° Edmonton ° Halifax ° Hudson Bay ° Manitoba
° Montreal ° Ontario ° Ottowa ° Quebec ° Regina
° St. John's ° Toronto ° Vancouver ° Winnipeg
The geography of Canada is vast and diverse. Occupying most of the northern portion (precisely 41%) of the continent of North America, Canada is the world's second largest country in total area after Russia.
Canada spans an immense territory between the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east (hence the country's motto), with the United States to the south (contiguous United States) and northwest (Alaska), and the Arctic Ocean to the north; Greenland is to the northeast. Off the southern coast of Newfoundland lies Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, an overseas community of France.
Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude to the North Pole; however, this claim is not universally recognized.
Covering 9,984,670 km² or 3,855,103 square miles (Land: 9,093,507 km² or 3,511,023 mi²; Water: 891,163 km² or 344,080 mi²), Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia, less than 1.3 times larger than Australia though slightly smaller than Europe, and more than 40.9 times larger than the UK. In total area, Canada is slightly larger than the US and (both in turn) China; however, Canada is somewhat smaller than both in land area (China is 9,596,960 km² / 3,705,407 mi² and the US is 9,161,923 km² / 3,537,438 mi²), ranking fourth.
Canadian Forces Station (CFS)
The northernmost settlement in Canada (and in the world) is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert (just north of Alert, Nunavut) on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island – latitude 82.5°N – just 834 kilometres (518 mi) from the North Pole. The magnetic North Pole lies within Canadian boundaries; however, recent measurements indicate it is moving towards Siberia.
