A new data set was recently released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Land Use for 2010. As I was poking at it I saw that this data set in turn leads to an interactive map in which one can explore not only the 2010 data set, but also 2000 and 1990. As I was poking at that, I saw that one of the land-use classifications was for "settled areas", and I thought it would be interesting to see how certain spots have changed over the past 20 years covered in the data set. Knowing that Fort McMurray has grown a bit lately I zoomed in there and captured the following changes, which I found flabbergasting! I'm not familiar with that part of the Province, but have always heard "Fort McMurray" and "the tar sands" together, so hadn't realized the tar sands are actually a fair bit north of Ft. McMurray. So that's what you're seeing here, the growth of the Alberta Tar Sands over the past 20 years. Wow.