The continents of the earth and the countries located on them. Eurasia is the largest continent on earth

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A continent (the term "mainland" may also be used for this term) is generally defined as a very large landmass surrounded by water on all sides and comprising a number of independent states. However, when it comes to the number of continents on Earth, experts are not always unanimous. Depending on the criteria used, there may be four, five, six or seven continents. Sounds weird, right? Let's see how things really are!

Definition of "Continent"

The Glossary of Geology, published by the American Geoscience Institute, defines a continent as one of the major land masses, including land and the continental shelf. Other characteristics of the continent include:

Land areas that are elevated in relation to the surrounding ocean floor;
Variety of rocks, including volcanic, metamorphic and sedimentary;
A crust that is thicker than the surrounding oceanic crust. For example, continental crust can vary in thickness from about 29 to 45 km, while oceanic crust is typically about 6 km thick;
Clearly defined boundaries.

This last characteristic is the least well defined, according to the Geological Society of America, leading to confusion among experts as to how many continents there are. Moreover, there is no global governing body to develop a consensus definition.

How many continents are there really?

Examples of continental earth models

Using the criteria defined above, many geologists say that there are six continents or continents: Africa, Antarctica, Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. The same model for dividing the main land areas of the planet is common in the former Soviet countries, including Russia. In US schools, as a rule, they teach that there are seven continents: Europe, North America and South America. In many parts of Europe, students are taught that there are only six continents, combining North and South America into one continent.

Why such difference? From a geological point of view, Europe and Asia are one big continent. The split into two separate parts comes more from a geopolitical point of view, as Russia covers a vast area of Asia and has historically and politically been isolated from Western European powers such as Britain, Germany and France.

Recently, some geologists have begun to argue that a "new" continent called Zeeland should be added to the list. According to one theory, this land is located off the east coast of Australia. New Zealand and several smaller islands are the only peaks above water; the remaining 94 percent of the continent is hidden under the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Other ways of dividing land: regions, parts of the world and tectonic plates

Geographers, to simplify their work, usually delimit the lands of the planet into regions, and not continents or parts of the world. The official list of countries by region divides the world into eight regions: Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Australia and Oceania.

There is also a similar concept of "part of the world", according to which all continents are divided into six main parts of the world: Asia, Africa, America, Europe, Australia and Oceania, Antarctica. As we can see from this list, Eurasia is divided into two parts (Europe and Asia), while North and South America are merged into one (America).

You can also divide major landmasses into tectonic plates, which are large slabs of hard rock. These plates are composed of continental and oceanic crusts and are separated from each other by fault lines. There are 15 tectonic plates in total, seven of which are approximately 16 million square kilometers or more in size. Not surprisingly, they roughly correspond to the shape of the continents that lie on their surface.

Eurasia is the largest continent on our planet. This continent combines Asia and Europe, which, despite the many differences in climate, relief and other characteristics, are one and perfectly complement each other.

For the first time the name "Eurasia" was applied to the mainland by Eduard Suess (in 1880). Before him, this continent was called differently, for example, Alexander Humboldt liked to call it Asia more.

Dimensions of Eurasia

Eurasia occupies 36 percent of the entire land mass of the Earth, which is equal to 54,759,000 square kilometers. 93 states are located on the territory of the continent. No other continent can "boast" of such a number of available countries. The population of the mainland is 3/4 of all those living on our planet - 4,947 billion people (according to statistics from 2010).

Features of the geographical location

As noted above, the continent consists of Asia and Europe. The distinction between these parts of the world is made by mountains, rivers, straits and parts of the seas (for example, the Ural Mountains, the Emba and Kuma rivers, the northwestern part of the Caspian Sea, the Bosporus, etc.). However, if we consider Europe and Asia from a natural point of view, then there are no sharp boundaries between them - the mainland continuously goes in the form of land for 8,000 km from north to south, and from west to east for 16,000 km.

This largest continent is washed by all the oceans on our planet (there are four in total). From the south it is washed by the Indian Ocean, from the north by the Arctic Ocean, from the east by the Pacific, and from the west by the Atlantic. In terms of washing the shores of all the world's oceans, the mainland is the only one on the planet.

relief features

The continent is distinguished by a rather diverse relief. Here are the Tibetan Plateau, the West Siberian and East European Plains (considered one of the largest). The mainland on the entire planet is recognized as the highest - its average height is 830 meters. Approximately 65 percent of the mainland is covered by mountain peaks and plateaus. For example, Eurasia is the location of the highest mountains of our planet - the Himalayas.

Climatic and natural features

Due to the huge size of the continent, all climatic zones and zones are present here. The maritime climate prevails on the islands and in the western part. In the east and south of the mainland, the climate is monsoonal. When moving inland, one can note the predominance of the continental climate (this is especially characteristic when moving from west to east in the temperate climate zone). This climate is most typical for Eastern Siberia.

And natural areas here are characterized by diversity. Highlands and islands in the northern part are covered with glaciers. Eastern Siberia and the Far East are the location of the tundra and forest-tundra. Siberia is almost completely covered with taiga. In the center of the mainland and its southwestern part there are deserts and semi-deserts. The steppe and forest-steppe zones are inherent in the southern part of Western Siberia and the Russian Plain.

What can "boast" of Eurasia?

On its territory, Eurasia has many geographical points that are recognized as the largest: Lake Baikal, the Caspian Sea, Tibet, Chomolungma, the Arabian Peninsula, Siberia. In this regard, the mainland can be called a kind of champion in comparison with other continents that are present on our planet.

