The most populous cities of the continent are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth - all these cities are in Australia. Read more about Oceania here. Africa is the continent with the most countries. There are 54 countries on the African continent.
About 1. The oldest human fossils such as skeletons and skulls have been discovered in Africa, therefore the African continent is also referred to as the 'cradle of humankind'.
The only countries that escaped colonialisation in Africa are Ethiopia and Liberia. Africa also houses the longest river in the world, the Nile and the second highest waterfalls in the world, the Tugela Falls in South Africa. Read more about the African continent here. North America is a continent which is located entirely on the northern and western hemisphere.
There are 23 countries in total on the North American continent. The the world's largest island Greenland is located on the North American continent.
Greenland, however, belongs to Denmark, a country in Europe. Greenland is also known for the northernmost place in the world! About million people live on the North American continent. North America is home to the largest Christian population in the world. The Maya civilisation of Central America and Mexico is considered one of the oldest civilisations of this planet. North America has the largest number of people who speak English either as their first language million people or as their second language fluently.
English, however, is spoken by people in more than countries worldwide. Read more about North America here. Europe is considered to be the wealthiest and richest continent, however, there are poor regions especially in the eastern parts of the continent too! Europe houses the two smallest countries in the world:. According to the United Nations, there are 44 countries in Europe. Five European countries are among the ten smallest countries in the world: San Marino, Liechtenstein, Vatican City, Monaco and the island country of Malta.
The other five tiny countries of our planet are located on islands outside Europe. Read more about the European continent here. South America is a continent of many natural superlatives:.
Read more amazing facts about the South American continent on our page here. Antarctica is the smallest continent by population numbers. This means the huge continent is only sparsely populated. On Antarctica there are only research stations for scientists and no permanent settlements.
Antarctica is covered almost completely by ice. Read more about Antarctica here. Go back from Continent Facts to Geography Facts. The impact creates wrinkles in the crust, just as a rug wrinkles when you push against one end of it.
The plate carrying India slowly and forcefully shoved the landmass of India into Asia, which was riding on another plate. The collision continues today, causing the Himalayas to grow taller every year. Recently formed mountains, called coastal ranges, rise near the western coasts of North America and South America. Older, more stable mountain ranges are found in the interior of continents. The Appalachians of North America and the Urals, on the border between Europe and Asia, are older mountain ranges that are not geologically active.
Even older than these ancient, eroded mountain ranges are flatter, more stable areas of the continents called cratons. Every continent has a craton. Microcontinents, like New Zealand, lack cratons. Cratons have two forms: shields and platforms.
Shields are bare rocks that may be the roots or cores of ancient mountain ranges that have completely eroded away. Platforms are cratons with sediment and sedimentary rock lying on top. The Canadian Shield makes up about a quarter of North America. For hundreds of thousands of years, sheets of ice up to 3.
The moving ice wore away material on top of ancient rock layers, exposing some of the oldest formations on Earth. When you stand on the oldest part of the Canadian Shield, you stand directly on rocks that formed more than 3. North America North America, the third-largest continent, extends from the tiny Aleutian Islands in the northwest to the Isthmus of Panama in the south.
The continent includes the enormous island of Greenland in the northeast. In the far north, the continent stretches halfway around the world, from Greenland to the Aleutians.
In between the mountain systems lie wide plains that contain deep, rich soil. Much of the soil was formed from material deposited during the most recent glacial period. This Ice Age reached its peak about 18, years ago.
As glaciers retreated, streams of melted ice dropped sediment on the land, building layers of fertile soil in the plains region. North America contains a variety of natural wonders. Landforms and all types of vegetation can be found within its boundaries. Yellowstone National Park, in the U. Despite its name, Greenland is mostly covered with ice. Its ice is a remnant of the great ice sheets that once blanketed much of the North American continent.
Greenland is the only place besides Antarctica that still has an ice sheet. From the freezing Arctic to the tropical jungles of Central America , North America enjoys more climate variation than any other continent. Parts of the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U. South America is the fourth-largest continent and extends from the sunny beaches of the Caribbean Sea to the frigid waters near the Antarctic Circle.
These islands even host some Antarctic birds, such as penguins, albatrosses, and terns. Early Spanish explorers visiting the islands for the first time saw small fires dotting the land. These fires, made by indigenous people, seemed to float on the water, which is probably how the islands got their name—Tierra del Fuego means "Land of Fire.
Many active volcanoes dot the range. These volcanic areas are fueled by heat generated as a large oceanic plate, called the Nazca Plate, grinds beneath the plate carrying South America. The central-southern area of South America has pampas , or plains. These rich areas are ideal for agriculture. The growing of wheat is a major industry in the pampas.
Grazing animals, such as cattle and sheep, are also raised in the pampas region. In volume, the Amazon is the largest river in the world. More water flows from it than from the next six largest rivers combined. Water flows more than meters 3, feet —almost a mile.
The falls are so high that most of the water evaporates into mist or is blown away by wind before it reaches the ground. South American rainforests contain an enormous wealth of animal and plant life. More than 15, species of plants and animals are found only in the Amazon River basin. Many Amazonian plant species are sources of food and medicine for the rest of the world.
Scientists are trying to find ways to preserve this precious and fragile environment as people move into the Amazon basin and clear land for settlements and agriculture.
In total area, the continent of Europe is only slightly larger than the country of Canada. However, the population of Europe is more than twice that of South America. Most European countries have access to the ocean. The continent is bordered by the Arctic Ocean in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Caspian Sea in the southeast, and the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the south. Early Europeans learned the river systems of the Volga, Danube, Don, Rhine, and Po, and could successfully travel the length and width of the small continent for trade , communication , or conquest.
European explorers were responsible for colonizing land on every continent except Antarctica. This colonization process had a drastic impact on the economic and political development of those continents, as well as Europe.
