Fraser Lowland | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Landsat image of the Fraser Lowland, which stretches from Chilliwack in the northeast to the Strait of Georgia in the southwest. Sediment deposited by the Fraser River is clearly visible. | |
  Fraser Lowland | |
| Coordinates: 49°2′N 122°34′W / 49.033°N 122.567°W | |
| Location | British Columbia, Canada Washington, United States |
| Part of | Georgia Depression |
The Fraser Lowland is a landform and physiographic region in the Pacific Northwest of North America, shared between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington. The region includes much of the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, and the coastal plains of Washington's Whatcom County. As a physiographic region, the Fraser Lowland is part of the Georgia Depression, which in turn is part of the Coastal Trough.[1][2]
The eponymous Fraser River in the Lowland's north and the lower basins of its tributaries (mainly the Pitt River, Coquitlam River and Vedder/Chilliwack Rivers), as well as the entire catchment of the oppositely flowing Sumas River, are the Lowland's primary river system.
However, the region also includes the lower Nooksack River basin ("Nooksack Lowland") south of the Canada–US border, which belongs to a completely separate river system arising from the southeast in the namesaked valleys around the North Cascades' Mount Shuksan, Baker and Twin Sisters.
Overall, the Fraser Lowland encompasses all the fertile low-lying fluvial plains between and around the Fraser and Nooksack rivers,[3] including the Sumas Prairie, the Burrard Peninsula, and sometimes also the North Shore lowlands around the Burrard Inlet.
The American pene-exclave of Point Roberts lies to the region's west, at the southern end of the Tsawwassen peninsula.
- ^ Landforms of British Columbia: A Physiographic Outline, by S. Holland 1964 (revised 1976), British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Archived 2005-05-09 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Landforms of British Columbia: A Physiographic Outline- Physiographic map, by S. Holland 1964 (revised 1976), British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
- ^ Fraser Lowland Map Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, University of the Fraser Valley