The lakes and rivers of northern Alberta

The lakes and rivers of northern Alberta. Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features the northern half of Canada’s Alberta province. In this region, lakes, rivers, and creeks are abundant.

To the east, the Peace-Athabasca Delta is the largest freshwater inland river delta in North America. Here, the Peace and Athabasca rivers converge on the Slave River and Lake Athabasca.

To the west, Lake Claire lies within the Wood Buffalo National Park.

Alberta is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. With an estimated population of 4,067,175 people as of the 2016 census, it is Canada’s fourth most populous province and the most populous of Canada’s three prairie provinces. Alberta’s area is approximately 660,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi). The lakes and rivers of northern Alberta

Alberta is bordered by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south. Alberta is one of three Canadian provinces and territories to border only a single U.S. state. It is also one of only two landlocked provinces in the country.

Alberta’s capital, Edmonton, is near the geographic centre of the province; it is the primary supply and service hub for Canada’s crude oil, the Athabasca oil sands and other northern resource industries. About 290 km (180 mi) south of Edmonton is Calgary, the largest city in Alberta. Calgary and Edmonton anchor Alberta’s two largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs), which both have populations exceeding one million. The province has one other CMA (Lethbridge) and 15 census agglomerations

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory