A continent is one of several large landmasses. Up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents. The continents correspond to areas of continental crust that are found on the continental plates. In modern schemes with five or more recognised continents, at least one pair of continents is joined by land in some way.
About Continent in brief
A continent is one of several large landmasses. Up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents. The continents correspond to areas of continental crust that are found on the continental plates. Some geological continents are largely covered with water, such as Zealandia. Oceanic islands are frequently grouped with a neighbouring continent to divide all the world’s land into regions. North America and South America are treated as separate continents in the seven-continent model. The ideal criterion that each continent is a discrete landmass is commonly relaxed due to historical conventions. Of the seven most globally recognized continents, only Antarctica and Australia are completely separated from other continents by the ocean. In modern schemes with five or more recognised continents, at least one pair of continents is joined by land in some way. The most restricted meaning of continent is that of a continuous area of land or mainland, with the coastline and any land boundaries forming the edge of the continent. In this sense, the term continental Europe is used to refer to mainland Europe, excluding islands such as Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, and Malta. The term continent of Australia may refer to the mainland of Australia, excluding New Guinea, Tasmania, and other nearby islands. Some geographers group the Australian continental plate with other islands in the Pacific into one \”quasi-cont continent\” called Oceania. This divides the entire land surface of Earth into continents or quasi-continents. The alternative view—in geology and geography—that Eurasia is a single continent in a world of six continents is a geologically and geologically incompatible view.
The single American continent model remains more common in some Asian models than the single continent model in the six- Continent model of the World Series of Nations. However, Europe is widely considered a continent with its comparatively large area of 10,180,000 square kilometres, while South Asia is considered a sub- continent of Europe with less than half that area. In the world of the Six Nations, Europe and South Asia are peninsulas of the Eurasian landmass, while North America, South Asia, and Antarctica are separate continents. In both cases, there is no complete separation of these landmassed by water. Both these isthmuses are very narrow compared to the bulk of the land masses they unite. In the six continents model, North America is considered two separate continents: Europe and Asia and South. America is also viewed as one continent known as America. This viewpoint was common in the United States until World War II, and remains prevalent in some European and Asian models of world geography. The single America continent model is a view that is completely disregarded if the continuous landmass of American countries is considered to be two continents: Eurasia and America. The world-wide view of geology and geology—inology and geography—that Eurasia is a single continent is a continent in a six- continent model of the world of six continents.
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This page is based on the article Continent published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 14, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
