"Europe and Asia together as a single continent, dubbed ""Eurasia"". In this model, the world is divided into six continents, with North America and South America considered separate continents. 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 1.5 to 3.8 billion years old, called a craton. The craton itself is an accretionary complex of ancient mobile belts (mountain belts) from"
"articles: Special topics: Lists: Asia Asia () is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres. It shares the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe and the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and"
"Asia Asia () is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres. It shares the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe and the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and population, but also dense"
"""ieg"" is actually a cognate of Swedish ""ö"" and German ""Aue"", and related to Latin ""aqua"" (water). Greenland is the world's largest island, with an area of over 2.1 million km, while Australia, the world's smallest continent, has an area of 7.6 million km, but there is no standard of size that distinguishes islands from continents, or from islets. There is a difference between islands and continents in terms of geology. Continents sit on continental lithosphere, which is part of tectonic plates floating high on Earth's mantle. Oceanic crust is also part of tectonic plates, but it is denser than"
"a neighbouring continent to divide all the world's land into geopolitical regions. Under this scheme, most of the island countries and territories in the Pacific Ocean are grouped together with the continent of Australia to form a geopolitical region called ""Oceania"". By convention, ""continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water."" Several of the seven conventionally recognized continents are not discrete landmasses separated completely by water. The criterion ""large"" leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland, with a surface area of is considered the world's largest island, while Australia, at is deemed the"
"Afro-Eurasia Afro-Eurasia (or Afroeurasia, or Eurafrasia, or nicknamed the World Island) is a landmass which comprises the continents of Eurasia (Europe and Asia) and Africa. The terms are portmanteaus of the names of its constituent parts. It is the largest contiguous landmass on Earth. Afro-Eurasia encompasses , a little over half the world's land area, and has a population of approximately 6 billion people, roughly 86% of the world population. The following terms are used for similar concepts: Although Afro-Eurasia is typically considered to comprise two or three separate continents, it is not a proper supercontinent. Instead, it is the"
"Africa Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent (behind Asia in both categories). At about 30.3 million km (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With /1e9 round 1 billion people as of , it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar"
"through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for two millennia. Originally, “Eurasia” is a geographical notion: in this sense, it is not the biggest continent but the combined landmass of Europe and Asia in order to be known as the biggest to exceed Africa. Very much like a tall man measured to a short man but the short man adds 4 other men to become taller. However, geopolitically, the word has several different meanings, reflecting the specific geopolitical interests of each nation. “Eurasia” is one of the most"
"Geography of North America North America is the third largest continent, and is also a portion of the second largest supercontinent if North and South America are combined into the Americas and Africa, Europe, and Asia are considered to be part of one supercontinent called Afro-Eurasia. With an estimated population of 460 million and an area of 24,346,000 km² (9,400,000 mi²), the northernmost of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west; the Atlantic Ocean on the east; the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and South America on the south; and"
"smallest continent. Earth's major landmasses all have coasts on a single, continuous World Ocean, which is divided into a number of principal oceanic components by the continents and various geographic criteria. 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"" (sometimes referred to in Britain as ""the Continent"") is used to refer to mainland Europe, excluding islands such as Great Britain, Ireland, Malta and Iceland, and the term ""continent of Australia"" may refer"
"are Zealandia, emerging from the sea primarily in New Zealand and New Caledonia, and the almost completely submerged Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean. Some islands lie on sections of continental crust that have rifted and drifted apart from a main continental landmass. While not considered continents because of their relatively small size, they may be considered microcontinents. Madagascar, the largest example, is usually considered an island of Africa but has been referred to as ""the eighth continent"" from a . ""Continents"" may be defined differently for specific purposes. The Biodiversity Information Standards organization has developed the World Geographical"
