There are officially seven continents and 195 countries in the world. Every country, every continent and every region is individual and unique in terms of geography, vegetation, climate, history or flora and fauna.
If you would like to learn more about the vegetation, the climate, the shape of the surface or other geographical information about individual continents, you will find a separate explanation for each of the continents. The Regions article also gives you an overview of the entire learning set.
Continents – Definition & Oceans
A continent is a large contiguous landmass that is above sea level.
Approximately 30 percent of the earth is covered by such land masses, i.e. continents. The remaining 70 percent of the earth’s surface consists of water.
The seven continents are:
You can see the position of the continents in Figure 1. The oceans surrounding the continents can also be seen. There are a total of five of these so-called oceans.
These are:
- the pacific ocean
- the Atlantic Ocean
- the Indian Ocean
- the Arctic Ocean
- the Antarctic Ocean
The last two oceans are also called the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean. They are not marked on the map, but as their names suggest, they are located at the North and South Poles respectively.
Figure 1: The continents and the oceans
Continents – Formation
Today we speak of seven continents known to all of us. But that wasn’t always the case. Many millions of years ago, more than 250 million years ago, the continents as we know them today did not exist.
A large contiguous continent used to exist. This so-called «supercontinent» was called Pangaea or Pangaea.
Pangea is also known as the supercontinent. These are landmasses that unite all or almost all of the continents on earth.
The supercontinent was surrounded by a continuous sea, the Panthalassa, until it broke in two.
In the Jurassic period, Pangea broke up due to plate tectonic processes and the large continents Laurasia and Gondwana emerged.
So in the picture you can see what the world looked like about 250 million years ago.
Figure 2: The supercontinent Pangea
The process under which Pangea broke will also continental drift called.
Continental drift is also called continental drift and describes the breaking up and the movement or unification of the continents.
You can find more information about continental drift in our article!
On the graphic you can see how the continents were formed over time as a result of continental drift.
Figure 3: The formation of the continents through continental drift
Continents – Number & Map
Although one usually assumes seven continents, there are different ways of counting the continents.
In general, there is talk of seven continents. These are North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and Antarctica.
But often only five or six continents are counted. Of course, certain continents are not simply left out, but you can divide or summarize them differently depending on your perspective.
When speaking of six continents, two continents are combined into one. These are usually either North and South America or Europe and Asia. The sixth, summarized continent is then:
- America (consisting of North and South America)
- Eurasia (consisting of Europe and Asia)
Figure 4: Possible way of counting the continents
In the graphic above, North and South America have been combined into America, giving a total of six continents. If both summaries are used, one speaks of only five continents as follows.
But why are these four continents grouped together?
This is because the respective landmasses are connected and are therefore often seen as a whole.
If you take this approach further, you can even speak of only four continents, because Africa is also connected to Europe and Asia. Africa is connected to the double continent or supercontinent Eurasia by a very small piece of landmass and could therefore be called Africa-Eurasia.
A double continent designates a landmass consisting of two subcontinents.
A subcontinent is a large contiguous part of a continent that can also be viewed as a single entity. It can be easily demarcated geographically and is therefore regarded as an independent continent. An example of this would be North America, subcontinent and part of the double continent Americas.
The 7 continents – explanation
The geography on each of the continents is unique and individual. The continents differ primarily in their climate, vegetation, flora and fauna, but also in their population, economy and politics.
In their own explanations of the continents you will learn all the important basics about some of these factors.
North America continent
North America is the third largest continent in the world and the northern part of the double continent Americas. Around 580 million people live there, spread across 23 countries.
There are big mountain ranges like the Rocky Mountains, the Alaska chain, the western cordillera or the Sierra Marde Occidental.
The climate is diverse, not least because of the meridional relief. This means that there are no crossing mountains, which means that climatic features such as tornadoes, hurricanes, northerns and blizzards often occur.
You can find out exactly what these terms mean in the corresponding article on North America.
The flora and fauna also offers many special features. In the animal kingdom there are, for example, bears, buffaloes, mooses, wolves or mountain lions.
South America continent
South America is the fourth largest continent in the world and, along with North America, is also part of the Americas double continent. Around 428 million people live there, spread across 13 countries.
The largest river in South America is the Amazon. In the so-called Amazon basin, i.e. the regions around the river, the flora and fauna is particularly diverse. Particularly characteristic animal species of South America are, for example, the sloth, the anteater or armadillos.
The climate is tropical, but also dry or sub-polar in parts.
continent Australia
Australia is a country that encompasses the entire landmass of the continent of Australia and all of its territories. This continent is the smallest of all continents. Around 25 million people live here.
The continent is not only particularly wealthy, but also geographically unique. For example, the vegetation consists of many endemic species.
«Endemic» means that specific species are found only on a specific continent or region.
The peculiarities of the Australian fauna are characterized, for example, by marsupials, monotremes or many different poisonous reptiles and insects.
Continent Europe
Europe is the smallest continent after Australia and part of the double continent Eurasia. Around 746 million people live on this continent, distributed in 47 countries.
The climate is mostly warm-temperate and the vegetation is characterized by tundras, boreal coniferous forests, deciduous deciduous and mixed forests, sclerophyllous vegetation or steppes.
Large mountain ranges are the Alps or the Pyrenees. The highest peak is on Mont Blanc at 4810 meters. Large rivers are the Volga, the Danube, the Dnieper and the Urals.
Animals such as the deer or the stag are widespread in almost all of Europe. But there are also many unique mammals in the different regions.
continent Asia
Asia is the largest continent on earth and part of the double continent Eurasia. Like Europe, Asia also comprises 47 countries. 4.6 billion people live on the continent.
One of the most famous and highest mountain ranges is in Asia: the Himalayas. There are many other high mountains in addition to Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Here, too, the flora and fauna of the continent is diverse. On the one hand, this is due to the enormous size of Asia.
The origin of all of today’s world religions lies on the continent.
continent Africa
Africa is the second largest continent on earth. 1.3 billion people live there, making it the most populous continent after Asia. The population is spread over 55 countries.
Since Africa is bisected by the equator, the climatic and vegetation zones are almost ideally arranged. The vegetation forms are tropical and periodically humid tropics. One finds, for example, wet savannas, dry savannas, thorn savannas, deserts and semi-deserts.
But above all the fauna of Africa is unique due to the large number of large mammals.
For example, giraffes and elephants are native to Africa.
The largest river in Africa is the Nile.
continent Antarctica
Antarctica refers to the land and sea areas around the South Pole. Antarctica is the name of the continent. This is located in the Southern Ocean, called Antarctica.
Only 1106 people live on the continent, mostly scientists or tourists. So there is practically no permanent population on the continent.
The climate is almost hostile to life and the vegetation is limited to a few species, because the average temperatures are around -55 °C.
Animals such as penguins, various seabirds, seals, whales and fish species live there.
Due to the very low temperatures and lack of solar radiation, there are hardly any plants in Antarctica.
Slow-growing conifers, lichens or mosses can still be found in some places.
Continents – The Most Important
- There are 7 continents and 5 oceans in the world.
- The continents are: Asia, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Antarctica and Australia.
- The world seas are called the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean and Antarctic Ocean.
- More than 250 million years ago there was still a contiguous continent: the supercontinent Pangea.
- Today’s continents were formed by the so-called continental drift.
- If you combine South and North America into America or Europe and Asia into Eurasia, you can speak of 6 or even just 5 continents.