Thread: How many continents are there on planet earth?

Is 'Merica considered one? It's totally seperate from North and South America.

I was always taught 7, but if we're looking at plate tectonics as a guiding factor, it probably makes more sense to treat Europe and Asia as one continent.

As someone educated using English textbooks, I can say I was taught it was 7 continents.
Schools in Spain, which do not use American textbooks, also teach 7 continents.

Originally Posted by SM19

I was always taught 7, but if we're looking at plate tectonics as a guiding factor, it probably makes more sense to treat Europe and Asia as one continent.

If we go by plate tectonics, wouldn't India would be the 7th content?

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

Originally Posted by SM19

I was always taught 7, but if we're looking at plate tectonics as a guiding factor, it probably makes more sense to treat Europe and Asia as one continent.

If we go by plate tectonics, wouldn't India would be the 7th content?

Yes. Yes it would.

Oh and I did love my heavy metal in the 90s. Loved me some Pangea.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

If we go by plate tectonics, wouldn't India would be the 7th content?

Well, if we treat it as the only factor, yes, and the Arabian Peninsula would be a separate continent as well. My point is that since we already consider this collection of plates to be the single continent of Asia, there's probably even less justification for separating Europe.

Ahh. The Internet. 50 posts on "how many continents?"