"and the Balkans from the mid 16th century onwards. In the 17th century, the Manchu conquered China and established the Qing dynasty. The Islamic Mughal Empire and the Hindu Maratha Empire controlled much of India in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively. Asia is the largest continent on Earth. It covers 9% of the Earth's total surface area (or 30% of its land area), and has the largest coastline, at . Asia is generally defined as comprising the eastern four-fifths of Eurasia. It is located to the east of the Suez Canal and the Ural Mountains, and south of the"
"craton or continental core. These have included Laurasia, Gondwana, Vaalbara, Kenorland, Columbia, Rodinia, and Pangaea. Certain parts of continents are recognized as subcontinents, especially the large peninsulas separated from the main continental landmass by geographical features. The most notable examples are the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula. The Southern Cone of South America and Alaskan peninsula of North America are other examples. In many of these cases, the ""subcontinents"" concerned are on different tectonic plates from the rest of the continent, providing a geological justification for the terminology. Greenland, generally reckoned as the world's largest island on the northeastern"
"Siberian Shelf The Siberian Shelf, one of the Arctic Ocean coastal shelves (such as the Milne Ice Shelf), is the largest continental shelf of the Earth, a part of the continental shelf of Russia. It extends from the continent of Eurasia in the general area of North Siberia (hence the name) into the Arctic Ocean. It stretches to offshore. It is relatively shallow, with average depth of 100 m. A number of islands are within the shelf, including the Wrangel Island, Novaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. It is encompassed by the Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and East Siberian"
"continent and several nearby islands. The extreme south of the world is tropical, having a jungle on the western coast, while the extreme northern portions of the country are subarctic forest. Given the size of the continent (approximately 2,500 miles north to south), this makes the planet slightly larger than Mars. The continent represents only part of the world, but it was revealed in the first edition supplement ""Island at the Edge of the World"" that the game setting is surrounded by a large, impenetrable black wall for unknown reasons. ""Land of the Damned Two: Eternal Torment"" also revealed that"
"largest of the six, five, or even four continents on Earth. In geology, Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock. However, the rigidity of Eurasia is debated based on paleomagnetic data. Eurasia covers around , or around 36.2% of the Earth's total land area. The landmass contains well over 5 billion people, equating to approximately 70% of the human population. Humans first settled in Eurasia between 60,000 and 125,000 years ago. Some major islands, including Great Britain, Iceland, and Ireland, and those of Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, are often included under the popular definition of Eurasia, in"
"permanently inhabited on a large scale. Asia is the most populous continent, with its 4.54 billion inhabitants accounting for 60% of the world population. The world's two most populated countries, China and India, together constitute about 36% of the world's population. Africa is the second most populated continent, with around 1.28 billion people, or 16% of the world's population. Europe's 742 million people make up 10% of the world's population as of 2018, while the Latin American and Caribbean regions are home to around 651 million (9%). Northern America, primarily consisting of the United States and Canada, has a population"
"Antarctica Antarctica ( or , ) is Earth's southernmost continent. It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At , it is the fifth-largest continent. For comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages in thickness, which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all"
"stairs which double back. Thus the host on the upper landing was able to see his visitors first who initially walked away from him. When the guests turned and approached, the vast ceiling fresco above was increasingly revealed to them. This fresco, the largest in the world, created from 1750-3 by Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo shows paintings of the four continents: Europe, America, Asia and Africa. Each continent is represented by a typical landscape and animals (or the painter's vision of these animals) and a female allegorical figure. Europe holds a sceptre, is symbolized by a bull, and has"
"of Australia. Pacific islands with ties to other continents (such as Japan, Hawaii or Easter Island) are usually grouped with those continents rather than Oceania. This term is used in several different continental models instead of Australia. The following table summarizes the area and population of each continental region using the seven continent model. The total land area of all continents is , or 29.1% of earth's surface (). Aside from the conventionally known continents, the scope and meaning of the term ""continent"" varies. Supercontinents, largely in evidence earlier in the geological record, are landmasses that comprise more than one"
"Americas The Americas (also collectively called America; , Spanish/Portuguese: ""América"") comprise the totality of the continents of North and South America. Together, they make up most of the land in Earth's western hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earth's total surface area and 28.4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a long chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great"
