Continental how many

So how many continents are there then, according to the disagreeing parties? In other places in the world, North and South America are combined as one American continent while separating Europe and Asia instead.

Thus, according to these two views, there should only be 6 continents. There are even geographical views that prefer the presence of both a Eurasian as well as one American continent. These geographers therefore contend that there should only be 5 continents. Much of the soil was formed from material deposited during the most recent glacial period.

This Ice Age reached its peak about 18, years ago. As glaciers retreated, streams of melted ice dropped sediment on the land, building layers of fertile soil in the plains region. North America contains a variety of natural wonders. Landforms and all types of vegetation can be found within its boundaries. Yellowstone National Park, in the U. Despite its name, Greenland is mostly covered with ice.

Its ice is a remnant of the great ice sheets that once blanketed much of the North American continent. Greenland is the only place besides Antarctica that still has an ice sheet. From the freezing Arctic to the tropical jungles of Central America , North America enjoys more climate variation than any other continent. Parts of the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U. South America is the fourth-largest continent and extends from the sunny beaches of the Caribbean Sea to the frigid waters near the Antarctic Circle.

These islands even host some Antarctic birds, such as penguins, albatrosses, and terns. Early Spanish explorers visiting the islands for the first time saw small fires dotting the land. These fires, made by indigenous people, seemed to float on the water, which is probably how the islands got their name—Tierra del Fuego means "Land of Fire.

Many active volcanoes dot the range. These volcanic areas are fueled by heat generated as a large oceanic plate, called the Nazca Plate, grinds beneath the plate carrying South America.

The central-southern area of South America has pampas , or plains. These rich areas are ideal for agriculture. The growing of wheat is a major industry in the pampas. Grazing animals, such as cattle and sheep, are also raised in the pampas region.

In volume, the Amazon is the largest river in the world. More water flows from it than from the next six largest rivers combined. Water flows more than meters 3, feet —almost a mile.

The falls are so high that most of the water evaporates into mist or is blown away by wind before it reaches the ground. South American rainforests contain an enormous wealth of animal and plant life. More than 15, species of plants and animals are found only in the Amazon River basin.

Many Amazonian plant species are sources of food and medicine for the rest of the world. Scientists are trying to find ways to preserve this precious and fragile environment as people move into the Amazon basin and clear land for settlements and agriculture. In total area, the continent of Europe is only slightly larger than the country of Canada. However, the population of Europe is more than twice that of South America. Most European countries have access to the ocean.

The continent is bordered by the Arctic Ocean in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Caspian Sea in the southeast, and the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the south. Early Europeans learned the river systems of the Volga, Danube, Don, Rhine, and Po, and could successfully travel the length and width of the small continent for trade , communication , or conquest.

European explorers were responsible for colonizing land on every continent except Antarctica. This colonization process had a drastic impact on the economic and political development of those continents, as well as Europe.

In the east, the Ural Mountains separate Europe from Asia. The nations of Russia and Kazakhstan straddle both continents. To the south, the Alps form an arc stretching from Albania to Austria, then across Switzerland and northern Italy into France. A large area of gently rolling plains extends from northern France eastward to the Urals. A climate of warm summers, cold winters, and plentiful rain helps make much of this European farmland very productive.

Almost all of Europe sits on the massive Eurasian Plate. Africa Africa, the second-largest continent, covers an area more than three times that of the United States. From north to south, Africa stretches about 8, kilometers 5, miles.

It is connected to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. A series of falls and rapids along the southern part of the river makes navigation difficult. The Nile has played an important role in the history of Africa. In ancient Egyptian civilization , it was a source of life for food, water, and transportation.

The top half of Africa is mostly dry, hot desert. The middle area has savannas, or flat, grassy plains. This region is home to wild animals such as lions, giraffes, elephants, hyenas, cheetahs, and wildebeests. The central and southern areas of Africa are dominated by rainforests. Much of Africa is a high plateau surrounded by narrow strips of coastal lowlands.

