North America

==== Canada ====
{{Main|Canada}}
[[File:USGS Geologic Map of North America.jpg|thumb|A geologic map of North America published by the [[U.S. Geographical Survey]]]]
[[Canada]] is geographically one of the oldest regions in the world, with more than half of the region consisting of [[Precambrian]] rocks that have been above sea level since the beginning of the [[Palaeozoic]] era.<ref name="Marianopolis">{{cite book|last=Wallace |first=Stewart W. |url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/GeologyofCanada.htm |title=Geology Of Canada |series=The Encyclopedia of Canada |volume=III |place=Toronto |publisher=University Associates of Canada |year=1948 |pages=23–26 |via=Marianopolis College |access-date=1 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704145706/http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/GeologyofCanada.htm |archive-date=4 July 2010 }}</ref> Canada's mineral resources are diverse and extensive.<ref name="Marianopolis"/> Across the Canadian Shield and in the north there are large iron, nickel, [[zinc]], copper, gold, lead, [[molybdenum]], and [[uranium]] reserves. Large diamond concentrations have been recently developed in the Arctic,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-12/ff_diamonds_sb |title=Digging for Diamonds 24/7 Under Frozen Snap Lake |magazine=Wired |access-date=1 June 2011 |archive-date=3 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903095743/http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-12/ff_diamonds_sb |url-status=live }}</ref> making Canada one of the world's largest producers. Throughout the Shield, there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and best known, is [[Greater Sudbury|Sudbury]], Ontario. Sudbury is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the Shield since there is significant evidence that the [[Sudbury Basin]] is an ancient [[meteorite]] [[impact crater]]. The nearby, but less-known [[Temagami Magnetic Anomaly]] has striking similarities to the Sudbury Basin. Its magnetic anomalies are very similar to the Sudbury Basin, and so it could be a second metal-rich impact crater.<ref name="GH">{{cite news|url=http://gdcinfo.agg.nrcan.gc.ca/app/3Dimaging/temagami_e.html |title=3-D Magnetic Imaging using Conjugate Gradients: Temagami anomaly |access-date=13 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711184237/http://gdcinfo.agg.nrcan.gc.ca/app/3Dimaging/temagami_e.html |archive-date=11 July 2009 }}</ref> The Shield is also covered by vast boreal forests that support an important logging industry.