Appalachian Region

With Canada’s vast, diverse nature prairies and forests and its long history of human settlement and cultural change, the Appalachian Region is a fascinating place to explore. However, this region is also home to some of Canada‘s most environmentally-sensitive places and culturally significant sites.

Appalachian Region

Canada’s Appalachian Region is a system that spans the Atlantic Continental Shelf and begins at the St. Lawrence Lowlands. Like other mountain regions, its terrain is a mosaic of uplands and lowlands. Like other mountain regions, its terrain is a mosaic of uplands and lowlands. Older rocks, created between 480 to 280 million years ago, are now visible after erosion. These rocks were deeply buried at one point, but now they have revealed older structures because of this process.

Simultaneously, the Earth’s surface has been molded by erosion and continental movement. The more substantial rocks on higher elevations have thus become uplander mountain tops and highlands, while weaker rocks have formed lowlands and plains. The Appalachian Mountain Range is disposed of in a Z-shaped belt, starts at the Québec border with Vermont and New Hampshire, and goes northeastward to the Gaspé Peninsula. It then southwestwards across New Brunswick and northeast north of the Bay of Fundy to Cape Breton Island. Continuation of the Canadian Shield from the Atlantic Basin, eastern Newfoundland, boasts many highlands over 1,200 meters in elevation. The most notable example is Mont Jacques-Cartier, at 1,268 meters tall.

The highland belt in mostly Canada’s east coast is 600-800 meters, but in places like Québec and different parts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the highlands are around 300-600 meters. The only place where they’re not as high in Nova Scotia.

In eastern New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Îles de la Madeleine, northern Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland Central Lowland, weaker rocks have allowed for the development of plains and lowlands. In Newfoundland and southern Nova Scotia, terrain strongly resembles the Shield. This includes extensively glaciated bedrock plazas with carpet-like till and the company’s long time dotted with irregular lakes. The rest of the region is not as affected by glacial erosion, with highland and mountain zones showing only locally severe glacial erosion. Glacial deposits are thicker there, and the soil is primarily sandy and infertile.

With the melting of glaciers in North America (14-10.000 Years), the Earth’s surface has been elevated. This has caused more land to be available, and as a result, pockets of sandy arable ground have become accessible. The shoreline bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the south is submerging because ice sheets after the ice age are melting, and sea levels are rising about 30 cm per year.

Google Maps of the Appalachian Region


The Appalachian region includes New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and parts of Quebec.

The Canadian Appalachian Mountains are the oldest in North America and have been eroded by nature, forming gentle slopes. Once stretching as high as the Alps in Europe and the Rockies in the West, they have been worn down over millions of years.

The Appalachian Region has a variety of areas with different types of land, including flat ones and mountainous ones. Some crops grown in this region are fruit, berries, grain, and potatoes, primarily grown in the Annapolis Valley.