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 degrees W and 141 degrees W longitude to the North Pole; however, this claim is not universally recognized.

Covering 9,984,670 sq km or 3,855,103 square miles (Land: 9,093,507 sq km or 3,511,023 sq mi; Water: 891,163 sq km or 344,080 sq mi), Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia, less than 1.3 times larger than Australia, slightly smaller than Europe, and more than 40.9 times larger than the UK. In total area, Canada is slightly larger than both in turn the US and China; however, Canada is somewhat smaller than both in land area (China is 9,596,960 sq km / 3,705,407 sq mi and the US is 9,161,923 sq km / 3,537,438 sq mi), ranking fourth.

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 the Canadian Arctic territorial claim; however, recent measurements indicate it is moving towards Siberia.

additional information from Wikipedia

04/01/07 by visitEarth
Tags: Canada, Geography, north pole