50 Fun Facts About Continent

Australia is the smallest continent in the seven-continent model. Roughly how large is it?

Europe, at about 10.2 million km², is the second-smallest; Australia is also the lowest, flattest and oldest landmass on Earth.

Roughly what share of the world's population lives in Asia?

Its 4.7 billion people live on about 30 percent of Earth's land area, and the continent shares the Eurasian landmass with Europe.

How many fully recognised sovereign states does Africa contain, more than any other continent?

Plus two de facto states with limited recognition; the continent is also the youngest, with a median age under 20 in 2012 against a world figure of 30.

Africa is the only continent to straddle both the equator and which other line of reference?

The two lines cross in the Gulf of Guinea, just off the coast; South America is crossed by the equator but not the prime meridian.

Besides the Urals, Caucasus, Black Sea and Turkish straits, which sea divides Europe and Asia?

The Turkish straits complete the line; the whole boundary is a convention rather than a physical break, since Europe and Asia share one landmass.

Which country spans about 39 percent of Europe, making it the continent's largest and most populous?

Europe itself covers only about 2 percent of Earth's surface, so Russia's European portion alone dwarfs every other state on the continent.

Which continent is the coldest, driest and windiest, with the highest average elevation?

Its ice sheet averages 1.9 km thick and holds about 70 percent of the world's fresh water, enough to raise sea levels by almost 60 metres.

The lowest air temperature ever recorded on Earth, -89.2 °C, was measured in 1983 at which Antarctic station?

The Russian station sits on the high East Antarctic plateau above a giant subglacial lake of the same name.

Roughly what proportion of the world's fresh water is frozen in the southern polar ice sheet?

Most of the continent lies under an ice sheet averaging 1.9 km thick; if it all melted, seas would rise by almost 60 metres.

Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest peak at 4,892 metres, stands in which mountain range?

It was not even sighted until 1958 and first climbed in 1966; Mount Erebus, the famous volcano, is more than 1,000 metres lower.

In which year was the Antarctic Treaty opened for signature?

Twelve countries active during the International Geophysical Year signed first; it entered into force in 1961 and had 58 parties by 2024.

Which country holds almost half of South America's population?

It is also the continent's only Portuguese-speaking country of any size, a legacy of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas.

Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas and the highest outside Asia, stands in which country?

At 6,961 metres it is the highest peak in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres, and sits in Mendoza Province near the Chilean border.

Which mountain is Africa's highest and the world's tallest free-standing peak?

It is a dormant volcano in Tanzania rising 5,895 metres straight out of the plains, with no surrounding range to prop it up.

North America's highest peak, in Alaska, was officially known by what name from 1917 until 2015?

Denali, based on a Koyukon word for 'high' or 'tall', was restored as the official name in 2015; the summit is 6,190 metres.

The generally accepted highest summit in Europe, a dormant volcano in the Caucasus, is which mountain?

At 5,642 metres it beats Mont Blanc by more than 800 metres, but only if you count the Caucasus as European; it sits 11 km north of the Georgian border.

How tall is Europe's highest mountain, Elbrus?

The other figures are Mont Blanc, Denali and Aconcagua; Elbrus is a two-headed dormant volcano in the Caucasus.

Mount Everest's summit marks part of the border between Nepal and which other country?

A joint Nepalese-Chinese survey in 2020 put its height at 8,848.86 metres; Nepalis call it Sagarmatha and Tibetans Qomolangma.

Which peak replaces Kosciuszko on the Messner version of the Seven Summits?

Reinhold Messner argued that Indonesia's 4,884-metre Carstensz Pyramid, on the Australian continental shelf, was the true summit; Kosciuszko is only 2,228 metres.

Who became the first person to climb the highest mountain on every continent, finishing on 30 April 1985?

Bass, a Texas businessman, used the mainland-Australia version of the list; the peaks range from Everest at 8,849 metres to Kosciuszko at 2,228.

The supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart roughly how many years ago?

That was the end of the Triassic and start of the Jurassic; the C-shaped landmass was surrounded by the superocean Panthalassa.

The southern supercontinent Gondwana was named by Eduard Suess after a region of which modern country?

