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 In addition to fishes, a few INVERTEBRATES, such as small CRUSTACEANS, worms and eurypterids, which are giant cousins of land scorpions, lived at the bottom of the estuary.

Fragmented rock materials formed by mechanical weathering are normally larger than clay particles. These materials constitute major sources of sediment for later erosion, transportation and deposition under the impetus of gravity, wind, water or ice.

Origins Lava tube caves, an important minor class, are formed by channelled outflow of molten lava in congealing flows. Sea caves most commonly result from erosion by waves.

Geomorphology is related to GEOLOGY because of the importance of long timescales, tectonic deformation of Earth's crust (seePLATE TECTONICS), and rock and sediment properties; and to physical geography through its association with CLIMATE, BIOGEOGRAPHY, SOIL SCIENCE, and HYDROLOGY.

The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) is Canada's national agency for geoscientific information and research. It studies and reports on Canada’s geology, natural geological hazards, and the development of natural resources. Established in 1842 primarily to promote the mining industry, it is one of the country’s oldest scientific organizations. Throughout its history, the Survey has produced some of the most comprehensive and detailed maps of the Canadian landscape, and published several important reports on its ecology and natural history.

The CYPRESS HILLS and Swift Current Plateaux of southwestern Saskatchewan preserve Eocene, Oligocene, and Miocene FOSSILS 42 million to 16 million years old, in the Cypress Hills Formation. Faunas of at least 14 different ages are represented there.

Trilobitesare an extinct marine arthropod of the Palaeozoic era (544-300 million years ago). Its closest modern relative is the horseshoe crab.

 Having been mapped on foot, by dogsled, and from the air by rugged geologists from the GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, the Canadian High Arctic was untouched by vertebrate palaeontologists until the mid-1970s.

Toward the close of the Tertiary (5 to 2 million years ago) and the beginning of the ice age (Quaternary - about 2 million years ago), a beaver pond existed on what is now Canada's Ellesmere Island, Nunavut.

Natural gas ranks among the fastest-growing energy sources in Canada and is seen by many in the energy industry as a game-changer, a comparatively clean, low-cost and versatile fuel. It can directly generate power and heat and can be chemically altered to produce a wide range of useful commodity chemicals. It burns cleaner and more efficiently than other fossil fuels, releasing significantly fewer harmful pollutants into the atmosphere. Natural gas is colorless, odourless, shapeless, lighter than air and contains a mixture of several hydrocarbon gases, which are organic compounds consisting of some combination of hydrogen and carbon molecules.

The primary consumers of natural gas are the industrial (54.1 per cent), residential (26.6 per cent) and commercial sectors (19.3 per cent). Canada is the fifth largest natural gas producer after the United States, Russia, Iran and Qatar. Currently, all of Canada’s natural gas exports go to the United States through a network of pipelines, making Canada the largest foreign source of US natural gas imports. At the end of 2016, Canada had 76.7 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves and had produced 152 billion cubic metres of natural gas that year. It is forecasted that global natural gas consumption will double by 2035.

Fundamental to all ordering of events of the Earth's history is the principle of the positional relationships of rock and mineral bodies. For example, in any stratified rock sequence, younger rocks overlie older ones.

"Plant" refers to familiar land plants, and also to aquatic plants, mosses, liverworts and algae plants. Although not technically plants, fungi and bacteria are often included. Palaeobotany is the study of ancient plant life using fossil evidence. Plant fossils are found coast-to-coast in Canada, from 45-million-year-old mosses in British Columbia to fossil forests on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere islands in the Canadian Arctic.

 Only about 5% of the Earth's crust is composed of sedimentary rocks, but they cover 70-75% of the exposed surface and contain many economically important minerals, as well as coal and petroleum.

A rock slide is a type of landslide occurring when a mass of rock moves quickly downslope.

The solar system contains many objects smaller than the planets (or their satellites) travelling in individual orbits about the SUN; space between the planets also contains myriad dust grains in the micron size range. Near Earth, dust concentrations are only a few hundred particles per cubic kilometre, but 35 000 to 100 000 t of extraterrestrial material enters the atmosphere annually, swept up by our planet from debris that is in its path or crosses its path.

Plate tectonics is the theory proposing that Earth’s outer rocky shell is divided into seven major and several smaller rigid plates. Forces generated by heat losses from the planet’s interior constantly move the plates about. Plate movements, ongoing over millions of years (see Geological History), open and close ocean basins, generate volcanoes, raise mountains, facilitate accumulation of mineral and petroleum deposits, and influence evolution and climate change. Friction between plates prevents steady motion and stores energy that is released in sudden movements, causing earthquakes.

The site is important because it confirms that Centrosaurus was a herding dinosaur, and documents that the herds were larger than previously thought, numbering well into the thousands.

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.”

Based on geological history, Canada can be divided into six regions, each characterized by a distinctive landscape: the Canadian Shield, Interior Platform, Appalachian Orogen, Innuitian Orogen, Cordillera and Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, and the Eastern Continental Margin.