7. Located 817 km from the North Pole, Alert, Nunavut is the world’s most northern settlement. Alert is the temporary home to military and scientific personnel working in the area.
8. There is an estimated 249.67 billion accessible barrels of crude bitumen - a semi-solid source of petroleum - in the world and the Canadian oil sands hold 71% of it.
9. With close to 2 million lakes, Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. The Atlas of Canada estimates that 31,752 of the lakes are greater than 3 sq km, of which 561 have surface areas greater than 100 sq km.
10. In the Hudson Bay region, the average resident weighs about a tenth of an ounce less than they would weigh elsewhere. Why? Because Hudson Bay has less gravity as compared to the rest of the world! During the ice age, Canada was covered by a huge glacier known as the Laurentide Ice Sheet that compressed the earth and rocks below it. When the ice melted, the landmass started to decompress/rebound upwards but the Hudson Bay area has done so at a slower rate than the surrounding areas. Less mass, less gravity. In fact, with a rebounding rate of less than half an inch per year and with a distance of 650 vertical feet to cover, it could take around 5,000 years before gravity is fully restored.
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