How Many Continents Are There?

[Gargovic Malkav]

No way America gets 2, not even 1. I might give them 'near prospective continent' status combined though

Also Antarctica doesn't count as it is made of snow

Also Australia???? That's a country...

So, scientifically, there are 2 continents: Great Britain and Asiatic-Afro-Europaland

In the near future there will be more than a hundred million continents to avoid offending any groups or individuals who might feel left out or misrepresented because of too much generalization.

 

[exchemist]

In school, I was taught that there were 6 continents; Arctic, Antarctic, North America, South America, Africa, and Eurasia, and that the definition had something to do with tectonic plates and continental drift.

I am not sure how to verify this information.

Not the Arctic: that's all water. And tectonic plates don't really work very well, because plate margins cut through some continents e,g. The Himalayas, the San Andreas fault, the African Rift Valley, the Cocos plate in the Caribbean, and so on.

So I think it's a bit of an arbitrary, though useful, convention.

Correction: I should have said the Caribbean plate. The Cocos plate is more or less all under water, on the Pacific side of C. America.

 

[Secret Chief]

Antarctica doesn't count as it is made of snow

Not the Arctic: that's all water.

Come on now, sort yourselves out

"The Arctic sits at the northernmost part of the world from the north pole and extending south. It’s at the opposite end of the world to Antarctica which is one of the 7 continents. "

....

"the Arctic isn’t a continent"

- https://polarguidebook.com/is-the-arctic-a-continent/

 

[exchemist]

Come on now, sort yourselves out

"The Arctic sits at the northernmost part of the world from the north pole and extending south. It’s at the opposite end of the world to Antarctica which is one of the 7 continents. "

....

"the Arctic isn’t a continent"

- https://polarguidebook.com/is-the-arctic-a-continent/

@Augustus was taking the ****.

 

[Secret Chief]

@Augustus was taking the ****.

Yellow snow, then?

 

[The Crimson Universe]

In my past life which was millions of years ago, there was only one continent ... Pangea.

I miss the good ol' days.

 

[exchemist]

In my past life which was millions of years ago, there was only one continent ... Pangea.

I miss the good ol' days.

You're a mere youngster then. Pangaea only formed about 300m years ago.

 

[shunyadragon]

It depends on where you live and went to school. Throughout all my years of school, I was taught there are 7. There’s no particular definition of what a continent is other than a large land mass with borders on the ocean. They don’t have to be completely unattached from each other. There are also geo-political dividers involved.

Continents are well defined by geological properties as previously posted.
The only minor question is Australia which is presently called an 'island continent.' It not important whether you call it a continent or not,

A little more information: Continents are lighter colored less dense metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, and actually sort of float on the darker more dense volcanic rocks of the oceanic crust that form in rift valley spreading ocean ridges and large volcanoes like Iceland and Hawaii.

Rift valley ocean spreading zones are how continents are push/pulled by these spreading zones by internal heat circulation witin the earth. At the other side of the continent lighter continents are pushed over the denser ocean crust and form the great mountain ranges of the world like a continent bulldozer, subduction zones and the volcanic island chains such as Japan of the world like Ta. In the subduction zones are the deepest part of the oceans. Also blocks of Oceanic crust are pushed up forming Islands such as Taiwan.

 

[RestlessSoul]

But is Jerusalem still at the centre of the world?

No, that’s Rome

 

[shunyadragon]

No, that’s Rome

It is actually much much hotter.

https://scitechdaily.com/high-resolution-imaging-reveals-puzzling-features-deep-in-earths-interior/

 

[Redwing]

Continents are well defined by geological properties as previously posted.
The only minor question is Australia which is presently called an 'island continent.' It not important whether you call it a continent or not,

A little more information: Continents are lighter colored less dense metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, and actually sort of float on the darker more dense volcanic rocks of the oceanic crust that form in rift valley spreading ocean ridges and large volcanoes like Iceland and Hawaii.

Rift valley ocean spreading zones are how continents are push/pulled by these spreading zones by internal heat circulation witin the earth. At the other side of the continent lighter continents are pushed over the denser ocean crust and form the great mountain ranges of the world like a continent bulldozer, subduction zones and the volcanic island chains such as Japan of the world like Ta. In the subduction zones are the deepest part of the oceans. Also blocks of Oceanic crust are pushed up forming Islands such as Taiwan.

Most of that makes no sense.

 

[Twilight Hue]

In the near future there will be more than a hundred million continents to avoid offending any groups or individuals who might feel left out or misrepresented because of too much generalization.

Why do I think this is the best summery?

Technically everyone is a continent unto oneself.

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

Why do I think this is the best summery?

Technically everyone is a continent unto oneself.

In a way.
Still, I'm not very interested in knowing everyone individually, probably physically impossible too.
And to keep things simple to create order in my head, I generalize.
Sometimes against the will of those who don't like labels or feel they are too unique for a "regular" one.

 

[SalixIncendium]

There are 7 continents. God created one each day.

Rumor has it that he rested on the seventh day. In truth, that morning, he created Antarctica, and it was so cold, he fell into hibernation.

 

[shunyadragon]

There are 7 continents. God created one each day.

Rumor has it that he rested on the seventh day. In truth, that morning, he created Antarctica, and it was so cold, he fell into hibernation.

Sometimes one continent and sometimes more than seven..

 

[shunyadragon]

Not the Arctic: that's all water. And tectonic plates don't really work very well, because plate margins cut through some continents e,g. The Himalayas, the San Andreas fault, the African Rift Valley, the Cocos plate in the Caribbean, and so on.

So I think it's a bit of an arbitrary, though useful, convention.

Correction: I should have said the Caribbean plate. The Cocos plate is more or less all under water, on the Pacific side of C. America.

The Caribbean and Cocos Island plates are two of many subdivisions of oceanic plates created by sea floor spreading.and made up of darker igneous materials, and not Continental plates. They are often subducted as the Continental plates migrate.

Not yet?!?!?!

 

[exchemist]

The Caribbean and Cocos Island plates are two of many subdivisions of oceanic plates created by sea floor spreading.and made up of darker igneous materials, and not Continental plates. They are often subducted as the Continental plates migrate.

Not yet?!?!?!

Exactly.

 

[Redwing]

No way America gets 2, not even 1. I might give them 'near prospective continent' status combined though
Also Antarctica doesn't count as it is made of snow
Also Australia???? That's a country...
So, scientifically, there are 2 continents: Great Britain and Asiatic-Afro-Europaland

“Scientifically?” Would that be Geography and Political science? Antarctica is a large land mass covered in ice, so, yes, it is a continent.

 

[exchemist]

“Scientifically?” Would that be Geography and Political science? Antarctica is a large land mass covered in ice, so, yes, it is a continent.

It was a joke.

 

[Augustus]

“Scientifically?” Would that be Geography and Political science? Antarctica is a large land mass covered in ice, so, yes, it is a continent.

Scientifically, as in according to the scientific method.

For example I constructed a hypothesis "things made of snow are not continents even if they are really big".

I then made an experiment to test this hypothesis. I built a 7 foot tall snowman and asked several people if said snowman was:

A) a snowman
B) a continent
C) both

All people answered that it was A) a snowman

This scientifically proved that things made of snow are not continents, even if they are quite large indeed.

Deductively, this means Antarctica, like snowmen, igloos or icebergs, is not a continent, because it is made of snow as opposed to being made of a continental shelf.