You might think that this is a simple enough question . There are seven continents , right ? After all , this iswhat ’s taughtin the American public school scheme . bookman in the United States get a line early on on that Earth ’s seven continent let in :
But this is n’t a worldwide consensus . The identification number of Continent , it seems , count on who you demand .
The Continental Controversy
The result may have seemed absolved in elemental school , but in true statement , there is no exclusive , authoritative way to define a continent . If we ’re going by pure geography , we might look at tectonic plates , uninterrupted landmasses , or natural borders — but these factors often fail to give us a clean answer . As such , it is n’t all that strange to see Earth ’s land mass divided up in ways that differ from the seven - continent model .
In Europe and Latin America , multitude areoften taughtthere are only six continents , combine North and South America into simply “ America . ” Others blend Europe and Asia intoEurasia . Europe and Asia share a immense res publica expanse , with the Ural Mountains often cite as an arbitrary “ boundary . ” Meanwhile , cultural and historical distinctions separate Europe and Asia in most Western education .
Geologist Valentin Rime thin the number of continents quite a snatch further : “ There are basically only two major Continent , ” hetoldtheNew York Times . “ Antarctica and everything else , since South America is connected to North America through Panama , North America is connected to Asia through the Bering Strait , and Asia is connected to Europe , Africa and Australia through the Urals , the Sinai , and Indonesia , respectively . ”
Some , on the other hand , actually listeightcontinents . This is due to the 2017 discovery ofZealandia , a small and mostly underwater continent in the Southern Hemisphere ( if you ’ve ever been to New Zealand , then you ’ve been to Zealandia ) .
The bottom line : Like many other expression of our lives , continent - counting just depends on view . But that likely wo n’t aid you pick out the right response on a geographics examination .
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