Alberta+Geography


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Topography
Current weather in Alberta

**Alberta Rocky Mountains**  The Rocky Mountains are perhaps Alberta's most recognizable geographic feature. Their rugged and spectacular scenery attract visitors from all over the world. Much of Alberta's oil and gas are found beneath the foothills that lie along the base of the Rockies.

**Alberta Prairie** The rest of the province is housed on a great plain, or prairie, which Alberta shares with Saskatchewan on the east, and with the state of Montana to the south. The plains are not totally flat. Their surface has been gouged and twisted by the action of massive glaciers that once covered the province. What is now Alberta lay buried under some 2,000 metres of ice only 8,000 or 10,000 years ago. The southern plain, which was once covered in tall grass, is today a checkerboard of farms.

**Alberta Badlands**  The badlands are a unique area in southeastern Alberta. They are very dry and have little vegetation. Streams and rain have eroded the soft rocks, leaving bluffs, gullies, and multicoloured layers of stone. The Red Deer River has cut a deep, wide valley through the badlands, exposing the fossils of plants and animals that lived in Alberta millions of years ago, including the famous dinosaurs.

Northern Alberta is home to Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada's largest national park, and a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage site. Wood Buffalo National Park has the world's largest free-roaming bison herd, and the last natural nesting site for the [|whooping crane]. > Find out about Alberta's flora and fauna. > Learn about threatened wildlife in Alberta.
 * [|Alberta Wildlife Viewing Guide]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Alberta’s Species at Risk]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Alberta’s Watchable Wildlife]

<span style="background-color: #dc6573; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">Climate

 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Cool Winters
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Warm Summers
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Often Sunny Skies
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Rain Shadow"
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Chinook Winds

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> The Rocky Mountains cast a "rain shadow" over much of Alberta. As the moist air from the Pacific Ocean rises to pass over the mountains on its way to Alberta, it is cooled, and rain or snow fall on the Pacific side of the mountains. As the air descends on Alberta, it gains heat and produces warm, dry winds.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Alberta is famous for its chinook winds, which sweep into southern Alberta several times each winter. This dry, warm wind can rapidly lift the province out of a deep freeze. During one chinook, which reached Pincher Creek on January 1962, temperatures soared from -19°C to +22°C in one hour. Source: Phillips, D. 1990. //The Climate of Canada//. Catalogue No. En56-1/1990E. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services of Canada.

<span style="background-color: #dc6573; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">**Resources**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 21px; line-height: 23px;">Energy
 * ===<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Oil and gas produce one-quarter of Alberta's gross domestic product, almost 70% of our exports and 35% of Alberta government revenues. The energy industry accounts for 275,000 direct and indirect jobs. ===
 * ===<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">The Alberta government invests about C$30 (or US$26) million per year in energy research and technology, including clean coal technologies, carbon dioxide management, improved oil and gas recovery, bitumen upgrading, alternative and renewable energy technologies, and water management. ===

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">** Oil Sands **

 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Canada has the world's 2nd-largest proven crude oil reserves. Most reserves are in Alberta's oil sands — approximately 170.4 billion barrels.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Oil sands are mixtures of water, sand, clay and bitumen, a heavy crude oil that can be separated to yield lighter crude. Conventional oil is found throughout Alberta; oil sands only in the north, underlying 140,200 square kilometers.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Oil sands accounts for more than two-thirds of investment in the province. $100 billion worth of oil sands investment generates approximately $1 trillion worth of economic activity.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Learn more about the oil sands]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|Oil sands stats and facts]

<span style="background-color: #dc6573; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">**Population**
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As of January 1, 2009 = 3,632,483.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">Above information copied from: <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; padding-right: 10px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; url(http: //www.wikispaces.com/i/a.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Alberta Canada]  **