Arctic SDI catalogue
Hydrogeological regions of Canada
Hydrogeological Regions provide a framework to introduce the regional hydrogeology of Canada and to connect apparently disparate studies into a broader framework. The hydrological regions are first order areas used to capture and summarize data that will help develop more detailed profiles of each region. Comparison of findings within and between regions will allow scalable extension to sub-regional and watershed scale mapping.
Canada has been classified into nine principal hydrogeological regions. Each region is described briefly based on the following five hydrogeological characteristics (Heath, 1984):
system components and geometry;
water-bearing openings;
rock matrix composition;
storage and transmission;
recharge/ discharge.
The hydrogeological classification emphasizes major geological provinces and rock formations. Fundamental water-bearing openings and rock matrix properties help determine the quantity (storage), flux (transmission), and composition of formation waters. These same properties and any overlying sediment cover affect recharge/ discharge rates for regional formations. While regional attributes are general, a simple aquifer mapping scheme can further describe the nature and character of aquifers in each region. For example, general groundwater settings across the country could be described as has been done by USGS principal aquifers [1]. Thus the regional framework can potentially link from national scales to watershed scales by identifying typical aquifer types based on readily available geological maps that use water-bearing character as a common attribute.
The nine hydrogeological regions include:
Cordillera
Mountains with thin sediment over fractured sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks of Precambrian to Cenozoic age. Intermontane valleys are underlain by glacial and alluvial deposits of Pleistocene age.
Plains (Western Sedimentary Basin)
Region-wide basin of sub-horizontal Paleozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks are overlain by thick glacial deposits filling buried valleys. Incised post-glacial valleys provide local relief. Shallow gas, coal, and brines may occur.
Canadian Shield
Undulating region of thin glacial sediment overlying complex deformed, fractured PreCambrian igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Region contains several terrains: sedimentary basins, structural belts, and glacial-lacustrine basins.
Hudson Bay (Moose River) Basin
Sedimentary basin of Paleozoic to Mesozoic sub horizontal carbonate and clastic sediment covered by surficial deposits, with low relief and poor drainage.
Southern Ontario
Eastern Great Lakes region is underlain by gently-dipping Paleozoic, carbonate, clastic and gypsum-salt strata overlain by glacial sediments up to 200 m thick with tunnel valleys. Karst, bedrock valleys, shallow gas and brines are also important components.
St. Lawrence Lowlands
Lowlands underlain by shallow-dipping Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and thick glacial sediment in glacial-marine basins. Appalachian and Precambrian uplands discharge water to valleys. Shallow gas and saltwater intrusion are possible.
Appalachia
Upland to mountainous region with thin surficial sediment on folded Paleozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks. Range of rock types yields a wide range of water compositions. Valleys contain important alluvial aquifers.
Maritimes Basin
Lowlands with flat-lying, Carboniferous clastic , salt, and gypsum rocks contain shallow coal deposits. Surface glacial sediment is thin and discontinuous. Salt water intrusion is possible.
Permafrost
Arctic islands and most areas north of 60o contain frozen ground affects on groundwater flow. Diverse topography and geology define sub-regions of sedimentary basins and crystalline rocks. Glacial sediment is thin, discontinuous; local peat accumulations are significant.
Simple
- Date ( RI_367 )
- 2023-08-08
- Date ( RI_366 )
- 2023-08-08
- Presentation form
- mapDigital;carteNumérique RI_391
- Name
- Open File
- Issue identification
- 5893
- Other citation details
- Hydrogeological regions of Canada: Data release; Sharpe, D. R., Russell, H. A. J., Grasby, S., Wozniak, P. R. J. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5893, 2008, 20 pages; 1 CD-ROM, https://doi.org/10.4095/226194
- Purpose
- Groundwater is important to health, economy and ecosystems in Canada. It has been routinely surveyed since early last century, yet groundwater has not been mapped in a systematic way across the country. Hydrogeological Regions provide a framework for assessing the regional hydrogeology of Canada and can be used to distinguish controls on water occurrence, availability, and flow. These regions provide a first order summary of the nature and controls on groundwater systems that need to be communicated to Canadians in support of water policy and land use decision-making. Integration with related data sources that focus on geological controls, surficial deposits, climate, vegetation, land cover, and land use will provide greater insight to hydrologic processes. The region areas capture and summarize data that will develop more detailed characterization of regional hydrogeology, and comparison of findings within and between regions will allow scaleable extension to sub-regional and watershed scale mapping.
- Credit
- This document is adapted from Hydrogeological regions of Canada: Data release; Sharpe, D R; Russell, H A J; Grasby, S E; Wozniak, P R J. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5893, 2008, 20 pages 1 CD-ROM.
