Land hemisphere

The land hemisphere, sometimes capitalised as the Land Hemisphere, is the hemisphere on the Earth containing the largest possible area of land. It is centered on 47°24′42″N 2°37′15″W / 47.411667°N 2.620833°W / 47.411667; -2.620833 (in île Dumet near Saint-Nazaire, France)^[1][2] or on 47°13′N 1°32′W / 47.217°N 1.533°W / 47.217; -1.533 (in the city of Nantes, France).^[3] The other half of the Earth is the water hemisphere.

The land hemisphere has just under seven-eighths of the land on the Earth, including Europe, Africa, North America, nearly all of Asia and most of South America. Europe is at the center of the land hemisphere. However, even in the land hemisphere, the ocean area still exceeds the land area (albeit only slightly). Thus, there is currently no hemisphere of Earth where the land area is larger than the ocean area. 29.2% of the Earth's surface is currently dry land,^[4] so should more than 85.6% of that land be covered by a single hemisphere, that hemisphere would be predominantly land. Previous supercontinents, such as Rodinia, likely represented land-dominated hemispheres.

Panorama of the centre of the land hemisphere, according to the measurement which places it within Nantes. Visible are Le Lieu unique, the Basilica of St. Nicholas, the Tour Bretagne, the Cathedral of Nantes, the Gare de Nantes, and the Piscine de la Petite Amazonie.

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