Hilly uplands and mountains rise in some areas of the interior. Glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania sit just kilometers from the tropical jungles below. Even though Kilimanjaro is not far from the Equator, snow covers its summit all year long.

The rift valley actually starts in southwestern Asia. The Great Rift Valley is a site of major tectonic activity, where the continent of Africa is splitting into two. Geologists have already named the two parts of the African Plate.

The area of central-eastern Africa is important to scientists who study evolution and the earliest origins of humanity. This area is thought to be the place where hominids began to evolve. The entire continent of Africa sits on the African Plate. Asia Asia, the largest continent, stretches from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the western Pacific Ocean. There are more than 40 countries in Asia.

Some are among the most-populated countries in the world, including China, India, and Indonesia. The continent of Asia includes many islands, some of them countries.

The plateaus in Central Asia are largely unsuitable for farming and are thinly populated. The continent has a wide range of climate regions, from polar in the Siberian Arctic to tropical in equatorial Indonesia. Southeast Asia, on the other hand, depends on the annual monsoons, which bring rain and make agriculture possible.

Asia is the most mountainous of all the continents. More than 50 of the highest peaks in the world are in Asia. Mount Everest, which reaches more than 8, meters 29, feet high in the Himalaya range, is the highest point on Earth. These mountains have become major destination spots for adventurous travelers.

Plate tectonics continuously push the mountains higher. As the landmass of India pushes northward into the landmass of Eurasia, parts of the Himalayas rise at a rate of about 2. The land there lies more than meters 1, feet below sea level.

Although the Eurasian Plate carries most of Asia, it is not the only one supporting major parts of the large continent. The Indian Plate supports the Indian peninsula, sometimes called the Indian subcontinent. The Australian Plate carries some islands in Indonesia. Australia In addition to being the smallest continent, Australia is the flattest and the second-driest, after Antarctica.

The continent is sometimes called Oceania , to include the thousands of tiny islands of the Central Pacific and South Pacific, most notably Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia including the U. However, the continent of Australia itself includes only the nation of Australia, the eastern portion of the island of New Guinea the nation of Papua New Guinea and the island nation of New Zealand. Australia covers just less than 8. Its population is about 31 million.

It is the most sparsely populated continent, after Antarctica. Rainfall is light on the plateau, and not many people have settled there. The Great Dividing Range, a long mountain range, rises near the east coast and extends from the northern part of the territory of Queensland through the territories of New South Wales and Victoria. Mainland Australia is known for the Outback , a desert area in the interior. This area is so dry, hot, and barren that few people live there.

In addition to the hot plateaus and deserts in mainland Australia, the continent also features lush equatorial rainforests on the island of New Guinea, tropical beaches, and high mountain peaks and glaciers in New Zealand. Biologists who study animals consider Australia a living laboratory.

Africa has vast savannahs and woodlands, but the continent is being deforested at twice the global average. Giant land animals, such as elephants, giraffes, and rhinoceroses, are endangered because of poaching. Given that much of the continent is impoverished and under corrupt governments, addressing the environmental crisis in Africa requires international action. The African Union, which formed in and includes all 55 African countries, can be seen as a corollary to the European Union.

It has strengthened relations among nations in Africa and hopes to work to decrease poverty and end human rights violations. One notable sign of success in Africa is that during the civil war in the Congo, neighboring African countries, rather than Western countries, have been intervening and attempting to promote peace and reconciliation. With assistance from international organizations, countries all across Africa will become even more empowered to lift themselves out of poverty and address the environmental crisis.

It is connected to the main land mass of Europe , with the border defined somewhat by the Ural Mountains that run through Russia and the Bosphorus that cuts through Turkey. Two countries are split between Europe and Asia: Turkey and Russia. There are many large regions inside of Asia. The Middle East stretches from Turkey through Saudi Arabia and is dominated by Sunni Islam and the Arabic language, although a significant number of Christians, Jews, and followers of other religions and speakers of other languages live there, as well.