- Status
- completed; complété RI_593
- Maintenance and update frequency
- notPlanned; nonPlanifié RI_542
- GSC Keywords Vocabulary - Thesaurus Thésaurus - vocabulaire de mots-clé de la CGC ( RI_528 )
-
- Hydrogeologic System
- Hydrogeology
- Aquifer
- Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )
-
- Hydrogeology
- Use limitation
- No constraint
- Use limitation
- Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)
- Access constraints
- license; licence RI_606
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions; autresRestrictions RI_609
- Spatial representation type
- vector; vecteur RI_635
- Denominator
- 5000000
- Metadata language
- eng; CAN
- Metadata language
- fra; CAN
- Character set
- utf8; utf8 RI_458
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
- Environment description
- ArcGIS - Shapefiles
- Description
- This dataset covers the entire continental extent of Canada
))
- Begin date
- 2008-01-01
- End date
- 2008-11-10
- Reference system identifier
- http://www.epsg-registry.org/ / EPSG:3979 / 6.14
- Geometric object type
- surface; surface RI_510
- Distribution format
-
-
SHP
(
unknown
)
-
SHP
(
unknown
)
voice; 1 (800) 6612638
- Transfer size
- 5.7
- OnLine resource
-
Hydrogeological regions of Canada - French
(
HTTPS
)
Dataset;HTML;fra
- OnLine resource
-
Régions hydrogéologiques du Canada - Anglais
(
HTTPS
)
Dataset;HTML;eng
- OnLine resource
-
Hydrogeological regions of Canada - French
(
OGC:WMS
)
Web Service;WMS;fra
- OnLine resource
-
Hydrogeological regions of Canada - English
(
OGC:WMS
)
Web Service;WMS;eng
- Hierarchy level
- dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
- Description
-
Title: Global dataset creation process -- Description: Geological terrains from Map D1860A that have greater similarity within than between terrains are classified by geological provinces. The Shield region represents an aggregation of several provinces, while Southern Ontario is subdivided from the St. Lawrence Lowlands geological province. Sedimentary basins from Open File 4673, also interpreted from Map D1860A, delineate the Maritime Basin as a subdivision of the Appalachian Orogen as well as 2nd and 3rd order sub-regions.
The geologic divisions are refined according to physiographic and tectonic influences. In the Cordillera, where the Rocky Mountain Foothills meet the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), physiographic (M1254A) and tectonic (D1860A and M1246A) features influence boundaries, dividing complex geological units that extend across the regions. Interpretations from the Canada3D DEM complete boundaries where information from other sources does not provide a definitive regional limit.
The southern limit of Continuous (90% - 100%) Permafrost is defined by MCR 4177 and Map 1246A. Continuous permafrost limits are influenced by geology and where limits from the two are approximately coincident the geological contacts are used in place of permafrost limits to ensure contiguous geology is captured within each region, where possible. This occurs along the Cordillera, WCSB, and Hudson Bay Lowlands. West of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, the southern limit of continuous permafrost is defined by M1246A. The continuous permafrost limit from MCR 4177 extends south into the Cordillera where the physiographic altitude and slope attitude dominates the permafrost. These factors potentially produce greater variation in extent and continuity of permafrost and it was deemed appropriate to use the more northern limit from M1246A.
The interpreted boundaries are added to the Canada landmass limits from the D1860A 7.5 million scale version of the Atlas of Canada base map to produce polygons for the regions. Descriptions for 2nd and 3rd order sub-regions are included in the attributes section. Geological information from D1860A and D1880A describes the geology and identifies rock types and rock sub-types. GIS analysis of the geology data using the region polygons will facilitate further refinement of the classifications in the future. Additional data sets can be summarized and analyzed in a similar way to derive additional information about hydrogeologic and hydrologic processes that influence groundwater systems.
- Date / Time
- 2008-11-10T00:00:00
- Description
-
Various sources were used to create this compilation map. Here is the list of the data sources as identified previously in the Dataset creation process description.
Brown, R.J.E., 1967: Permafrost in Canada, National Research Council. Geological Survey of Canada, "A" Series Map 1246A.
Stockwell, C.H., Tectonic Map of Canada Committee, 1969: Tectonic map of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, "A" Series Map 1251A.
Bostock, H.S., 1970: Physiographic Regions of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, "A" Series Map 1254A.
LeGrand, H.E., 1970. Comparative Hydrogeology: an example of its use. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 81: 1243-1248.
Mathews, W.H., 1986: Physiographic map of the Canadian Cordillera; Geological Survey of Canada, "A" Series Map 1701A.
Natural Resources Canada, 1995: Canada Permafrost, National Atlas of Canada, 5th Edition MCR 4177.
Fulton, R.J. (comp.), 1995: Surficial materials of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Map D1880A.
Wheeler, J.O., Hoffman, P.F., Card, K.D., Davidson, A., Sanford, B.V., Okulitch, A.V., and Roest, W.R. (comp.),1997: Geological Map of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Map D1860A.
LeGrand, H.E. and Rosen, L., 2000. Systematic making of early stage hydrogeological conceptual models. Ground Water, 38: 887-893.
Natural Resources Canada, 1990. Canada Climatic Regions Thornthwaite Classification Moisture Regions, National Atlas of Canada, MCR 4096.
Natural Resources Canada, 2000: Canada3D - Digital Elevation Model of the Canadian Landmass, Canadian Forestry Service, Geomatics Canada.
Mossop, G.D., Wallace-Dudley, K.E., Smith, G.G., Harrison, J.C., 2004: Sedimentary basins of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 4673.
Maupin, M. A. and Barber, N. L. 2005. Estimated Withdrawals from Principal Aquifers in the United States, 2000. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1279, 46 pages
- File identifier
- 0fdca476-23c8-6c11-0f61-6fb73f6acc3e XML
- Metadata language
- eng; CAN
- Character set
- utf8; utf8 RI_458
- Hierarchy level
- dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
- Date stamp
- 2023-08-17T14:10:00
- Metadata standard name
- North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
- Metadata standard version
- CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
- Dataset URI
- https://doi.org/10.4095/226194
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