CONTINENT PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Jim Crace | 176 pages | 04 Jan 2008 | Pan MacMillan | 9780330453318 | English | London, United Kingdom Continent - Wikipedia 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 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. Keep scrolling for more. Other Words from continent Adjective continently adverb. Examples of continent in a Sentence Noun The book provides information on hotels in Britain and on the Continent. Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The bust has tarnished what European leaders have portrayed as a tough-minded, but principled, effort to curb migration to the continent. First Known Use of continent Noun , in the meaning defined at sense 1 Adjective 14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1. Learn More about continent. Time Traveler for continent The first known use of continent was in the 14th century See more words from the same century. Dictionary Entries near continent contiguity contiguous continence continent continental continental block continental breakfast See More Nearby Entries. Phrases Related to continent the Continent. More Definitions for continent. Kids Definition of continent. Other Words from continent continently adverb. Comments on continent What made you want to look up continent? Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Love words? Need even more definitions? The awkward case of 'his or her'. Take the quiz Forms of Government Quiz Name that government! Take the quiz Spell It Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words? Take the quiz Citation Do you know the person or title these quotes desc Play the game. Continent | National Geographic Society 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.