Continental Drift

In a world full of uncertainty, you might hope to find indisputable facts to cling to in anything as big and solid as the continents. How many continents are there, anyway? If you went to American schools, you probably learned there were seven: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. If you went to school in Europe, you may well have learned that there were six. America would have been described as one continent, encompassing both north and south.

Are islands parts of continents? Almost everyone agrees that the United Kingdom is in Europe.

And is the island of Cyprus part of Asia or of Europe? There is disagreement on that question. I suspect that Greeks would like to call it part of Europe, and Turks, part of Asia, in each case to strengthen their countries’ claims over the island. Politics also affects whether the Republic of Georgia, in the Caucasus, is considered part of Asia or of Europe. Even when a widely accepted definition of the line between Asia and Europe is used, it’s not clear whether the 2014 winter Olympics (Sochi) were held in Asia or in Europe. More details of the issues involved are presented at the Statoids site.