Continent

Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Asia is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres.

Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere; it is also considered by some to be a northern subcontinent of the Americas.

Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

South America is a continent in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Antarctica ( or, ) is Earth's southernmost continent.

Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. 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 to the mainland of Australia, excluding Tasmania and New Guinea.

The term Oceania is often used to denote the region encompassing the Australian continent, Zealandia and various islands in the Pacific Ocean that are not included in the seven-continent model.

Geologically, the continents largely correspond to areas of continental crust that are found on the continental plates.

Continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves.

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 to the mainland of Australia, excluding Tasmania and New Guinea. From the perspective of geology or physical geography, continent may be extended beyond the confines of continuous dry land to include the shallow, submerged adjacent area (the continental shelf) and the islands on the shelf (continental islands), as they are structurally part of the continent.

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water.

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 to the mainland of Australia, excluding Tasmania and New Guinea.

Continental or mainland Europe is the continuous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands.

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 remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere.

However, some areas of continental crust are regions covered with water not usually included in the list of continents.

A submerged continent or sunken continent is a continental mass, extensive in size, but mainly undersea.

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.

It is divided into a number of principal oceanic areas that are delimited by the continents and various oceanographic features: these divisions are the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean (sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic), Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Southern Ocean, defined by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) in 2000, based on evidence that this region of the World Ocean has a distinct ecosystem and a unique impact on global climate.

From the perspective of geology or physical geography, continent may be extended beyond the confines of continuous dry land to include the shallow, submerged adjacent area (the continental shelf) and the islands on the shelf (continental islands), as they are structurally part of the continent.

A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water known as a shelf sea. Much of the shelves were exposed during glacial periods and interglacial periods.

Similarly, the continental United States refers to the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia in central North America and may include Alaska in the northwest of the continent (the two being separated by Canada), while excluding Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam in the oceans.

The contiguous United States or officially the conterminous United States consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states (plus the District of Columbia) on the continent of North America.

A continent is one of several very large landmasses of the world.

It may be a continent or an island:

Geologically, the continents largely correspond to areas of continental crust that are found on the continental plates. From the perspective of geology or physical geography, continent may be extended beyond the confines of continuous dry land to include the shallow, submerged adjacent area (the continental shelf) and the islands on the shelf (continental islands), as they are structurally part of the continent.

Plate tectonics also has provided a mechanism for Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift, in which the continents move across the surface of the Earth over geologic time.

If continents are defined strictly as discrete landmasses, embracing all the contiguous land of a body, then Africa, Asia, and Europe form a single continent which may be referred to as 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.

Some geographers regard Europe and Asia together as a single continent, dubbed Eurasia.

Eurasia is the combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia.

Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.

Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent (behind Asia in both categories).

However, they may also be viewed as a single continent known as America or the Americas.

This shift did not seem to happen in Romance-speaking countries (including France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, and the Romance-speaking countries of Latin America and Africa), where America is still considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents, as well as Central America.

The six-continent combined-Eurasia model is mostly used in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Japan.

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of the European continent.

When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice ages, greater areas of continental shelf were exposed as dry land, forming land bridges.

The modern continents were essentially at their present positions during the Pleistocene, the plates upon which they sit probably having moved no more than 100 km relative to each other since the beginning of the period.

Asia and Africa are joined by the Isthmus of Suez, and North and South America by the Isthmus of Panama.

The Isthmus of Suez is the 75-mile-wide (125-km) strip of land that lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and is the boundary between the continents of Africa and Asia.

Supercontinents, largely in evidence earlier in the geological record, are landmasses that comprise more than one craton or continental core.

In geology, a supercontinent is the assembly of most or all of Earth's continental blocks or cratons to form a single large landmass.

Supercontinents, largely in evidence earlier in the geological record, are landmasses that comprise more than one craton or continental core.

Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of continents, cratons are generally found in the interiors of tectonic plates.