Alberta

I

Introduction

Alberta, province, westernmost of the Prairie provinces of Canada, bounded on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Saskatchewan, on the south by the American state of Montana, and on the south-west and west by British Columbia. Alberta is a wholly inland territory. The capital of Alberta is Edmonton, located in the centre of the province, on the North Saskatchewan River.

Alberta entered the Dominion with Saskatchewan on September 1, 1905, as the eighth and ninth provinces. With its extensive, fertile prairie lands, Alberta long had an economy dominated by agriculture. Since the 1950s, however, mineral extraction has become a leading sector of the economy. Alberta is now Canada's largest producer of petroleum and natural gas. The province is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, who was the wife of a Canadian governor-general and a daughter of Queen Victoria.

II

Land and Resources

With an area of 661,190 sq km (255,286 sq mi), Alberta is the fourth-largest province in Canada, and the sixth-largest political subdivision. Its extreme dimensions are about 1,220 km (760 mi) from north to south and about 650 km (400 mi) from east to west. Alberta's highest point, Mount Columbia (3,747 m/12,294 ft), is in the Rocky Mountains along the south-western border; the lowest, 170 m (557 ft), is in Wood Buffalo National Park in the north-east.

A

Physical Geography

The Rocky Mountains and foothill region in the south-west is Alberta's most striking relief feature. The mountains that make up this region have been heavily glaciated, and numerous remnant glaciers dot the uplands. In the south-east the Cypress Hills constitute a bedrock upland rising to about 610 m (2,000 ft) above the surrounding plains.

The remaining three-quarters of the province lies within the glaciated northern Interior Plains of North America. Former glacial lake basins, till plains, end moraines, sandy outwash plains, and areas of rolling till provide a great deal of variety in the surface landforms. The Alberta Plain in the south is a gently rolling grasslands region, and the soils of this region are notably fertile. The Alberta Plateau, to the north, is a forested region; it is bounded on the east by the Saskatchewan Plain, which contains great oil sand deposits.

Alberta's two longest rivers, the Peace and the Athabasca, flow from the Rockies north to the Arctic Ocean. Various mountain streams unite to form the North and South Saskatchewan rivers, flowing east across the province's more heavily settled agricultural regions. In the extreme south, the Milk River and its tributaries flow south into the Mississippi Basin. The province's largest lakes are the Claire and Athabasca.

B

Climate

Alberta has a continental climate, with cold winters and mild summers. In the northern and central regions the average annual temperature is 1.7° C (35° F); south of Calgary, the average annual temperature is 4.4° C (40° F), except in the Rocky Mountains, where it is about -1.1° C (30° F). Winter temperatures in the south-west, modified by frequent chinooks (warm winds that descend the Rocky Mountains), are the mildest in the Prairie provinces.

The average annual rainfall is only about 430 mm (17 in). Winters are dry, whereas in the summertime south-central Alberta has a reputation as one of the worst hailstorm belts of North America.