Greenland, however, belongs to Denmark, a country in Europe. Greenland is also known for the northernmost place in the world! About million people live on the North American continent. North America is home to the largest Christian population in the world. The Maya civilisation of Central America and Mexico is considered one of the oldest civilisations of this planet.
North America has the largest number of people who speak English either as their first language million people or as their second language fluently. English, however, is spoken by people in more than countries worldwide. Read more about North America here. Europe is considered to be the wealthiest and richest continent, however, there are poor regions especially in the eastern parts of the continent too!
Europe houses the two smallest countries in the world:. According to the United Nations, there are 44 countries in Europe. Five European countries are among the ten smallest countries in the world: San Marino, Liechtenstein, Vatican City, Monaco and the island country of Malta.
The other five tiny countries of our planet are located on islands outside Europe. Read more about the European continent here. South America is a continent of many natural superlatives:. Read more amazing facts about the South American continent on our page here.
Antarctica is the smallest continent by population numbers. This means the huge continent is only sparsely populated. On Antarctica there are only research stations for scientists and no permanent settlements. Antarctica is covered almost completely by ice. Read more about Antarctica here. Go back from Continent Facts to Geography Facts. Currently voted the best answer. Well, each of them contain at least 2 vowels for a start.
They also all start and end with the same letter of the alphabet. If you count America as one continent. Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day! Which two continents have no deserts? Who was the first person to visit all seven continents? Although each is unique , all the continents share two basic features: old, geologically stable regions, and younger, somewhat more active regions.
In the younger regions, the process of mountain building has happened recently and often continues to happen. The power for mountain building, or orogeny , comes from plate tectonics. One way mountains form is through the collision of two tectonic plates. The impact creates wrinkles in the crust, just as a rug wrinkles when you push against one end of it. The plate carrying India slowly and forcefully shoved the landmass of India into Asia, which was riding on another plate.
The collision continues today, causing the Himalayas to grow taller every year. Recently formed mountains, called coastal ranges, rise near the western coasts of North America and South America.
Older, more stable mountain ranges are found in the interior of continents. The Appalachians of North America and the Urals, on the border between Europe and Asia, are older mountain ranges that are not geologically active. Even older than these ancient, eroded mountain ranges are flatter, more stable areas of the continents called cratons. Every continent has a craton. Microcontinents, like New Zealand, lack cratons. Cratons have two forms: shields and platforms. Shields are bare rocks that may be the roots or cores of ancient mountain ranges that have completely eroded away.
Platforms are cratons with sediment and sedimentary rock lying on top. The Canadian Shield makes up about a quarter of North America. For hundreds of thousands of years, sheets of ice up to 3.
The moving ice wore away material on top of ancient rock layers, exposing some of the oldest formations on Earth. When you stand on the oldest part of the Canadian Shield, you stand directly on rocks that formed more than 3. North America North America, the third-largest continent, extends from the tiny Aleutian Islands in the northwest to the Isthmus of Panama in the south. The continent includes the enormous island of Greenland in the northeast.
In the far north, the continent stretches halfway around the world, from Greenland to the Aleutians. In between the mountain systems lie wide plains that contain deep, rich soil. Much of the soil was formed from material deposited during the most recent glacial period. This Ice Age reached its peak about 18, years ago. As glaciers retreated, streams of melted ice dropped sediment on the land, building layers of fertile soil in the plains region.
North America contains a variety of natural wonders. Landforms and all types of vegetation can be found within its boundaries. Yellowstone National Park, in the U. Despite its name, Greenland is mostly covered with ice. Its ice is a remnant of the great ice sheets that once blanketed much of the North American continent.
Greenland is the only place besides Antarctica that still has an ice sheet. From the freezing Arctic to the tropical jungles of Central America , North America enjoys more climate variation than any other continent. Parts of the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U. South America is the fourth-largest continent and extends from the sunny beaches of the Caribbean Sea to the frigid waters near the Antarctic Circle. These islands even host some Antarctic birds, such as penguins, albatrosses, and terns.
Early Spanish explorers visiting the islands for the first time saw small fires dotting the land. These fires, made by indigenous people, seemed to float on the water, which is probably how the islands got their name—Tierra del Fuego means "Land of Fire. Many active volcanoes dot the range. These volcanic areas are fueled by heat generated as a large oceanic plate, called the Nazca Plate, grinds beneath the plate carrying South America.
The central-southern area of South America has pampas , or plains. These rich areas are ideal for agriculture. The growing of wheat is a major industry in the pampas. Grazing animals, such as cattle and sheep, are also raised in the pampas region.
In volume, the Amazon is the largest river in the world. More water flows from it than from the next six largest rivers combined.
Water flows more than meters 3, feet —almost a mile. The falls are so high that most of the water evaporates into mist or is blown away by wind before it reaches the ground. South American rainforests contain an enormous wealth of animal and plant life. More than 15, species of plants and animals are found only in the Amazon River basin. Many Amazonian plant species are sources of food and medicine for the rest of the world.
Scientists are trying to find ways to preserve this precious and fragile environment as people move into the Amazon basin and clear land for settlements and agriculture. In total area, the continent of Europe is only slightly larger than the country of Canada. However, the population of Europe is more than twice that of South America.
Most European countries have access to the ocean. The continent is bordered by the Arctic Ocean in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Caspian Sea in the southeast, and the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the south. Early Europeans learned the river systems of the Volga, Danube, Don, Rhine, and Po, and could successfully travel the length and width of the small continent for trade , communication , or conquest.
European explorers were responsible for colonizing land on every continent except Antarctica. This colonization process had a drastic impact on the economic and political development of those continents, as well as Europe.
In the east, the Ural Mountains separate Europe from Asia. The nations of Russia and Kazakhstan straddle both continents. To the south, the Alps form an arc stretching from Albania to Austria, then across Switzerland and northern Italy into France.
A large area of gently rolling plains extends from northern France eastward to the Urals. A climate of warm summers, cold winters, and plentiful rain helps make much of this European farmland very productive. Almost all of Europe sits on the massive Eurasian Plate. Africa Africa, the second-largest continent, covers an area more than three times that of the United States. From north to south, Africa stretches about 8, kilometers 5, miles. It is connected to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.
A series of falls and rapids along the southern part of the river makes navigation difficult. The Nile has played an important role in the history of Africa. In ancient Egyptian civilization , it was a source of life for food, water, and transportation. The top half of Africa is mostly dry, hot desert. The middle area has savannas, or flat, grassy plains. This region is home to wild animals such as lions, giraffes, elephants, hyenas, cheetahs, and wildebeests. The central and southern areas of Africa are dominated by rainforests.
Much of Africa is a high plateau surrounded by narrow strips of coastal lowlands. Hilly uplands and mountains rise in some areas of the interior. Glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania sit just kilometers from the tropical jungles below. Even though Kilimanjaro is not far from the Equator, snow covers its summit all year long.
The rift valley actually starts in southwestern Asia. The Great Rift Valley is a site of major tectonic activity, where the continent of Africa is splitting into two. Geologists have already named the two parts of the African Plate. The area of central-eastern Africa is important to scientists who study evolution and the earliest origins of humanity.
This area is thought to be the place where hominids began to evolve. The entire continent of Africa sits on the African Plate. Asia Asia, the largest continent, stretches from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the western Pacific Ocean. There are more than 40 countries in Asia.
Some are among the most-populated countries in the world, including China, India, and Indonesia. The continent of Asia includes many islands, some of them countries. The plateaus in Central Asia are largely unsuitable for farming and are thinly populated.
0コメント