Canada’s southwestern Arctic is of special interest to scientists exploring the interrelated roles of seismic activity, climate change and coastal erosion.

As the second-largest country in the world, Canada has a lot of territory and different types of land cover to map, including urban areas, water, desert, rock, ice and snow formations.

The written word has long helped us understand science and the natural world around us. In fact, Natural Resources Canada is home to the first ever science library in Canada, dating back to 1854.

Recent visitors to the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium in Montreal have been amazed by twenty photographs resulting from Canadian scientific research. One brightly coloured image in particular is attracting attention — a microscopic image taken by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) scientists showing a white walnut or butternut tree defending itself against an exotic pathogenic fungus.

Canada has the world’s largest stock of standing western redcedar, but this once-dominant species is showing disturbing signs of distress. After a few years of very dry conditions, trees on lower-elevation sites in eastern Vancouver Island are slowly dying. Scientists at the Pacific Forestry Centre are trying to get to the root of the problem.

Canada is the fourth-largest oil producer in the world — nearly four million barrels are extracted here every day. But what exactly is in that oil? It turns out no two samples are alike.

In the hot summer months, optimizing your home heating system is probably the last thing on your mind. But they’re the perfect time to think about it. And they’re also the perfect time for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) researchers are crunching numbers after spending one of the coldest winters on record measuring energy use and comfort levels in a series of test homes running on hybrid heating — the combination of a natural gas furnace with an electric air source heat pump.

December 2019

A trio of Earth observation satellites launched in June 2019 is providing Canadians with a more detailed picture of our country and oceans than ever before.

Known collectively as the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM), these satellites mark a significant upgrade to Canada’s RADARSAT program. And by using a new imaging technology assessed and recommended by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), RCM images provide scientists with more information to better understand our planet.

The Arctic Ocean is a vast, cold, isolated and utterly fascinating part of the northern hemisphere. Beneath its surface, thousands of metres below, is an extension of our country known as the continental shelf. And now, based on massive amounts of geoscientific data measuring the seafloor, an additional 1.2 million square kilometres could be added to Canada’s land area of 9.98 million km².

Based on massive amounts of geoscientific data measuring the seafloor, an additional 1.2 million square kilometres could be added to Canada’s land area of 9.98 million km².