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Significant Canadian Facts
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| Canada
boasts some of the most interesting extremes (superlative)
facts of any country. Click on the map below to discover
some of our biggest, longest and highest features.
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- Total
Area of Canada
- The total area of Canada is 9 984 670 square kilometres.
Of this, 9 093 507 square kilometres is land and 891
163 square kilometres is fresh water. Canada's area
is the second largest in the world (after Russia which
has a total area of 17 075 000 square kilometres).
On Canadian territory, the longest distance North
to South (on land) is 4 634 kilometres from Cape Columbia
on Ellesmere Island (photo
of Ellesmere Island), Nunavut to Middle Island
in Lake Erie, Ontario. The longest distance East to
West is 5 514 kilometres from Cape Spear, Newfoundland
and Labrador (photo
of Cape Spear), to the Yukon Territory - Alaska
boundary (photo
of boundary).
- Boundary
- The total length of the Canada-United States boundary (photo of the boundary) is 8890 kilometres.
- Landmass
and Freshwater
- Approximately 40% of Canada's landmass and freshwater is north of 60 degrees North latitude. Between them, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut contains 9.2% of the world's total freshwater. The area of Canada north of the treeline is 2 728 800 square kilometres or 27.4% of the total area of the country.
- Earthquakes
- Canada's largest, and one of the world's greatest
earthquakes, happened on the 22nd of August 1949,
off the Queen Charlotte Islands (53°62' N 133°27'
W). The magnitude was 8.1 and it was widely felt.
Some damage occurred on the Queen Charlotte Islands.
One of most destructive Canadian earthquakes happened
on the 18th of November 1929, in the Atlantic Ocean,
south of Newfoundland. The magnitude was 7.2 and it
was widely felt. Twenty-seven people were drowned
and much damage was caused by a tsunami on the Burin
Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland.
- The
Great Lakes
- The Great Lakes - Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie
and Ontario - are the largest group of freshwater
lakes in the world. They have a total surface area
of 245 000 square kilometres, of which about one
third is in Canada. Lake Michigan is entirely within
the USA. Read
more facts on other Canadian Lakes
- Coastline
- Canada has the world's longest coastline (photo of a coastline):
202 080 kilometres. Read more facts on Canada's Coastline
- Niagara Falls
- Niagara Falls (on the Niagara River) is acknowledged
as one of the world's greatest cataracts because of
its height and its estimated mean annual flow of 6000
cubic metres per second. Read
more facts on Canadian Waterfalls
- Non-polar Ice Field
- The largest non-polar ice field in the world can
be found in the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon Territory.
It covers an area of 40 570 square kilometres of
which 16 900 square kilometres are located in Canada,
the remainder being in Alaska. Read
more facts on Canada's Glaciers
- Trans-Canada
Highway
- The Trans-Canada Highway length (using the Perth-Peterborough-Parry
Sound route) is 7604 kilometres. It is the longest
national highway in the world.
- Alaska Highway
- The fastest-built highway is the Alaska Highway
(photo
of the Alaska Highway) which runs from Dawson
Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska. All
2451 kilometres of this highway were built in less
than a year (1942 to 1943). Fireweed (photo
of fireweed), the floral emblem of Yukon Territory,
is a common sight along the Alaska Highway.
- Dempster Highway
- The northernmost highway is the Dempster Highway
(photo
of Dempster Highway) found mainly in Yukon Territory.
It is the only public highway above the Arctic Circle
that is open year-round. It runs from near Dawson,
Yukon, to Inuvik, Northwest Territories; a distance
of 720 kilometres.
- Hailstorm
- At the time it happened, the most expensive natural
catastrophe in terms of property damage was a violent
hailstorm that struck Calgary (photo
of Calgary) on September 7, 1991. Insurance companies
paid about $400 million to repair over 65 000 cars,
60 000 homes and businesses, and a number of aircraft.
- Tornado
- The Regina Tornado of June 30, 1912, rated as F4
(winds of 330 to 416 kilometres per hour) was the
most severe tornado so far known in Canada. It killed
28 people, injured hundreds and demolished much of
the downtown area.
- Most Severe Flood
- The most severe flood in Canadian history occurred
on October 14 to 15, 1954 when Hurricane Hazel brought
214 millimetres of rain in Toronto region in just
72 hours.
- Manitoulin Island
- The world's largest island in a freshwater lake
is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, 2765 square kilometres.
- Mount Logan
- The highest mountain in Canada is Mount Logan, Yukon
Territory, 5959 metres. Read
more facts on other Canadian Mountains
- Baffin Island
- The largest island in Canada is Baffin Island (photo of Baffin Island), Nunavut,
507 451 square kilometres. Read more facts on Canada's Sea Islands
- Della Falls
- The highest waterfall in Canada is Della Falls,
British Columbia, 440 metres high. Read
more facts on Canadian Waterfalls
- Chilko Lake
- The highest major lake (over 100 square kilometres)
in Canada is Chilko Lake, British Columbia. Its elevation
is 1171 metres and area is 158 square kilometres. Read more facts on Canadian Lakes
- Bay of Fundy
- The world's highest tide is in the Bay of Fundy (Bay of Fundy) at Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia. The mean
large tide range is 16.1 metres. Read more facts on Tides
- Eureka
- The lowest tide in Canada is at Eureka (photo
of Eureka), Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. The tidal
range is about 0.1 metres. Read
more facts on Tides
- Mackenzie River
- The longest river is the Mackenzie River (photo
of the Mackenzie River), Northwest Territories-Alberta-British
Columbia, whose length is 4 241 kilometres. It is
the river system with the largest drainage area: 1
805 200 square kilometres. Read
more facts on other Canadian Rivers
- Great Bear Lake
- The largest lake wholly in Canada is Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, 31 328 square kilometres. Read more facts on Canadian Lakes
- Great Slave Lake
- The deepest lake is Great Slave Lake, Northwest
Territories, 614 metres deep. Read
more facts on Canadian Lakes
- Largest Hydro-electric Power Development
- The largest hydro-electric power development in
Canada is the James Bay project in Quebec, which started
producing electricity in 1982; its eight dams and
198 dikes contain five reservoirs covering 11 900
square kilometres (half the size of Lake Ontario).
The combined output of its generating stations is
15 237 megawatts. Read
more about this project at the Hydro-Québec
site.
- Only Walled City
- The only walled city north of Mexico is Québec; it
was also the first city in North America to be placed on UNESCO's
World Heritage Sites list.
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