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Revealing how Canada's first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada.

\"The oil sands. Global warming. The National Energy Program. Though these seem like modern Canadian subjects, author Mary Janigan reveals them to be a legacy of longstanding regional rivalry. Something of a \"Third Solitude\" since entering Confederation, the West has long been overshadowed by Canada's other great national debate: but as the conflict over natural resources and their effect on climate change heats up, 150 years of antipathy are coming to a head. Janigan takes readers back to a pivotal moment in 1918, when Canada's western premiers descended on Ottawa determined to control their own future - and as Margaret MacMillan did in Paris 1919, she deftly illustrates how the results reverberate to this day.\"--Pub. desc.

Determining why hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) triggered earthquakes in the Duvernay Formation in Canada is important for future hazard mitigation. Schultz et al. found that injection volume was the key operational parameter correlated with induced earthquakes in the Duvernay. However, geological factors also played a considerable role in determining whether a large injection volume would trigger earthquakes. These findings provide a framework that may lead to better forecasting of induced seismicity. Science , this issue p. 304 Induced seismicity from hydrofracturing in Canada is related to the well fluid injection volumes. A sharp increase in the frequency of earthquakes near Fox Creek, Alberta, began in December 2013 in response to hydraulic fracturing. Using a hydraulic fracturing database, we explore relationships between injection parameters and seismicity response. We show that induced earthquakes are associated with completions that used larger injection volumes (10 4 to 10 5 cubic meters) and that seismic productivity scales linearly with injection volume. Injection pressure and rate have an insignificant association with seismic response. Further findings suggest that geological factors play a prominent role in seismic productivity, as evidenced by spatial correlations. Together, volume and geological factors account for ~96% of the variability in the induced earthquake rate near Fox Creek. This result is quantified by a seismogenic index–modified frequency-magnitude distribution, providing a framework to forecast induced seismicity.

\"In 1875, the Canadian government created a reserve for Icelandic immigrants on the southwest shore of Lake Winnipeg. Hoping for a better life in Canada, many of the New Iceland colonists found only hardship, disappointment, or death. Those who survived scurvy and smallpox faced crop failure, internal dissension, and severe flooding that nearly ended the project only six years after it had begun.This innovative book looks beyond the experiences of these Icelandic immigrants to understand the context into which their reserve fits within the history of settler colonialism. Ryan Eyford reveals that the timing and location of the Icelandic settlement was not accidental. New Iceland was one of several land reserves created for Europeans by the Canadian government in the late nineteenth century. Canadian leaders hoped that group settlements of immigrants on Indigenous lands would help realize their ambitious plans for western expansion. By juxtaposing the Icelanders' experiences with those of the Cree, Ojibwe, and Metis people they displaced, Eyford makes clear the connections between immigrant resettlement and Indigenous displacement. By analyzing themes such as race, land, health, and governance, he draws out the tensions that punctuated the process of colonization in western Canada and situates the region within the global history of colonialism\"--Publisher description.

Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West is the first fully illustrated field guide to all 348 species of dragonflies and damselflies in western North America. Dragonflies and damselflies are large, stunningly beautiful insects, as readily observable as birds and butterflies. This unique guide makes identifying them easy--its compact size and user-friendly design make it the only guide you need in the field. Every species is generously illustrated with full-color photographs and a distribution map, and structural features are illustrated where they aid in-hand identification. Detailed species accounts include information on size, distribution, flight season, similar species, habitat, and natural history. Dennis Paulson's introduction provides an essential primer on the biology, natural history, and conservation of these important and fascinating insects, along with helpful tips on how to observe and photograph them.

\"This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a forward by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, and explanations of the book's influence by leading Canadian historians. Called \"one of the most important books of the twenty-first century\" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a \"Book of the Year\" by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others.\"-- Provided by publisher.

