How many continents on Earth? Today they believe that seven

What is our planet? How many continents on Earth? This is best seen when viewed from space. However, not all have such an opportunity, so we confine ourselves to the model of the planet - the globe. If you look at it carefully, you can see that only the third part of the Earth is covered with land, and the rest is water. The land area is divided into several territories, which are called continents, or continents. Previously it was believed that there were only five of them: America, Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia.

But today scientists hold a different opinion. First, in the construction of the Panama Canal, America was divided into two continents - the Northern and Southern parts. Secondly, Antarctica. Previously believed that the area around the South Pole - it's just huge blocks of ice, but now it is for certain it is another continent. True, only penguins live on it, but from this it does not cease to be land. So we got an answer to the question about how many continents on Earth. It turns out there are seven of them.

What are they?

Looking at a map or globe, we can see all the continents that exist on our planet. Let's talk about what they are. Having learned how many continents on the Earth, we will specify - what is it? The continents are huge areas of land, washed by oceans and seas.

If, however, scientifically, the continent is a large mass of the earth's crust, most of which is above the level of the world's ocean and is called land, while the smaller is located below the designated level and is called the peripheral one. This concept includes the islands located on the continental shelf zone.

About how many continents on Earth, opinions diverge to the present day. Their number is different in different interpretations. For example, Europe and Asia - sometimes they are united in one continent and called Eurasia. As for America, everything is the other way around here: many consider it to be one continent in spite of the fact that it is divided by the canal into the North and South. Proceeding from this, it turns out that everyone has his own approach. Therefore, scientists still have not decided how many continents on Earth - six or seven.

Now consider what each of them represents. Asia is the largest continent on Earth. It has an area of 43 million square kilometers. The following are huge areas of land: America and Africa. Their area - respectively - 42 and 30 million square meters. Km.

But the continent Australia - the smallest on our planet. It occupies only 8 million km square.

It is also very difficult to call Antarctica dry, because it is under ice armor. However, despite everything, it is the highest continent on the planet, its height is 2040 meters above sea level. And although there is no permanent population in Antarctica, but there are constantly more than 40 research stations of different states engaged in its study.

According to legend, in antiquity there was one more continent - Atlantis. However, the scientists could not prove this. It is believed that it was located between America and Europe, but sank as a result of a powerful earthquake. That's how many continents on the planet, and each of them has its own climatic conditions, flora and fauna and, of course, the population.