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Geologists theorize that continents move. This theory is called plate tectonics , which holds that the lithosphere , the outermost layer of Earth where continents are , lies on top of a semifluid layer of partially molten magma called the asthenosphere. Convection from the decay of radioactive elements in the mantle causes continental and oceanic plates to move. Pangea is a landmass of the Early Permian to Early Jurassic Periods that incorporated almost all modern landmasses and is thus considered a supercontinent. There is great variation in the sizes of continents; Asia is more than five times as large as Australia. The largest island in the world, Greenland , is only about one-fourth the size of Australia. The continents differ sharply in their degree of compactness. Africa has the most regular coastline and, consequently, the lowest ratio of coastline to total area. Europe is the most irregular and indented and has by far the highest ratio of coastline to total area. The continents are not distributed evenly over the surface of the globe. The distribution of the continental platforms and ocean basins on the surface of the globe and the distribution of the major landform features have long been among the most intriguing problems for scientific investigation and theorizing. Each continent has one of the so-called shield areas that formed 2 billion to 4 billion years ago and is the core of the continent to which the remainder most of the continent has been added. Even the rocks of the extremely old shield areas are older in the centre and younger toward the margins, indicating that this process of accumulation started early. In North America the whole northeast quarter of the continent, called the Canadian , or Laurentian, Shield, is characterized by the ancient rocks of what might be called the original continent. In Europe the shield area underlies the eastern Scandinavian peninsula and Finland. The Guiana Highlands of South America are the core of that continent. Much of eastern Siberia is underlain by the ancient rocks, as are western Australia and southern Africa. See also continental drift. Continent Article Media Additional Info. Print Cite. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. Originally the term "continent" was applied to any area of land, of any size, not separated by water, including islands. Concurrently, ever since the times of ancient Greek mariners and philosophers, the world was separated into "parts. Only in the late nineteenth century such parts of the earth came to be explicitly defined as continents. Today, continents are understood to be large, continuous, distinct masses of land , ideally but not necessarily separated by expanses of water. No required minimum size to qualify as "large" or "very large" has been defined, nor the requisite degree of physical separation. Continents are therefore defined by convention rather than a strict criteria. The criteria used can be of geographical, historical, cultural, anthropological, political, or even of philosophical nature. It depends. The loose definition of continent results in numerous ways of separating the world into continents, with models ranging anywhere from 4 to 7 continents. This model adopts the criteria of both the six-continent models, resulting in the following 5 continents: Africa, Eurasia, America, Oceania or Australia , and Antarctica. Continents - Worldometer

However, depending on where you live, you may have learned that there are five, six, or even four continents. This is because there is no official criteria for determining continents. While the position of landmasses on continental crust may be used to determine continents, geopolitical factors also affect their delineation. Below is an overview of the world's continent using the most popular classification system, the seven continent method. The four continent model promotes the idea that all continents are landmasses divided by ocean. In the five continent model, North and South America are considered to be one continent called America. Antarctica is omitted due to its lack of permanent habitation. This model is used by the United Nations and found in the Olympic Charter. This model is most commonly taught in western Europe, including France and Spain. Here, North and South America are considered to be one single continent of America. Madagascar , the largest example, is usually considered an island of Africa, but its divergent evolution has caused it to be referred to as "the eighth continent" from a biological perspective. The Biodiversity Information Standards organization has developed the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions , used in many international plant databases. This scheme divides the world into nine "botanical continents". Some match the traditional geographical continents, but some differ significantly. Asia Minor , [54] The first distinction between continents was made by ancient Greek mariners who gave the names Europe and Asia to the lands on either side of the waterways of the Aegean Sea , the Dardanelles strait, the Sea of Marmara , the Bosporus strait and the Black Sea. Ancient Greek thinkers subsequently debated whether Africa then called Libya should be considered part of Asia or a third part of the world. Division into three parts eventually came to predominate. Herodotus [60] in the 5th century BC objected to the whole of Egypt being split between Asia and Africa "Libya" and took the boundary to lie along the western border of Egypt, regarding Egypt as part of Asia. He also questioned the division into three of what is really a single landmass, [61] a debate that continues nearly two and a half millennia later. Eratosthenes , in the 3rd century BC, noted that some geographers divided the continents by rivers the Nile and the Don , thus considering them "islands". Others divided the continents by isthmuses , calling the continents "peninsulas". These latter geographers set the border between Europe and Asia at the isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea , and the border between Asia and Africa at the isthmus between the Red Sea and the mouth of Lake Bardawil on the Mediterranean Sea. Through the Roman period and the Middle Ages , a few writers took the Isthmus of Suez as the boundary between Asia and Africa, but most writers continued to consider it the Nile or the western border of Egypt Gibbon [ citation needed ]. In the Middle Ages, the world was usually portrayed on T and O maps , with the T representing the waters dividing the three continents. By the middle of the 18th century, "the fashion of dividing Asia and Africa at the Nile, or at the Great Catabathmus [the boundary between Egypt and Libya ] farther west, had even then scarcely passed away". Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies in , sparking a period of European exploration of the Americas. But despite four voyages to the Americas, Columbus never believed he had reached a new continent—he always thought it was part of Asia. After reaching the coast of Brazil , they sailed a long way further south along the coast of South America , confirming that this was a land of continental proportions and that it also extended much further south than Asia was known to. Within a few years, the name "New World" began appearing as a name for South America on world maps, such as the Oliveriana Pesaro map of around — Maps of this time though, still showed North America connected to Asia and showed South America as a separate land. A small inset map above the main map explicitly showed for the first time the Americas being east of Asia and separated from Asia by an ocean, as opposed to just placing the Americas on the left end of the map and Asia on the right end. From the 16th century the English noun continent was derived from the term continent land , meaning continuous or connected land [69] and translated from the Latin terra continens. While continent was used on the one hand for relatively small areas of continuous land, on the other hand geographers again raised Herodotus's query about why a single large landmass should be divided into separate continents. Thus Europe, Asia, and Africa is one great continent, as America is another. From the late 18th century, some geographers started to regard North America and South America as two parts of the world, making five parts in total. Overall though, the fourfold division prevailed well into the 19th century. Europeans discovered Australia in , but for some time it was taken as part of Asia. By the late 18th century, some geographers considered it a continent in its own right, making it the sixth or fifth for those still taking America as a single continent. Antarctica was sighted in during the First Russian Antarctic Expedition and described as a continent by Charles Wilkes on the United States Exploring Expedition in , the last continent identified, although a great "Antarctic" antipodean landmass had been anticipated for millennia. From the midth century, atlases published in the United States more commonly treated North and South America as separate continents, while atlases published in Europe usually considered them one continent. However, it was still not uncommon for American atlases to treat them as one continent up until World War II. Some geographers regard Europe and Asia together as a single continent, dubbed Eurasia. Geologists use the term continent in a different manner from geographers. In geology a continent is defined by continental crust: a platform of metamorphic and igneous rock , largely of granitic composition. Some geologists restrict the term 'continent' to portions of the crust built around stable Precambrian "shield", typically 1. The craton itself is an accretionary complex of ancient mobile belts mountain belts from earlier cycles of subduction , continental collision and break-up from plate tectonic activity. An outward-thickening veneer of younger minimally deformed sedimentary rock covers much of the craton. The margins of geologic continents are characterized by currently active or relatively recently active mobile belts and deep troughs of accumulated marine or deltaic sediments. Beyond the margin, there is either a continental shelf and drop off to the basaltic ocean basin or the margin of another continent, depending on the current plate-tectonic setting of the continent. A continental boundary does not have to be a body of water. Over geologic time, continents are periodically submerged under large epicontinental seas, and continental collisions result in a continent becoming attached to another continent. The current geologic era is relatively anomalous in that so much of the continental areas are "high and dry"; that is, many parts of the continents that were once below sea level are now elevated well above it due to changes in sea levels and the subsequent uplifting of those continental areas from tectonic activity. Some argue that continents are accretionary crustal "rafts" that, unlike the denser basaltic crust of the ocean basins, are not subjected to destruction through the plate tectonic process of subduction. This accounts for the great age of the rocks comprising the continental cratons. By this definition, Eastern Europe, India and some other regions could be regarded as continental masses distinct from the rest of Eurasia because they have separate ancient shield areas i. East European craton and Indian craton. Younger mobile belts such as the Ural Mountains and Himalayas mark the boundaries between these regions and the rest of Eurasia. There are many microcontinents, or continental fragments , that are built of continental crust but do not contain a craton. Some of these are fragments of Gondwana or other ancient cratonic continents: Zealandia , [80] which includes New Zealand and New