses East and Southeast Asia, South Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

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Parry Islands

The Parry Islands are a group of high arctic islands comprising Melville, Bathurst and Cornwallis islands, as well as a number of smaller ones. Melville is the largest of the 3 main islands and is also the highest, exceeding 1000 m in places.

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Partridge Island

Partridge Island is located in the Bay of Fundy, about 1 km from the shoreline and the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. The island was set aside as a quarantine station in 1785 and operated as such between 1830 and 1941. Many immigrants arriving to Canada by ship, including thousands of  Irish in 1847, were isolated on the island before being allowed to enter the country. This was done in an effort to prevent the spread of infectious diseases common on overcrowded vessels. In 1974, the Partridge Island quarantine station was designated a national historic site. Other important events are associated with the island, including the installation of the world’s first steam-operated fog alarm in 1859 (see also Robert Foulis).

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Passamaquoddy Bay

Passamaquoddy Bay is a small inlet near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. Its mouth is restricted by a chain of islands, including Deer and Campobello, and strong tides (range 8.3 m) prevail in the region.

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Peace River

Peace River, 1,923 km long, is one of the principal tributaries of the Mackenzie River system. The name of the river refers to a settlement between Cree and Dane-Zaa (Beaver) warring parties around 1781 at Peace Point at the lower portion of the river. The Dane-Zaa word for the river is unchaga, meaning “big river”; the Cree word for the settlement there is sâkitawâhk.

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Peace River Lowland

The Peace River Lowland is a gently rolling lowland without clearly defined outer boundaries, extending east of the Rocky Mountains on both sides of the Peace River, sloping downward to the north and east.

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Percé Rock

Percé Rock (or Rocher Percé) is a monolith off the Gaspé Pen​insula, 750 km east of ​Québec City, near its namesake, the town of Per​cé.

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Physiographic Regions

Canada may be divided into seven physiographic regions. The Canadian Shield is the largest and oldest of these regions. The other six physiographic regions are younger and form two concentric rings around the Canadian Shield. The outer, older ring contains the Western Cordillera, Canadian Arctic and Appalachian Region. The second, younger ring contains the Interior Plains, Hudson Bay Lowlands and the St. Lawrence Lowlands. These regions may be further sub-divided based on their structure, relief and the presence or absence of permafrost and forest cover (see Natural Regions). Areas quoted for these regions are the land areas and do not include adjacent continental shelves or bodies of ocean water within Canada's territorial limits. Readers should also note that the abbreviation “masl” stands for “metres above sea level.”

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Pine Pass

Pine Pass, elevation 874 m, crosses the continental divide northwest-southeast in northeastern BC. The Pine River rises southwest of the pass then flows northwest to meet the Peace River, near Fort St John.

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Placentia Bay

Placentia Bay, from the French plaisance (meaning a "pleasant place"), is a large, deep bay formed by Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula to the west, and the southwestern Avalon Peninsula to the east.

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Port-au-Port Peninsula

Port-au-Port peninsula is a roughly triangular peninsula with 130 km of rocky coastline but no harbours. The peninsula is joined to southwestern Newfoundland via a strip of land west of Stephenville. Port-au-Port is home to Newfoundland’s oldest francophone communities (see Francophones of Newfoundland and Labrador).