Talk:Extreme points of Europe

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[edit] Greenland?

Since when is Greenland not part of Europe?

Since forever, really. When they left the EU it broke the main link with Europe. Warofdreams talk 01:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
See Greenland, where it is said that Greenland is "geographically and ethnically an Arctic island [...] associated with the continent of North America", though "politically and historically closely tied to Europe". JBarreto 18:24, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
But I don't know if it is true. I would rather admit that Greenland is Arctic, period. What does it mean "associated"? JBarreto 18:47, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
"Associated" means that continents are an arbitrary concept anyway, keeping that in mind Greenland is conventionally viewed as part of North America. The Arctic is not viewed as a continent by any common convention. Anorak2 12:00, 1 October 2007 (UTC)
Greenland was always and still is geographically part of North America irrespective of its affiliations and historical ties with Denmark. Just as there are records of Vikings being born in North America hundreds of years before Columbus officially discovered the place, there are myths that Greenland is not American. It is even joined to Canada in winter by ice (or was until recently when the Northwest Passage suddenly became navigable during winter!). Reference The Vikings Came to America at infohub.com Garigolf 18:26 BST, 7 October 2007 —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 17:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Europe's Westernmost Point

Should not the Azores be mentioned as a candidate for Europe's Westernmost Point. See for instance this Google search result: [1]

Depends on the definition of Europe. That's why the footnotes are there to accomodate all common definitions. The only definition that is not acceptable (and thus provoked an edit revert) is to include in Europe some territories of the EU that are uncontestedly in other continents, like French Guyana or some Indic Ocean French Territories. --maf 23:58, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
If, as the Continent article states, "islands are usually considered to belong geographically to the continent they are closest to," then the Azores are certainly European (just like the Canary Islands are certainly African – I'm actually not quite sure about Madeira). I'm fairly certain that the Continent article is right about this being the accepted geographical definition, and I can't really see any case for the Azores belonging to any other continent, that is Africa or North America. Of course, part of the archipelago is on the North American plate, but I think tectonics is beside the point here (and then, Bjargtangar is certainly on the North American plate as well, so obviously we currently don't care about these things). I think there is no reason not to include the westernmost point of the Azores in the "Europe" subsection. -- Jao 00:19, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
The Azores are not a "point", they are an archipelago. The westernmost point of Europe is the Monchique Islet (31º 16' 24″ W), west of Flores. Of course Azores belong to Europe! -- Barreto 12:56, 13 May 2007 (UTC). And I mean it! Ze 13:36, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Remote islands

What I also would like is a clear definition of the "remote island" concept. How far from the mainland must an island be to be remote? Clearly, Yuzhny Island is counted as remote while Gavdos is not. What's up with that? -- Jao 00:19, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

If Ireland is not a "remote Island", I think Iceland fits well the case.JBarreto 01:34, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
There is no reason to exclude Iceland just because a lot of water lies in between. Jan Mayen Island, Bear Island(Bjørnøya), Hopen and the Azores are quite clearly part of the European mass - even if out in the ocean. Similarly, the European Russian Arctic Sea Islands should be included.
However, Bouvet Island(Bouvetøya), way down in the South Atlantic towards the S Pole can't be included just as "off Africa" and "off South America" Islands can't be included and so the Falkland Islands, Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena and Ascension Island must be excluded as well as Portuguese and Spanish colonial possessions that may still exist. I would definitely not include the Canary Islands as they are Africa as are the Spanish African Coast islands and enclaves. However, Madeira and Porto Santo could just about qualify to be included.
For the south easternmost places in Europe, I belong to the school that acknowledges the European part of Kazachstan (but which I classify for my website as Asia due to absence of connections with Europe). We also consider the trans-continental countries of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia to be European (main argument being their cultural and commercial connections with Europe rather than Asia). An enclave of Azerbaijan (Naxcivan) is, however, often regarded as fully in Asia (but classed with the mother country generally). Taking the Aras River rather than the Kura River makes sense and, whilst Turkey is trans-continental with the largest part in Asia, it is often also included with Europe when it comes to travel and trade. Refer to Worldatlas.com and Wikipedia.com for maps and further confirmation.
Gari 17:40 BST, 7 October 2007

[edit] Central point

Can anyone tell me how it was calculated that the island of Saaremaa host the central point of Europe? Was it simply by taking the four extreme points and seeing where they cross? --Gozols 09:10, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, it seems to be the central point of the (non-Euclidean) rectangle with the given west, north, east and south boundaries, which differs from the crossing-line method in that the west-to-east location of the northern and southern extreme points (and vice versa) do not matter. This is arguably a reasonable definition of "central point", although it might be a bit more interesting to know where the European centroid lies. I'm sure someone has attempted to compute that? -- Jao 21:27, 20 February 2007 (UTC)


The various points in the article could use (full) coordinates. -- User:Docu