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The 5 continents of planet Earth

Posted : 1/31/2007 12:27:57 AM

"WHAT????" you probably said "they are not 5 continents, they are 7"

This is a subject that i always talk about, in European and Latin schools they teach the kids that they are 5 continents and when the American or Canadian people tell me that they are7 i really try to understand their point of view but it doesn't matter how much i think about, 7 continents don't make sense, i start having way too many questions

Let's start by saying that for me the 5 continents are:
1.-Africa
2.-Europe
3.-Asia
4.-Australia
5.-America

And as you already know the 7 continents for you are:
1.-Africa
2.-Europe
3.-Asia
4.-Australia
5.-Antartica
6.-North America
7.-South America

Let's start asking questions, and if your answer is "i don't know" then 2 things happened:

1.-You were not paying attention in class or
2.-Your teachers were wrong

So the 1st question is why do you consider Antartica as a continent????????? Antartica is in fact the south pole right? right, so if you consider the south pole as a continent why the hell you don't consider the north pole as a continent also??????????????????????? If your answer is 2.-'i don't know" then think about it.

If you are gonna tell me something like "because the north pole is part of North America'" then don't say anything because that is worst that saying "i don't know". Why the north pole is gonna be part of America if Europe has even more territory close to it, "there you go then the north pole is part of Europe then" you would say, WRONG, then the Antartica should be part of America also because is closest to it, the bottom line is that neither North or South poles are continents because they are just ICE, they are frozen water and if you are gonna consider water as a continent then consider all the oceans as a continent too.

Now America, let's say you are right, that America is 2 separate continents, then i have questions for you: Where is central America located then??? South or North America? Don't even answer that question because if you choose one then why the hell they called CENTRAL America?? And if you tell me that half of central America is in the North and half is in the South then you are not even thinking.

Another question about America, if they are 2 separate continents why they didnt name them different???? why just add north and south to the name? were they out of names? if they are going to think that way then why they didnt call Asia: "East Europe"???

When you talk about Europe and say "east Europe" or "west Europe" is because you are talking about different parts of Europe but you dont consider those parts as a 2 different continents, why you do it with America then????

AMERICA IS ONE SINGLE CONTINENT

Consider this, do you know the olympic flag? i guess you do, do you know what the 5 circles in it mean? exactly the 5 continents that participate in the olympics, if there is 7 continents (i guess nobody form Antartica would participate) then why they don't have 6 circles for the "6 continents who participate"? because there is just 5 continents that's why.

Does not sound logical? [

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gayle

Posted : 1/31/2007 1:31:03 AM

European and Latin schools they teach the kids that they are 5 continents

this is true, and they differ from what you stated you believe them to be. here is what is taught:

antartica
america
eurasia
africa
australia

i could honestly care less what is considered a continent and what is not. i believe central america refers to mexico.

leslie__chessies

Posted : 1/31/2007 2:30:49 AM

Antartica is, in fact a continent, as it fulfills the definition of a continent: a large body of land, above water, that has a natural geological border. Unline the North Pole, it is not simply ice.
Many scientists now recognize 6 continents: Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Eurasia, North America, and South America. They combine Europe and Asia because it is a single land mass.

Xebby

Posted : 1/31/2007 2:31:48 AM

It's called Plate Tectonics, and it is because of the Continental Drift that those continents are in their location that we see them today. That's what Geologically separates the continents.
Each continent sits on top of a plate, if you count the number of plates we have with land masses on them then you have 7.

Here is a little lession to explain it all: [linkhttp://geology.csupomona.edu/drjessey/class/Gsc101/Plate.html]http://geology.csupomona.edu/drjessey/class/Gsc101/Plate.html[/link]
First thing anyone in Geology 101 has to learn.

Here you can see how the continents started off as one giant land mass or supercontinent, then because of plate tectonics they separated into continents. You can follow on this map how from 225 million years they spread apart, India separated and later smashed back into Eurasia. Antartica didn't land in the South Pole until the time of the Dinosaurs.

No, Antarctica is not one giant chuck of ice, there is land under all that coldness. There is even volcanic activity going on down there. Even more exciting is that there is evidence that parts of Antarctica are made up of other smaller tropical islands that migrated south and formed a larger land mass. Current day Antarctica even has life living on it. The South Pole is just a location on the continent, like any dot on the map, it just happens to be located in Antarctica. Take a look at Pangaea and you will see Antarctica wasn't always on the South Pole, it was more in the location of present day Australia.

Now the north pole does not have any land under all that ice so it can not be called a continent.