Talk:Continent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article has been reviewed by the Version 1.0 Editorial Team.
	This article has been selected for Version 0.5 and subsequent release versions of Wikipedia.
Additional information: B This article has been rated as B-Class on the assessment scale. ??? This article has not yet received an importance rating on the assessment scale. This article is included in the 2006 Wikipedia CD Selection, or is a candidate for inclusion in the next version. Please maintain high quality standards and, if possible, stick to GFDL-compatible images. This article is a vital article. This article is one of the core set of articles every encyclopedia should have. The following comments have been left for this page: Why say "Earlier known as Contintental Drift" it still is. Australia IS NOT a Continent it's a Democratically managed Country (State) in the Continent of Australasia or Oceana depending on who you chose to read. 82.32.150.116 17:35, 11 October 2007 (UTC) (edit)

	Geography Portal This article is supported by the Geography WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage on Geography and related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article Geography, or visit the project page for more details on the projects.
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the assessment scale.

	Earth sciences Portal Continent is part of WikiProject Geology, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use geology resource. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the project page for more information.
B	This article has been rated as B-class on the quality scale.
High	This article has been rated as high-importance on the importance scale.

Archives

Archive 1 Archive 2

Contents 1 australia 2 Number of continents 3 Not true 4 "Crustal raft" definition and Eurasia 5 Unreferenced Models 6 6 Continents 7 Global view? 8 Uncited crap

[edit] australia

"The names Oceania or Australasia are sometimes used in place of Australia. For example, the Atlas of Canada names Oceania,[9] as does the model taught in Latin America and Iberia"

Australia = Country =/= Continent

I have never heard anyone call Australia a continent before (other than by young children), just the offical name Australasia and on afew occasions Oceania. Anyone else fancy changing this? It's only a simple mistake, but being somthing taught at primary school (makes me wonder how old the person who added that line is) it should definately be fixed, but I can't be arsed to fix more primary school errors on wiki. They really need to change it to the Free Ecyclopdia to edit for those who atleast have a basic school education, very tiring. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.50.172.166 (talk) 20:27, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I have always know Australia as a continent, but I more recently have heard other names. I know it's the name of the country, but isn't the entire landmass named Australia? I've never considered islands or countries around it part of the Australian continent. There are several conventions of naming and counting continents, but I don't think any of them can be considered "wrong." Kman543210 (talk) 00:44, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Number of continents

The 7-continent model is taught in Croatia, also.

I thought the concept of 7 continents was only taught in the US, to make sure they would distinguish themselves from the rest of the other countries in America. In most european countries and South America it is taught that there are 5 continents. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.230.66.70 (talk) 20:44, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Not true

"In East Asia, especially in the Orient, it is taught as a 7-region model since the rendition of "continent" in Chinese is similar to "island", which connotes a separate smaller landmass surrounded by water. "

Not true - it is called the 7 continents. --Sumple (Talk) 03:12, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Hmm interesting. 大陸 (Continent) should be opposite of 島 (island). Both require water to sorround it. If it is taught differently in China, do they call Europe, European大陸? FWBOarticle

"The 6-continent Americas model is taught in England"... this is rubbish too, I'm english and I've never heard this model. I've always been taught that there are 7.

I also live in England and have never been taught the 6-continent model. The 7 continent model is what the national curriculum specifies should be taught and is what the significant majority of English people would refer to the world as being divided into. "The 6-continent Americas model is taught in England" is incorrect and superflous

It's actually more incorrect than stated, in Latin America and Iberia it's taught a 5-continent model and, as far as I understand it all of Western Europe, except for England (and this is probably for political reasons) a 5-continent model is taught as well.

There is obviously not one single model and it's admirable that and effort has been made to reflect this, but the final distribution is completely incorrect. eduo 09:50, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't know how you define "Western Europe" but here in Sweden I was taught a seven continent version. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Orcoteuthis (talk • contribs) 19:05, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

In (West) Germany have been taught the six continents model: Namely, America, Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Antarctica, and Europe. I challenge the statement that the seven continent model is usually taught in Western Europe. This is something I can clearly identify as foreign. Artur Buchhorn (talk) 15:54, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

well actually they do teach the 6 continent model in england now, they only started doing it about 5 years ago, so you 2 are obviously too old to have been taught it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.199.28.9 (talk) 06:06, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Crustal raft" definition and Eurasia

Consider this paragraph from the article:

Some argue that continents are accretionary crustal "rafts" which, unlike the denser basaltic crust of the ocean basins, are not subjected to destruction through the plate tectonic process of subduction. This accounts for the great age of the rocks comprising the continental cratons. By this definition, Europe and Asia can be regarded as separate continental masses because they have separate, distinct ancient shield areas and a distinct younger mobile belt (the Ural Mountains) forming the mutual margin.

