Europe isn’t a continent, it’s a political entity. A continent is geographic. EurAsia is a continent.
I don’t believe in continents. I’m incontinent.
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.
Of course there isn’t. There are 10 billion people on earth. I even disagree with myself on the matter.
PS: TIL too.
8.3 billion people. But who’s counting?
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. ;)
Pluto was always a continent!!!
The continents are white and gold, Yanny, and Bouba.
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.
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.
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.
Same, if they’re different continents then Africa is also more than one continent
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.
Seems like stamp collecting to me
This comment has been flagged as DEI /s
The oceans are just a big lake.
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.
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?
Do you mean American as in I’m on the continent of America, or American as in I live in the United States? I could only answer yes to one of those.
As product of American education system, ain’t no one got no time for none of your riddles.
as Canadian as they come.
Truthfully, I hold that belief simply so I can make Game of Thrones cracks like “Canadians are keeping the white-walkers at bay” or “We the north”. However, as of recently Winter has not come to this side of Canada.
Really? What side are you on then? I’m in the upper midwest US and it’s been super cold and snowy this year. Like a cold year in the 90s, or an average year in the 80s, but nothing we’ve seen in a long time. Except wtith 4 polar inversions because the jet stream is moving south.
Afroeurasiastraliameritarctica
Pangea
Honestly, the biggest two problems I’ve encountered are:
- “Oceania” is not a continent. It’s like seven smaller continental plates. Zealandia is more of a continent than Europe is. Similarly, Greenland is also more of a continent than Europe is.
- if you’re going to count Europe, you also have to count India, and in reality, we should probably just talk about cratons and plates, not “continents”.
Okay, new scheme: Every continental shield is a continent. Everything not on one is terra incognita. Continental platforms are just delusional sea floor.
Certainly that classification won’t lead to any confusion.
I was taught in the second grade that there are seven continents and I still have them memorized and I can still see our adorable teacher teaching & chanting them with us rhythmically:
North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica
And there are five oceans:
Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, Antarctic.
She was such a good teacher I’ve had it locked into my head since I was 7 years old that Russia and Japan and China and India are all part of Asia. I make mental note of that because apparently those geographical facts aren’t universally understood. In the sixth grade one of the most intelligent boys in our class told me I was wrong that Russia is in Asia 🤷🏼♀️
Clarifying ocean and sea is rather arbitrary. I mean what makes the Indian Ocean different from the pacific ocean, or the north sea, or white sea, different than the atlantic?
An ocean is a different thing than a sea.
You want to talk about seas? There are a bazillion seas like the Caspian sea, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, etc
But I’m not talking about seas. I’m talking about the five oceans. It’s a simple geographical fact that there are five oceans.
Inland seas sure. But I mentioned a couple of seas that are really part of the ocean. The North Sea, and White sea for instance.
But also what makes the Indian Ocean different from the pacific ocean? It’s arbitrary.
If you had a good geography teacher and you learned it in school and passed all your geography quizzes, you’ll know that there are five oceans. And that the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are labeled separately because they are their own things with their own boundaries. Period.
Bonus points for you since you seem to care about the North Sea and the White Sea so much. Go ahead and label those on the map too.
80% of all Russians live in Europe.
50% of Canadians live below the 49th parallel is very similar in most reapects
Well, it’s in Asia and Europe. Big country. If Siberia alone was a country, it would still be the biggest country in the world.
Downvote this comment if you jerk off to My Little Pony cartoons 5 times a day.
A country cannot be in/on two different continents.
Says who?
Heck Australia is it’s own continent and also claims part of Antarctica as territory.
Could your home ever possibly be in two different zip codes?
When you’re standing on the ground, is it possible for you to physically be anywhere else at the same time?
Moscow is in Europe, as is Petersburg, as are something like 80% of the population. So if you want to be like that and say a country has to be entirely in one continent then Russia is in Europe.
Seriously? I thought you would at least be able to come up with a funny explanation to support your nonsensical statement.