Central Asia goes from Iran to the border of India. India is considered a region in and of itself, but it has similarities, as well as conflicts, with its neighboring countries that were carved out of it — Pakistan and Bangladesh. Southeast Asia includes many coastal and island nations, such as Myanmar , Thailand , the Philippines , and Indonesia. In other words, Asia was the part of the world that was not European, and the idea of a European identity was based on the idea that Europeans were not Asian.

The conflicts between Pakistan and India today, as well as many other conflicts in Asia, are the legacies of European colonization in Asia. That said, before colonization, Asia had some of the earliest civilizations and greatest empires in the world. Asia has some of the most extreme geography on the planet. The Himalayas are the largest mountain range in the world, and the Gobi desert is one of the largest deserts in the world.

Monsoons in India and nearby countries bring periodic floods, and temperature swings in some locations can be extremely volatile. In addition to having varied geography, of all the continents, Asia is experiencing perhaps the most devastating effects of climate change. Asia has historically been very poor, primarily due to the effects of European colonization, but today, many of its countries — notably South Korea, Indonesia, China, and India — have rapidly-growing economies.

Of all the seven continents, Europe has the second-smallest landmass after Australia , but its people and culture have done more to shape the entire world than those from any other continent. It has about 50 sovereign states, though two of them Russia and Turkey are located in both Europe and Asia ; Armenia , though a party to many European agreements, is actually in Asia. The smallest country is Luxembourg , measuring at just 11 miles across, whereas Russia is the largest, which crosses 11 time zones!

Europe is covered in peninsulas — such as the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia , and Italy — and mountain ranges — notably the Alps and Apennines. The frigid tundra of Scandinavia contrasts with the warm Mediterranean coastline to the south, but the interior of Europe is mostly cool and temperate.

Its largest city is Moscow , which has over 16 million people, and its longest river, the Volga, runs through Russia near the Asian border. What is Europe? This question is actually much more difficult to answer than might first seem. You could say that the civilizations of Europe began with the rise of the Greek and then Roman Empires. As these empires spread north and west from the Mediterranean, they influenced peoples throughout the entire continent.

The rise of Christian Europe, or Christendom, basically means that most cultural institutions, such as universities and even kings and parliaments, originally began either as extensions of the church or under the authority of the church. Communism fell in the late s and early s, and the European Union was created in as a means of promoting political and economic integration, especially among countries that had formerly been communist. Most countries in the EU use a currency known as the Euro and have democratic governments; additionally, the EU itself is governed as a democracy.

EU countries are expected to follow laws that are passed by the EU, as the goal of the organization is to promote unity and ensure that the devastation of World War I and World War II does not happen again. However, looking at Europe in terms of the EU is also problematic, as the United Kingdom , which is a geographical part of Europe, voted in to leave the EU. Additionally, Turkey is a country that is on two continents — Europe and Asia — but has been attempting to join the EU.

Russia is by far the largest country not only in Europe, but in the world; it also stretches from Europe into Asia, but is not a part of the EU. Norway is part of continental Europe, and Iceland is an island halfway across the Atlantic, and neither one of them is a member of the EU. So what is Europe? Is it a land mass? Is it a collection of cultures? Is it a political body? As mentioned before, the answer to that question actually depends on who you ask. What can be said is that it is no longer a collection of states or kings that have their roots in Christendom or the church but rather whose values are rooted in democracy and human rights.

In terms of land mass, North America is the third-largest of the seven continents. North America has the most volcanoes of all seven continents, both in the mountainous regions of Central America and in the Pacific Northwest, which is part of the ring of fire.

Even Yellowstone National Park is considered to be a supervolcano — if it erupted, the devastation would envelop much of the continent. There are both large deserts and temperate rainforests, so called because these rainforests are in colder climates rather than in tropical ones. No cultural force has impacted North America more profoundly than immigration.