Caledonia ; Madagascar ; the northern Mascarene Plateau , which includes the Seychelles. Other islands, such as several in the Caribbean Sea , are composed largely of granitic rock as well, but all continents contain both granitic and basaltic crust, and there is no clear boundary as to which islands would be considered microcontinents under such a definition. The Kerguelen Plateau , for example, is largely volcanic, but is associated with the break-up of Gondwanaland and is considered a microcontinent, [81] [82] whereas volcanic Iceland and Hawaii are not. The British Isles , Sri Lanka , Borneo , and Newfoundland are margins of the Laurasian continent—only separated by inland seas flooding its margins. Plate tectonics offers yet another way of defining continents. Today, Europe and most of Asia constitute the unified Eurasian Plate , which is approximately coincident with the geographic Eurasian continent excluding India, Arabia, and far eastern Russia. India contains a central shield, and the geologically recent Himalaya mobile belt forms its northern margin. North America and South America are separate continents, the connecting isthmus being largely the result of volcanism from relatively recent subduction tectonics. North American continental rocks extend to Greenland a portion of the Canadian Shield , and in terms of plate boundaries, the North American plate includes the easternmost portion of the Asian landmass. Geologists do not use these facts to suggest that eastern Asia is part of the North American continent, even though the plate boundary extends there; the word continent is usually used in its geographic sense and additional definitions "continental rocks," "plate boundaries" are used as appropriate. The movement of plates has caused the formation and break-up of continents over time, including occasional formation of a supercontinent that contains most or all of the continents. The supercontinent Columbia or Nuna formed during a period of 2. The eight continents later re-assembled into another supercontinent called Pangaea ; Pangaea broke up into Laurasia which became North America and Eurasia and Gondwana which became the remaining continents. The following table lists the seven continents with their highest and lowest points on land, sorted in decreasing highest points. Some sources list the Kuma—Manych Depression a remnant of the Paratethys as the geological border between Europe and Asia. North America. South America. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Continent disambiguation. Very large landmass identified by convention. Main article: Boundaries between the continents of Earth. See also: List of transcontinental countries. This section possibly contains synthesis of material which does not verifiably mention or relate to the main topic. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. November Learn how and when to remove this template message. For a more comprehensive list, see List of continents by population. Main article: Supercontinent. See also: List of supercontinents. Further information: Indian subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula. Main article: Submerged continent. Further information: Zealandia. Further information: Continental fragment. See also: Madagascar. Main article: Geological history of the Earth. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. May Learn how and when to remove this template message. Further information: Continental crust and Plate tectonics. Geography portal Environment portal Ecology portal. National Geographic. Archived from the original on 29 June Choi TZ; Astronomy. Retrieved 13 July Columbia Encyclopedia New York: Columbia University Press. The distribution of the continental platforms and ocean basins on the surface of the globe and the distribution of the major landform features have long been among the most intriguing problems for scientific investigation and theorizing. Each continent has one of the so-called shield areas that formed 2 billion to 4 billion years ago and is the core of the continent to which the remainder most of the continent has been added. Even the rocks of the extremely old shield areas are older in the centre and younger toward the margins, indicating that this process of accumulation started early. In North America the whole northeast quarter of the continent, called the Canadian , or Laurentian, Shield, is characterized by the ancient rocks of what might be called the original continent. In Europe the shield area underlies the eastern Scandinavian peninsula and Finland. The Guiana Highlands of South America are the core of that continent. Much of eastern Siberia is underlain by the ancient rocks, as are western Australia and southern Africa. See also continental drift. Continent Article Media Additional Info. Print Cite. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. National Geographic - Continent. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

7 Continents and 5 Oceans of the World

The last time a Pope addressed the parliament in Strasbourg was in when an Iron Curtain still divided the continent. But we had again to assist the Continent to strike the fetters off. Probably not one of those tribesmen has ever set foot on the American continent , let alone in Chicago. Bertie, I think your girl is worth the rest of this continent. He inherited a considerable fortune from his father, and as a young man travelled much on the Continent. The greater part of these have been planted since the arrival of the Europeans on the American continent. See how many words from the week of Oct 12—18, you get right! Words nearby continent contg. Words related to continent celibate , ascetic , abstinent , abstemious , austere , inhibited , modest , restrained , sober , temperate , self-restrained , abstentious , bridled , curbed. Example sentences from the Web for continent Still, prices across the continent are likely to be pressured amid excess supply, said Rupert Claxton, meat director at consultant Gira. Europe is on high alert after a deadly swine virus emerges in Germany Bernhard Warner September 10, Fortune. English Heraldic Book-stamps Cyril Davenport. In Search of the Castaways Jules Verne. New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved 20 February Oxford University Press ; "continent 1 n. