Canada is a massive country, with an area of more than 3.8 million square miles (10 million sq km), yet it has one of the lowest population densities in the world. Despite this, Canadians have made a wide impact on their land, much of it visible from aerial and satellite photography. Hydroelectric facilities, roads, mines, farms, ports, resource exploration, logging, canals, cities, and towns have altered much of the landscape over the years. Over the weekend, I took a virtual tour with Google Earth, and wanted to share some of these snapshots of Canada's human landscape.
Seismic lines and access roads to allow for petroleum exploration in northern British Columbia. See it mapped. Most of the evenly-spaced straight lines cut through the trees are trails cut for equipment mounted on trucks to make sub-surface geological surveys, sending sound waves into the ground at regular intervals, listening for echoes to find out what lies below.#
Human-made lines criss-cross the area around the Rapides-des-Iles hydroelectric generating station. See it mapped. The broader stripes at bottom are cleared areas for huge power-lines, the smaller lines are logging roads and access roads.#
The Welland Canal (blue) crosses over Welland River (tan) at top center. See it mapped. The Welland Canal connects Lake Ontario with Lake Erie, passing through Welland, Ontario.#
Early cherry blossoms in Tokyo, heavy snowfall in California, a festival of lights in Croatia, emotional displays at the Academy Awards, a heavy frost in England, and much more