We summarize the feasibility of using geothermal energy from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) to support communities with populations >3000 people, including those in northeastern British Columbia, southwestern part of Northwest Territories (NWT), southern Saskatchewan, and southeastern Manitoba, along with previously studied communities in Alberta. The geothermal energy potential of the WCSB is largely determined by the basin’s geometry; the sediments start at 0 m thickness adjacent to the Canadian shield in the east and thicken to >6 km to the west, and over 3 km in the Williston sub-basin to the south. Direct heat use is most promising in the western and southern parts of the WCSB where sediment thickness exceeds 2–3 km. Geothermal potential is also dependent on the local geothermal gradient. Aquifers suitable for heating systems occur in western-northwestern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia, and southwestern Saskatchewan. Electrical power production is limited to the deepest parts of the WCSB, where aquifers >120 °C and fluid production rates >80 kg/s occur (southwestern Northwest Territories, northwestern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia, and southeastern Saskatchewan. For the western regions with the thickest sediments, the foreland basin east of the Rocky Mountains, estimates indicate that geothermal power up to 2 MWel. (electrical), and up to 10 times higher for heating in MWth. (thermal), are possible.

Stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C values) of marine carbonates are widely used to infer the relative burial rates of organic carbon, a source of oxygen to the ocean‐atmosphere system. This inference, however, is based on the assumption that ocean‐atmospheric carbon is buried either as organic carbon or as marine carbonate minerals. The burial of authigenic carbonate minerals formed within sediments after deposition, with low δ13C values (i.e., similar to organic carbon), has been proposed to explain high δ13C values in marine carbonates without the need for high burial fluxes of organic carbon. To test this hypothesis, we focus on the Late Devonian, a time period with both pervasive ocean anoxia and a severe reduction in shallow‐water carbonate deposition—conditions hypothesized to promote authigenic carbonate formation. We present sedimentological and geochemical data from limestones and black shales of the Wabamun Group, Besa River and Exshaw formations of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. These data are compared to inorganic and organic weight percent measurements of North American shales acquired from the USGS National Geochemical Database (N = 4,437). Results show that basinal shale lack authigenic carbonate with low δ13C values and that the mean δ13C value of carbonate in these shales (−0.3‰) do not differ substantially from mean δ13C of carbonates in platform carbonates of a similar age (0.4‰). Furthermore, inorganic carbon content in Late Devonian shales (mean weight percent = 0.55%, N = 54) is lower than average Phanerozoic North American shale (mean of 1.95%, N = 4,055). Lastly, organic carbon‐to‐inorganic carbon ratios (OC:IC) of North American shales are well above 1 (mean = 3.72 for Late Devonian shales (N = 374), 2.25 for shales (N = 3,653) of all other ages). Therefore, even if the burial of fine‐grained siliciclastic formations carrying authigenic carbonates were to increase, the concomitant increase in organic carbon burial would be even larger. Together, data from this study do not provide evidence that the burial of authigenic carbonate would have a significant effect on global carbon isotope mass balance. Plain Language Summary Stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of marine carbonate rocks are widely used as a proxy for estimating the relative amount of organic carbon buried throughout geological time. Certain instances in the geologic record indicate pronounced δ13C excursions for which there is no corroborating evidence for enhanced organic carbon burial. It has been proposed that these excursions may be the result of high burial rates of authigenic carbonate—carbonate minerals formed in situ within marine sediments. We test this hypothesis by analyzing the stable carbon isotope composition of Late Devonian limestones and shales of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. We also compare the organic and inorganic carbon compositions of shales from this field study with those from the USGS Geochemical database, an archive of North American shale geochemistry data from across the Phanerozoic. Results show that carbonates found in Devonian shales do not have low average δ13C values, and average organic carbon content was shown to be significantly higher than inorganic carbon in shale samples across the Phanerozoic. These results signify that authigenic carbonate burial had a negligible effect on the global carbon cycle, and furthermore, an increase in shale burial would result in a higher increase in organic carbon compared to authigenic carbonate. Key Points CaCO3 found in Late Devonian shales has average carbon isotope values similar to Late Devonian shallow marine carbonates Weight percent values of inorganic carbon content in Late Devonian shales are low compared to average North American shale The mass ratio of organic to inorganic carbon in Late Devonian shales is much higher than average North American shale