Ignoring the merits or otherwise of this definition as such, the second [read: third] sentence doesn't make much sense. Siberia joined up with Europe (Baltica) before it connected with central and eastern Asia; if the Urals, qua a younger mobile belt, qualifies as a continental margin, so does a number of even younger mobile belts cutting Asia into a bunch of smaller continents. If nobody protests I'll delete the offending sentence. Orcoteuthis (talk) 19:23, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree that it's probably oversimplified. But how about changing it to "Europe and much of Asia", instead of deleting it entirely? -- Avenue (talk) 20:13, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

I could do that, but Siberia (minus the far east) hardly corresponds to anyone's idea of a "continent" - it's surrounded by contiguous landmasses on three sides! Orcoteuthis (talk) 10:04, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Good point. What I like about the current statement is that it gives some geological justification for taking the Urals as a boundary between Europe and the rest of Eurasia, but I agree that "Asia" is problematic in this setting. Would this be any better? "By this definition, Europe can be regarded as a distinct continental mass from the rest of Eurasia because it has a separate ancient shield area. A younger mobile belt (the Ural Mountains) marks the boundary between Europe and the block to the east." -- Avenue (talk) 11:25, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

I could live with that. You might want to add a link to Baltica. Orcoteuthis (talk) 20:00, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I've changed it. I went with East European craton instead of Baltica. -- Avenue (talk) 03:48, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Unreferenced Models

In the subsection "Number of the continents", three of the six "models" in the table are unreferenced (since Feb./July 2007). Unless someone provides evidence for them, I will delete them. Note that there is also a second model of six continents consisting of the "7 continents" minus Antarctica (as used for example in the board game "Risk" - though this is hardly a good reference).--Roentgenium111 (talk) 17:36, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 6 Continents

Forget about definitons and what they taught you, THERE ARE 6 CONTINENTS, America (The U.S. are in the same continent as the Latin countries, you like it or not) Europe(Which Russia is not part of because if look in a map 100% of it is in Asia, because unlike Africa the rest of the world do not have square countries!!!!!)Asia, Ocenia (No Australia is a country not a continent), Africa and Antartica.

That is it those are the six continents you like or not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.149.232.142 (talk) 16:33, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Global view?

I see this article not providing a worldwide view, because it states that there are 7 continents: "Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Anctarctica, Europe, and Australia". But I think it would be wiser to icnlude that definition plus "there are other continental models in the world, that have differences, according to the place in which they are taught". This models are: 4 continents (description), 5, and 6 continents (all of them described in the article). And include Oceania, because it is not globally approved that the continents' name is Australia. Also, I think it is quite discriminative that North America is separated from South America, because it tells the people reading this article a high discrimination towards Latin America. I, and all the Latin American countries, think that America is a single, continous landmass (it is joined together by the isthmus of Panama). Plus, the fact that you (possibly) consider that North America is separated is the Panama Canal, but this isn't true, because the Canal is man-made. I think it would be more accurate to detail that the seven continent model is criticized, and look for critics, because i'm not the only one who is against this. Thanks. --J.C. (talk) 02:48, 16 April 2008 (UTC) Is nobody interested in answering me?--02:31, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, also you should note that it is perjorative/offensive to New Zealanders to say they are part of the Australian continent. In NZ/Australia and England, this continent is called Australasia when refering to NZ and/or Papua New Guinea —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.60.3.77 (talk) 13:08, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Uncited crap

"The term "the Continent" (capitalized), used predominantly in the European isles and peninsulas, such as the British Isles, Sardinia, Sicily and the Scandinavian Peninsula, means mainland Europe, although it can also mean Asia when said in Japan."

I live in the UK and this is not common, some use it and some don't. This is misleading crap and isn't even cited. How about we say "Gee Wiz" is used predominantly in America? I rest my case. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaelic (talk • contribs) 10:56, 6 May 2008 (UTC)