So if France conquered all of Africa? Africa wouldn’t be a continent anymore? Would we just continuously move the continental border?
If the US conquered Australia, Australia would become part of North America?
How about you slow down and think about this one for a few minutes.
Yeah, I’ve stood in two different countries at the same time before. Haven’t you?
Probably not, but there are homes in two different countries.
Russia is a transcontiental country. The Ural Mountains are considered the boundry between Europe and Asia thus, Russia is about 75 % in Asia and 25 % in Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia
Khazakhstan, Egypt
Also Turkey is an example. It’s in Asia and Europe
Ah! After 43 years someone finally straightens this out in my mind 😄 You’re the MVP.
My second grade teacher was GOOD but apparently she missed this little detail.
A country cannot be in/on two different continents.
False. French Guyana in South America is considered a part of France. Not a territory or whatever, it’s in the EU as a part of the country. So yes, Brazil borders the EU, for example, and any number of other hilarious facts.
This man today has learned that transcontinental countries exist. And yes I fap to My Little Pony
Curios to know if you got it from here: https://lemmy.world/post/44478819/22754825
Could well be a coincidence, but I think it would be fun if I helped in the genesis of this thread :)
Nope. I just saw the Olympic rings, one ring for every continent that participates. They are America, Europe, Oceana, Asia, and Africa.
Delightful coincidence, then. Fun either way :)
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:
- Cratons (the really old chunks of continental crust that have just been floating and moving around, making up the continental cores, for the last 3.5+ billion years
- Active Tectonic Boundaries (really useful for understanding why there are mountains, trenches, volcanoes and earthquakes where we observe them)
- what you can see on a map, like rivers, mountains, isthmuses, and continental shelves (the only thing that our current definition of “continent” actually cares about)
- anomalous hotspot volcanism (currently hypothesised to be caused by mantle plumes)
- historical terranes and plates (such as avalonia and the flat-slab subduction of the farallon plate)
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.
That’s why there’s always the argument that the country should not be called “America”. English speaking countries split North and South America as separate continents, so America the country does not get confused with America the continent. In Spanish (might be regional), it’s all one continent, so someone saying that they are from “America” doesnt narrow it down to a country.
I think it’s fine to just have different conventions in different languages. If you want country names to be 100% unambiguous in all languages, you basically have to change the name of half of the countries out there. E.g., “Deutschland” could refer to all germanic-speaking countries, but everyone recognizes that it just means Germany.
I’ve encountered the argument for Estadounidense from Mexicans, but it falls apart when you counter that the name of their country is Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
If you’re really feeling like putting the screws to them, point out that while all of the USA is America, Mexico Valley is a very small part of the territory of their country, and is itself named after the Mexica people that inhabit it. So rather than translate Estados Unidos Mexicanos as the United Mexican States, it would more accurately be the United States of the Mexica Empire.
Then you can ask them if they’re Mexica, or from one of the conquered territories.
It’s fine enough even all in one language. There’s the US state of Georgia and the county of Georgia. And outside the occasional funny misunderstanding, it’s usually clear from context.
That’s why there’s always the argument that the country should not be called “America”.
I think, though am not sure, that this comes from the 13 colonies having once been “British America”, which was by default what people meant when they talked about “America” in English, which stuck after independence.
E.g., “Deutschland” could refer to all germanic-speaking countries, but everyone recognizes that it just means Germany.
nowadays anyway; before the German Empire was founded, “Deutschland” was usually understood as the entire German-speaking region (what we call “deutschsprachiger Raum” today), and between 1949 and 1990 “Deutschland” could mean the Federal Republic of Germany (usually including West Berlin), or the Federal Republic of Germany plus German Democratic Republic plus Berlin, or Germany in the borders of 1937, or even just East Germany whose constitution initially started “Deutschland ist eine unteilbare demokratische Republik”.
Isn’t it because Benjamin Franklin (I think) started naming his fellow country men “Americans”, in order to create cohesion?
Latin Americans really get upset over it, and I think it’s just irrational. They should let it go.