Guess which continent is the largest on Earth? The answer is very simple - it is Eurasia, which is the largest continent in the world, both in terms of size and population. But what about the rest of the continents: North America and South America? Here you will learn the area and population of these continents, as well as some interesting facts about each of them.

Distribution of the Earth's continents by area

If we take into account the area of \u200b\u200bthe territory, then all the continents of the world, from largest to smallest, are located in the following order:

Eurasia: about 55,000,000 square kilometers (21,000,000 square miles), of which about 44,391,162 square kilometers (17,139,445 square miles) fall in Asia and about 10,354,636 square kilometers (3,997,929 square miles) in Europe;
Africa: 30,244,049 square kilometers (11,677,239 sq mi);
North America: 24,247,039 square kilometers (9,361,791 sq mi);
South America: 17,821,029 square kilometers (6,880,706 sq mi);
Antarctica: 14,245,000 square kilometers (about 5,500,000 square miles);
Australia: 7,686,884 square kilometers (2,967,909 sq mi).

Distribution of the Earth's continents by population

If we take into account the population, then the distribution of the continents of our planet, from the most to the least populated, is as follows:

Eurasia: more than 5.2 billion people, of which about 4.5 billion live in Asia and about 742 million in Europe;
Africa: over 1.2 billion people;
North America: about 575 million people (including in Central America and the Caribbean);
South America: more than 420 million people;
Australia: about 23.2 million people;
Antarctica: there are no permanent residents, but about 5,000 researchers and workers live in the summer and about 1,000 in the winter.

In addition, more than 15 million people do not live on the mainland. Almost all of these people live in the island countries of Oceania, which is a region of the world, but not a continent. Drawing a conclusion from the lists presented above, Eurasia is the leader among all the continents of the world, both in terms of area and population.

Some interesting facts about each continent

Eurasia includes the largest and smallest countries in the world. Russia is the largest with an area of more than 17 million square kilometers, while the Vatican, with an area of 0.44 square kilometers, is the smallest state on the planet. Asia has the highest and lowest points on Earth. Mount Everest is the highest point on the planet - 8,848 meters above sea level. The lowest point is the Dead Sea, which is 430 meters below sea level.
Africa is home to the world's longest river, the Nile. It extends for approximately 6,853 km from Sudan to the Mediterranean Sea.
North America has the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Superior. It is part of

Learn to distinguish between continents, continents and parts of the world. Find out how many oceans are on Earth, what they are called.

It would seem that it is not so easy to give an unambiguous answer to questions from the school curriculum, for example, how many continents are on Earth and what they are called. It's all about a somewhat confusing terminology, which we will now try to figure out.

How many continents are there on Earth and what are they called?

Even those who studied “excellently” in geography at school, after a while, may begin to get confused in the number and names of continents, continents and parts of the world. But the difference between these terms denoting land is fundamentally important.

Continents in geography are areas of the earth's crust, predominantly rising above sea level. Their protruding part is what we call land. Continents are surrounded by water on all sides.

General information about the continents.

The area of the continents, their sizes in comparison.

Today there are 6 continents, and they are displayed on the world map. This:

Eurasia is the largest piece of land, washed by 4 oceans, lying in 4 hemispheres at once (mostly in the Northern and Eastern, smaller ones in the Southern and Western). Eurasia accounts for more than a third of the entire land mass of the Earth.
Africa is the second largest landmass, bordered by two oceans. Africa is crossed by the equator. The mainland is unique in that it presents climatic zones from the northern subtropics to the southern subtropics.
Australia is a relatively small piece of land lying in the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres, washed by two oceans. This entire mainland is occupied by one single state - the Commonwealth of Australia (as you know, the union also includes nearby islands).
North America is a continent in the Northern and Western Hemispheres, washed by three oceans.
South America is a piece of land, mainly lying in the Southern and Western Hemispheres (only a small part of it is in the Northern), washed by two oceans. South and North America are connected by the Isthmus of Panama.
Antarctica is a piece of land, the highest (at 2040 m on average) standing above sea level, almost completely covered with ice. The center of this continent coincides with the South Pole of the Earth. Antarctica is not inhabited by people (with the exception of researchers who are there temporarily).

North America.

South America.

Australia.

Antarctica.

IMPORTANT: Just like today, the land did not always look. It was solid and was called Pangea. The supercontinent broke apart at the beginning of the Mesozoic, its parts drifted and ended up in the place where they are now.

It is noteworthy that in the English-speaking countries, India and China, they believe that there are not 6, but 7 continents. They divide Eurasia into Europe and Asia.

How many continents are there on Earth and what are they called?

If you confuse the concepts of "mainland" and "continent", you will not make a serious mistake, since they mean the same thing.

IMPORTANT: The term "continent" comes from the Latin word continens, which means continuous, encompassing.

Accordingly, there are 6 continents on our planet, and they are called the same as the continents.

VIDEO: Acquaintance with the continents of the Earth

How many parts of the world are on Earth and what are they called?

But the concept of "part of the world" is significantly different from the concept of "mainland / continent". In many ways it is historical. And the classification of parts of the world on our planet, which, by the way, is also six, is somewhat different.

Two parts of the world coincide with the continents. These are Africa and Antarctica.
Two parts of the world are doubled. One, America, which includes two continents - North America and South America. The other is Australia and Oceania. It includes mainland Australia and the islands lying near it.
But the continent of Eurasia is divided into two parts of the world - Europe and Asia.

How many oceans are on planet Earth and what are they called?

Water covers three quarters of the Earth's surface. The oceans that are part of the hydrosphere are the largest bodies of water that communicate with each other, washing the continents. Together with the seas, bays and straits, they are called the oceans.

Area of the oceans.