Europe being on a different continent than Asia always seemed like bullshit. I can forgive the isthmuses, but Eurasia feels like it's a thing to me.
But then you run into the issue that the very concept of continent was invented to differentiate Europe and Asia (and Africa).
Eh, words change and sometimes terms outlive their etymology or grow beyond it. We "hang up the phone" but no phone these days is actually hung up. 🤷
That's literally the same thing, we kept the expression even when we know it isn't accurate any more, because we still have the need to express the original meaning.
If anything, we should split Asia in more subcontinents.
Yeah, fair enough.
Still seems like, with the way that continent is typically defined, Eurasia should be the continent with subcontients of Europe, Asia, India, and the Middle East.
The difference between Europe and Asia should also apply to Asia and India.
How is India different from Pakistan?
I think both pakistan and India are the subcontinent of India. Wherever the mountains are is the edge of it.
The Romans divided the world into three equal landmasses before they understood how it was actually laid out and it stuck.
Definitely not the Romans. It may have stuck because of them, but the Greeks divided the world that way long before Rome left Italy.
Same, if they're different continents then Africa is also more than one continent
Well by that logic then Europe ,Asia and Africa are all one continent. Just because someone dug a fucking suez ditch does not make them any less connected.
Of course there isn't. There are 10 billion people on earth. I even disagree with myself on the matter.
PS: TIL too.
Closer to 8 billion
There was a study last year saying that 8 billion could be super underestimating the world population.
Just wait a few years. ;)
8.3 billion people. But who's counting?
Stop doing maps. Years of cartography and this is what they want you believe? /s -ish.
Cartography always has a hidden set of assumptions and goals and because political geography as infrastructure isn't exactly a consensus topic either, shenanigans like this are pretty much expectable in geography.
Pluto was always a continent!!!!
Afroeurasiastraliameritarctica
Pangea
There's one continent, it's called the crust of the Earth. There's some water on top of it in some places.
Continental crusts are an observable and measurable thing
They contain higher concentrations of aluminum whereas you find higher concentrations of magnesium outside of those crusts.
They are geological features and should be categorized accordingly. Eurasia makes way more sense than Europe being its own special thing... Except Europe, historically, likes to pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist in their concepts and as such always considers itself special
Oceanic crusts are also much denser than continental crusts, and obviously not as thick. When they collide the oceanic crusts subduct back into the mantle due to being denser.
This comment has been flagged as DEI /s
Honestly, the biggest two problems I've encountered are:
Ok in what works is Antarctica not a continent???
Probably in Columbus' travel books
There's between 3 and 500. Since it's statistically unlikely that the correct number would be at either extreme, the most likely correct number of continents would be somewhere around 250, with a margin of error of approximately 245.
There's anywhere between 2 and 7:
or
Why is antarctica considered an ocean? It's a land mass. Granted, the vast majority of it is covered in ice, but it is still above sea level.
There's no way Australia counts as the same continent as Afroeurasia, and Antarctica is a landmass (unlike the Arctic ice). 4 continents minimum.
So you're saying pi continents is possible?
I'm sold.
I always assumed North America was Canada, America was the USA/Mexico and South America was Brazil/Venezuela.
If you accept the 7 continent model, there are 23 countries in North America.
Makes sense. You are American too, I take it?
There can be only ONE Pangea gang 4L
Isn't it tectonic separation? Like the plates? 🤔
To actually answer your question: yes and no. If Europe is a continent, then India definitely is. Both are only separated from the rest of Eurasia by a collision boundary, and Europe's collision boundary isn't even active anymore, IIRC.
Realistically, if you're counting tectonic separation, then the afar triangle is its own continent, as there's an active divergent triple boundary splitting it off from the rest of Africa. The coast of California is a different continent than the rest of north america, because it's split by a transform boundary due to the subducting remnants of the farallon plate (now the Juan De fuca and cocos plates). New Zealand has been accepted to be its own continent for quite some time, since there's a gigantic slab of continental crust underwater to NZ's Northwest. Even still, the southeastern portion would be counted as separate by this hypothetical "boundaries-only" definition, because the transform boundary which has created the South Island Alps splits the south island. Madagascar is its own continental crust, as is Greenland.
Really, if you want to understand the geological boundaries and origins among the areas of the world, I'd recommend considering all of the following five types of data:
If you're really interested in the tectonic boundaries of earth, check out the Concord Consortium's "Seismic Explorer" online tool. Super fun.
So, TL;DR: the idea of a continent is bullshit, and purely cultural, just like our definition of a planet (see minute physics' videos explaining why the moon should be a planet, and the IAU are bad at definitions)
Yes. Except for the exceptions, which are the exceptions.
personally i'm on team 2 continents
One of my first arguments on here was over what constitutes a continent. I feel vindicated.
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