In the east, the Ural Mountains separate Europe from Asia. The nations of Russia and Kazakhstan straddle both continents. To the south, the Alps form an arc stretching from Albania to Austria, then across Switzerland and northern Italy into France. A large area of gently rolling plains extends from northern France eastward to the Urals.
A climate of warm summers, cold winters, and plentiful rain helps make much of this European farmland very productive. Almost all of Europe sits on the massive Eurasian Plate. Africa Africa, the second-largest continent, covers an area more than three times that of the United States. From north to south, Africa stretches about 8, kilometers 5, miles.
It is connected to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. A series of falls and rapids along the southern part of the river makes navigation difficult. The Nile has played an important role in the history of Africa. In ancient Egyptian civilization , it was a source of life for food, water, and transportation. The top half of Africa is mostly dry, hot desert. The middle area has savannas, or flat, grassy plains. This region is home to wild animals such as lions, giraffes, elephants, hyenas, cheetahs, and wildebeests.
The central and southern areas of Africa are dominated by rainforests. Much of Africa is a high plateau surrounded by narrow strips of coastal lowlands. Hilly uplands and mountains rise in some areas of the interior. Glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania sit just kilometers from the tropical jungles below. Even though Kilimanjaro is not far from the Equator, snow covers its summit all year long. The rift valley actually starts in southwestern Asia. The Great Rift Valley is a site of major tectonic activity, where the continent of Africa is splitting into two.
Geologists have already named the two parts of the African Plate. The area of central-eastern Africa is important to scientists who study evolution and the earliest origins of humanity. This area is thought to be the place where hominids began to evolve. The entire continent of Africa sits on the African Plate. Asia Asia, the largest continent, stretches from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the western Pacific Ocean.
There are more than 40 countries in Asia. Some are among the most-populated countries in the world, including China, India, and Indonesia. The continent of Asia includes many islands, some of them countries. The plateaus in Central Asia are largely unsuitable for farming and are thinly populated. The continent has a wide range of climate regions, from polar in the Siberian Arctic to tropical in equatorial Indonesia. Southeast Asia, on the other hand, depends on the annual monsoons, which bring rain and make agriculture possible.
Asia is the most mountainous of all the continents. More than 50 of the highest peaks in the world are in Asia. Mount Everest, which reaches more than 8, meters 29, feet high in the Himalaya range, is the highest point on Earth. These mountains have become major destination spots for adventurous travelers. Plate tectonics continuously push the mountains higher. As the landmass of India pushes northward into the landmass of Eurasia, parts of the Himalayas rise at a rate of about 2.
The land there lies more than meters 1, feet below sea level. Although the Eurasian Plate carries most of Asia, it is not the only one supporting major parts of the large continent. The Indian Plate supports the Indian peninsula, sometimes called the Indian subcontinent.
The Australian Plate carries some islands in Indonesia. Australia In addition to being the smallest continent, Australia is the flattest and the second-driest, after Antarctica. The continent is sometimes called Oceania , to include the thousands of tiny islands of the Central Pacific and South Pacific, most notably Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia including the U.
However, the continent of Australia itself includes only the nation of Australia, the eastern portion of the island of New Guinea the nation of Papua New Guinea and the island nation of New Zealand.
Australia covers just less than 8. Its population is about 31 million. It is the most sparsely populated continent, after Antarctica. Rainfall is light on the plateau, and not many people have settled there. The Great Dividing Range, a long mountain range, rises near the east coast and extends from the northern part of the territory of Queensland through the territories of New South Wales and Victoria.
Mainland Australia is known for the Outback , a desert area in the interior. This area is so dry, hot, and barren that few people live there.
In addition to the hot plateaus and deserts in mainland Australia, the continent also features lush equatorial rainforests on the island of New Guinea, tropical beaches, and high mountain peaks and glaciers in New Zealand. Biologists who study animals consider Australia a living laboratory. When the continent began to break away from Antarctica more than 60 million years ago, it carried a cargo of animals with it. Isolated from life on other continents, the animals developed into creatures unique to Australia, such as the koala, the platypus, and the Tasmanian devil.
The reef itself is 1, kilometers 1, miles of living coral communities. Most of Australia sits on the Australian Plate. Antarctica Antarctica is the windiest, driest, and iciest place on Earth. Antarctica is larger than Europe or Australia, but unlike those continents, it has no permanent human population. People who work there are scientific researchers and support staff, such as pilots and cooks.
The climate of Antarctica makes it impossible to support agriculture or a permanent civilization. Temperatures in Antarctica, much lower than Arctic temperatures, plunge lower than degrees Celsius degrees Fahrenheit. Scientific bases and laboratories have been established in Antarctica for studies in fields that include geology , oceanography , and meteorology. Antarctica is also an ideal place for discovering meteorites, or stony objects that have impacted Earth from space.
The dark meteorites, often made of metals like iron , stand out from the white landscape of most of the continent. Antarctica is almost completely covered with ice, sometimes as thick as 3. Like all other continents, Antarctica has volcanic activity.
The most active volcano is Mount Erebus, which is less than 1, kilometers miles from the South Pole. Antarctica does not have any countries. However, scientific groups from different countries inhabit the research stations. A multinational treaty negotiated in and reviewed in states that research in Antarctica can only be used for peaceful purposes.
Vostok Station, where the coldest temperature on Earth was recorded, is operated by Russia. All of Antarctica sits on the Antarctic Plate. Microcontinents In addition to the seven major continents, Earth is home to microcontinents, or pieces of land that are not geologically identified with a continent. Major microcontinents include:. Also called cosmic dust or space dust. Gas molecules are in constant, random motion. Also called the Somali Peninsula. The last ice age peaked about 20, years ago.
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