Canadian Shield
1
6.5
- noun
- /kəˈneɪdiən ʃiːld/
- US
:
Escudo Canadiense
- Here, as in much of the far north, glaciers scraped and scoured Canadian Shield granite down to nearly bare rock.
Examples
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Northern Ontario spread out below her, with Canadian Shield rocks exposed in many places and aspen and birch dotting the landscape.
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The Canadian Shield is the core of the North American continent, a stable platform welded together by repeated continental collisions during Precambrian times.
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The continent tried to break up there, but the Canadian Shield rock was resistant enough to prevent it from extending past Illinois.
Blog text (14) -
Upon encountering the Saguenay, Lee applied this experience to a gigantic river of the Canadian Shield.
Academic text (2004) -
Northern Ontario spread out below her, with Canadian Shield rocks exposed in many places and aspen and birch dotting the landscape.
Fiction book (2002)
Synonyms
A large high area of land in eastern and northern Canada from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean
A large area of high rocky land with many forests in eastern and central Canada
Surface Forms
Morphology
Canadian + Shield
Although a learner who knows 'Canadian' will recognize a relation to Canada and 'shield' literally means a protective device, the term 'Canadian Shield' is a proper-name geological term referring to ancient exposed Precambrian rock and a broad plateau — a specialized meaning not derivable from the everyday senses of the constituents. The geological sense of 'shield' is technical and language-specific, so a B1 learner who knows the parts but has not seen the term would not be able to predict its full meaning.
Etymology
Canadian Shield comes from the idea of a huge, hard shield of rock that covers a broad, flat part of Canada, where old bedrock lies bare and visible. That's why the name now means 'a large area of old, exposed rock' in central and eastern Canada.