New age: Details about 'Continent'
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A continent (Latin continere, "to hold together") is a large continuous landmass.
DefinitionsSince geography is defined by local convention, there are several conceptions as to which landmasses qualify as continents, and which might be termed supercontinents (e.g. Africa-Eurasia), microcontinents (e.g. Madagascar or New Zealand), or subcontinents (e.g. South Asia). Seven landmasses and their associated islands are commonly reckoned as continents, but these may be consolidated. For example, North and South America are often considered a single continent, and Asia is often united with Europe. Ignoring cases where Antarctica is omitted, or where the terms Australasia or Oceania replaces Australia, there are half a dozen traditions for naming the continents. Models
The 7-continent model is usually taught in Western Europe, the United States, and Australia. In Canada, the government-approved names 7 continents and teaches Oceania instead of Australia. In East Asia, especially in the Orient, it is taught as a 7-region model since the rendition of "continent" in Chinese is similar to "island", which connotes a separate smaller landmass surrounded by water. In China, Japan, and Korea, the English term Australasia and local translations of Oceania are most often used. The 6-continent Americas model is taught in England, Asia and Latin America but, again, it is often taught in terms of the 6-region model. The 6-continent/region Eurasia model is preferred by the geographic community, while the geologic community forgoes local differences by classifying based on tectonic plates. It is especially used in Russia, elsewhere in Eastern Europe, and Japan, which often refer to the 7-continent model as a Western cultural convention. Historians may use the 5-continent/region model in which North Africa is separated from Sub-Saharan Africa and attached to Eurasia (Jared Diamond) or the 4-continent/region Afro-Eurasian (Andre Gunder Frank). They are ranked here according to size.
InterpretationsGeographers and historians often find it useful to define larger landmasses connected by land bridges:
That is, during the last Ice Age, there were three large landmasses: Africa-Eurasia + America (which has no name), Sahul, and Antarctica. These larger land masses are usually considered supercontinents rather than continents, however. Continents are sometimes subdivided into subcontinents that are delineated by geological features: the prototype of this is the Indian subcontinent. In the last century, it has also become customary to subdivide major landmasses, particularly Eurasia and the Americas, into regions or subregions of varying size and scope; for instance, the Indian subcontinent somewhat corresponds to South Asia.Islands are usually considered to belong geographically to the continent they are closest to. The Coral Sea and South Pacific islands may be associated with Australia/Australasia to form the "continent" of Oceania (though the Pacific islands without Australia are also called Oceania). The British Isles have always been considered part of Europe, and Greenland is considered part of North America. When the Continent is referred to without clarification by a speaker of British English, it is usually presumed to mean Continental Europe, that is Europe, explicitly excluding Great Britain and Ireland. Elsewhere, islanders may refer to the nearest mainland as simply the Continent. The Continental United States excludes Hawaii. Contiguous or Co(n)terminous United States means the United States without Alaska or Hawaii (the "Lower 48"), but it is very common for people to say continental for contiguous.
MicrocontinentsMicrocontinents include Madagascar, the Seychelles (the northern Mascarene Plateau), New Zealand, and New Caledonia. Note that volcanic Iceland is an exposed bit of oceanic crust at the mid-ocean ridge, and therefore not a microcontinent. HistoryIn its original sense, continent meant (and still means) "mainland". In the Greco-Roman world, the known world consisted of three parts (see T and O map). After the Europeans became aware of the existence of the "New World" in the Age of Discovery, the Europeans counted four continents and seven seas. In the mid 1600s Peter Heylin wrote in his Cosmographie that "A Continent is a great quantity of Land, not separated by any Sea from the rest of the World, as the whole Continent of Europe, Asia, Africa." As late as 1727 Ephraim Chambers wrote in his Cyclopædia, "The world is ordinarily divided into two grand continents: the old and the new." However, since Classical times this Continent was divided into "peninsulas" which also came to be called continents, since they were great land masses themselves. Through the Middle Ages, there were three such continents in the Western conception: Europe, Africa, and Asia. The European discovery of America in 1492 made four; and Australia in 1606 would make five, though not right away: as late as 1813 geographers wrote of Australia as "New Holland, an immense Island, which some geographers dignify with the appellation of another continent". However, dividing America in two was commonplace by this time, and would also produce a fifth continent. The idea of the Five Continents is still strong in Europe and Asia, and is represented by the five rings on the Olympic flag. Antarctica was sighted in 1820, for the sixth and last continent to be given a separate name, though a great "antarctic" (antipodean) landmass had been anticipated for millennia. Dividing the Americas now made seven continents, nicely symmetrical with the magical number of the Seven Seas, Seven Heavens, and the seven heavenly bodies that gave their names to the seven days of the week. However, this division never appealed to Latin America, which saw itself spanning America as a single landmass, and there the conception of six continents remains, as it does in scattered other countries such as Japan. From a modern perspective, the continent with the least reason for separate recognition is Europe, and in scientific circles people generally prefer to subsume Europe and Asia into Eurasia. This appealed to Russia, which spans Eurasia, and in Russia and (at least formerly) in Eastern Europe, Eurasia is or was taught as being one of six continents. GeologyThe surface of the Earth consists of many tectonic plates which move on a plastic layer of the Earth called the asthenosphere. The plates are composed of both continental and oceanic crust. Continental crust is primarily granitoid rock, overlain by a thin veneer of sedimentary rock. Much of the continental crust extends above sea level as dry land. Generally, the geographic continents each lie on one tectonic plate, but there are exceptions. Asia and North America, in the Bering Sea region, share the North American plate, and many times over the past few million years, Asia and North America were connected by dry land. Asia contains not only the Eurasian plate, but the Arabian plate, the Australian plate (on which India is colliding with Eurasia), and the North American plate. Depending on which continental model one uses, geographic continents can straddle a variable number of tectonic plates. Occasionally there are calls for the continents to be defined by the tectonic plates that carry them. However, not only would this make Arabia on the Arabian plate and India on the Indian plate continents, but it would separate Central America (on the Caribbean plate) from North America and the region of California west of the San Andreas fault (on the Pacific plate) from North America, so this definition has never been widely accepted. The tectonic plates shift on geologic timescales, a process known as continental drift. Consequently, in the geological past other continents existed, like the supercontinent Gondwana.- see Category:Historical continents. See also
قارة Continén Continente Континент মহাদেশ Kontinent Kevandir Continentcv:Континент Kontinent Cyfandir Verdensdel Kontinent Ήπειροι Continente Kontinento قاره Continent Mór-roinn Continente 대륙 महाद्वीप Kontinent Kontinento Benua Continente Heimsálfa Continente יבשתkn:ಖಂಡ კონტინენტიks:Bhūgōlaku:Kîşwer Brastirky:Материк Bara Continens Žemynai Kontinent Kontinens Континент Benuamo:Континент Continent Eerddeel 大陸 Kontinent Kontynent Continente Continent Континентsm:Konitineta Continent Svetadiel Celina Континентsu:Buana Maanosa Världsdelta:கண்டம் ทวีปto:Konitineta Kıta Материк Continint קאָנטינענט 洲
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