"Geography of Africa Africa is a continent comprising 63 political territories, representing the largest of the great southward projections from the main mass of Earth's surface. Within its regular outline, it comprises an area of , excluding adjacent islands. Its highest mountain is Mount Kilimanjaro, its largest lake is Lake Victoria Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea and from much of Asia by the Red Sea, Africa is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (which in transected by the Suez Canal), wide. For geopolitical purposes, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt – east on"
"Ocean. Depending on how they are defined, there are usually seven or eight ""major"" plates: African, Antarctic, Eurasian, North American, South American, Pacific, and Indo-Australian. The latter is sometimes subdivided into the Indian and Australian plates. There are dozens of smaller plates, the seven largest of which are the Arabian, Caribbean, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Nazca, Philippine Sea, and Scotia. The current motion of the tectonic plates is today determined by remote sensing satellite data sets, calibrated with ground station measurements. The appearance of plate tectonics on terrestrial planets is related to planetary mass, with more massive planets than Earth"
"a great quantity of Land, not separated by any Sea from the rest of the World, as the whole Continent of Europe, Asia, Africa."" In 1727, Ephraim Chambers wrote in his ""Cyclopædia,"" ""The world is ordinarily divided into two grand continents: the old and the new."" And in his 1752 atlas, Emanuel Bowen defined a continent as ""a large space of dry land comprehending many countries all joined together, without any separation by water. Thus Europe, Asia, and Africa is one great continent, as America is another."" However, the old idea of Europe, Asia and Africa as ""parts"" of the"
"Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It separates the ""Old World"" from the ""New World"". The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast,"
"the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 579 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population, if nearby islands (most notably the Caribbean) are included. North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge approximately 40,000 to 17,000 years ago. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago (the beginning of the Archaic or Meso-Indian period). The"
"Oz is the largest country on the continent unofficially known as Nonestica (this name was proposed by Robert R. Pattrick for the whole of the countries surrounding Oz; Pattrick proposed ""Ozeria"" for the whole continent, but that name is generally unused in fan discussions), which also includes the countries of Ev, Ix, and Mo, which has also been known as Phunniland, among others. Nonestica is, according to the map, in the Nonestic Ocean. A fair amount of evidence in the books point to this continent as being envisioned as somewhere in the southern Pacific Ocean. At the opening of ""Ozma"
"Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with an Antarctic southern border), this largest division of the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of Earth's land area combined. The centers of"
"of their students. Asia is the Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It includes a large number of countries, some of which are grouped into subregions. In the Autonomous regions of China many children of the country's major ethnic minorities attend public schools where the medium of instructions is the local language, such as e.g. Uyghur or Tibetan. Traditionally, the textbooks there were little different from merely a translated version of the books used in the Chinese schools throughout the country; however, as of 2001, a move was on foot to create"
"might be expected for a concept based on such abundant conjecture and minimal data, varied wildly from map to map; in general, the continent shrank as potential locations were reinterpreted. At its largest, the continent included Tierra del Fuego, separated from South America by a small strait; New Guinea; and what would come to be called Australia. In Ortelius's atlas ""Theatrum Orbis Terrarum"", published in 1570, Terra Australis extends north of the Tropic of Capricorn in the Pacific Ocean. As long as it appeared on maps at all, the continent minimally included the unexplored lands around the South Pole, but"
"Greenland Greenland (, ; , ) is an autonomous constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers, as well as the nearby island of Iceland) for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, gradually settling across the island. Greenland is the world's largest island. Australia and Antarctica"
"coastlines, frequently washing aground where it is known as beach litter. Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It separates the ""Old World"" from the ""New World"". The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the"
"spite of being separate from the contiguous landmass. Physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent. The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geologically arbitrary. In ancient times the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, along with their associated straits, were seen as separating the continents, but today the Ural and Caucasus ranges are more seen as the main delimiters between the two. Eurasia is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and Eurasia is sometimes combined with Africa to make the largest contiguous landmass on Earth called Afro-Eurasia. Due to"