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press; "continent 1 n. Erin McKean. ProQuest Information and Learning. A Dictionary of the Natural Environment. London: Edward Arnold. Planet Earth. In Ian Douglas Ed. London: Routledge, p. The actual shorelines are rather accidental, depending on the height of sea-level on the sloping shelves. McColl, ed. Encyclopedia of World Geography. Facts on File, Inc. Retrieved 26 June Furthermore, we should consider "separated" only what is naturally separated, excluding therefore the separations resulting from the artificially made Panama Canal which separates North and South America and Suez Canal which separates Africa from Eurasia. Under this model, the four continents of the world are: Afro-Eurasia or Eurafrasia , America, and Australia not Oceania, which combines Australia with smaller countries in the Pacific Ocean which are separated by water , and Antarctica. An alternative four-continent model, introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, included Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Some people also count North America and South America as one continent called simply America , since the two land masses are separated only by the human-made Panama Canal. This would allow for a model with only five continents. The Global Atlantic: to William Blackwood. Dunn; Laura J. Mitchell; Kerry Ward 23 August Univ of California Press. JHU Press. Blackwood and Sons. Kermack 9 March The Evolution of Mammalian Characters. An alternative five-continent model is the one adopted, among others, by the Olympic Charter, which excludes Antarctica as uninhabited and lists the following five: Africa, Europe, Asia, America, and Oceania or Australia. These geographers therefore contend that there should only be 5 continents. New York: Oxford University Press. McArthur, Tom, ed. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press; p. UK Department for Education. Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority. Archived from the original on 24 March Retrieved 30 September Retrieved 9 November Olympic Charter. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 7 August July Retrieved 14 July ". Archived from the original on 22 March Retrieved 19 November CIA World Factbook. March data. Retrieved 24 December McColl ed. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Encarta Online Encyclopedia.. Africa and the Middle East: a continental overview of environmental issues. Retrieved 27 November The English noun was introduced in the midth century, shortened from continent land 15th century , adapted from Latin terra continens "continuous landmass". A Study of History. London: Oxford University Press, v. A History of Ancient Geography. Cambridge: University Press. Translated by George Rawlinson The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus [7]. Ames, Iowa: Omphaloskepsis, book 2, p. Archived from the original PDF on 19 August Retrieved 8 February CS1 maint: archived copy as title link. Ames, Iowa: Omphaloskepsis, book 4, p. Translated by Horace Leonard Jones The American Journal of Philology , 5 1 p. The Invention of America. Indiana University Press. New York: Marsilio, pp. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, pp. New York: Marsilio, p. Oxford University Press. London, p. Oceania as a "great division" was replaced by Australia as a continent along with a series of isolated and continentally attached islands. Wigen The Myth of Continents: a Critique of Metageography. Berkeley: University of California Press. In parts of the world, students learn that there are just five continents: Eurasia, Australia, Africa, Antarctica, and the Americas. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 26 September Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences. San Diego: Academic Press. GSA Today. Archived from the original on 3 November Retrieved 26 August BBC News. November Earth-Science Reviews. Bibcode : ESRv Retrieved 3 December The continent - Extent and boundaries". Europe's Environment - The Dobris Assessment. European Environmental Agency. Continents category. Continents of Earth. Subcontinents Arabian Peninsula Indian subcontinent Madagascar. See also: Regions of the world Continental fragment. Atmosphere of Earth Climate Global warming Weather. Earth 's primary regions and subregions. Regions of Africa. Regions of Asia. Regions of Europe. Regions of North America. Pacific Northwest Prairie Pothole Region. Tallgrass prairie Midwest Upper Midwest. Great Lakes. North America portal. Regions of Oceania. Australian Capital Territory. Asia-Pacific Ring of Fire. Regions of South America. Amazon basin Atlantic Forest Caatinga Cerrado. Earth 's polar regions. Earth 's oceans and seas. World Ocean Superocean Seven Seas. Oceans portal Book Category. Hemispheres of Earth. Categories : Continents. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Wikimedia Commons Wikibooks. Color-coded map showing the various continents. Similar shades exhibit areas that may be consolidated or subdivided. Afro-Eurasia the " Old World ". America the " New World ". Lagos , Nigeria. Shanghai , China. Moscow , Russia [42]. Mexico City , Mexico. Sydney , Australia. Comparison of area by tens of millions of square kilometres and population by billions of people. Graph showing population by continent as a percentage of world population — Israel , Jordan , and Palestine. Indonesia Papua. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Continents category.

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