The name comes from Sanskrit for 'forest of the Gonds'; Gondwana's remnants make up about two-thirds of today's continental area, including Antarctica and Australia.

Gondwana fused with which northern landmass during the Carboniferous to form Pangaea?

Laurasia later split into North America and Eurasia, while Gondwana's pieces drifted off to become the southern continents and India.

Roughly what fraction of Zealandia, argued in 2017 to be a continent, is underwater?

At about 4.9 million square kilometres it is far bigger than any microcontinent; New Caledonia is its second-largest piece above the waves.

The Americas take their name from which Italian explorer, thanks to German cartographers?

Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 map put 'America' on the southern landmass; Columbus went to his grave insisting he had reached Asia.

What is the world's largest island, a self-governing part of Denmark on the North American plate?

Politically it looks to Copenhagen, but geographically it belongs with Canada; Iceland straddles the boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates.

The Australian continent, or Sahul, includes mainland Australia, Tasmania and which large island?

They sit on one continental shelf and were joined by dry land during the last ice age; New Zealand, by contrast, belongs to Zealandia.

Which of these is one of Oceania's four sub-regions, along with Australasia, Melanesia and Micronesia?

Oceania is a region rather than a continent in the strict sense; Australia is its largest and most populous country and it has 14 sovereign states.

Which headland is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans?

Portuguese sailors called it the Cape of Needles because compasses there pointed to true north; the Cape of Good Hope, 150 km away, is the more famous but not the most southerly.

Which artificial waterway, opened in 1869, links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea?

It links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea at sea level, with no locks, and technically puts Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in Asia.

The Bering Strait, which separates Asia from North America, is how wide at its narrowest point?

Cape Dezhnev in Russia and Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska face each other across it; the strait is named for the Danish-born Russian explorer Vitus Bering.

In which year was the waterway letting ships avoid Cape Horn between the Americas formally opened?

The SS Ancon made the first official transit of the Panama Canal on 15 August 1914; the United States ran it until handing control to Panama in 1999.

Which 2,500 km mountain range from the Kara Sea to the Kazakh Steppe helps divide Europe and Asia?

They are old and worn: the highest point, Mount Narodnaya, is under 1,900 metres, lower than many Alpine passes.

Which city, once Byzantium and then Constantinople, sits on two continents?

It straddles the Bosphorus between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, one of the busiest waterways in the world.

The Sahara, the largest hot desert on Earth, covers roughly what share of the African continent?

Only the polar deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic are bigger; the name is simply the Arabic plural of the word for desert.

Earth's lowest land elevation is on the shores of which body of water bordered by Jordan and Israel?

Its salinity was 34.2 percent in 2011, roughly ten times the ocean, which is why swimmers float like corks.

Which California location holds North America's lowest point and Earth's highest recorded temperature?

Badwater Basin lies 86 metres below sea level in eastern California's Mojave Desert; the temperature record was set at Furnace Creek.

The world's deepest and oldest lake holds 22-23% of Earth's fresh surface water. Which part of Asia is it in?

Lake Baikal is a rift lake 1,642 metres deep and 25-30 million years old, home to the world's only exclusively freshwater seal.

The world's smallest sovereign state by area and population is an enclave inside which European capital?

Vatican City covers about 44 hectares and had about 882 residents in 2024; it is ruled by the pope.

'Continent' entered English in the 16th century as a translation of which Latin phrase for continuous land?

Terra incognita was 'unknown land' on old maps and terra nullius 'nobody's land' in colonial law; the continents were simply the land that held together.

How many continents does the model used in most English-speaking countries recognise?

Other models merge Europe and Asia into Eurasia, or the Americas into one, giving five or six; the Olympic rings stand for five inhabited continents.

Roughly what share of Earth's total land area does Asia cover?

That is about 8 percent of the planet's whole surface, land and sea; Asia's boundary with Europe runs along the Urals and the Caucasus.

How many continents does the counting model behind the five Olympic rings recognise?

The rings leave out uninhabited Antarctica and treat the Americas as one; that model is taught in Greece and many Romance-language countries.

Ancient Greek geographers generally took which river as the boundary between Asia and Africa?

Herodotus objected to splitting Egypt in two and instead placed the border at Egypt's western frontier.

In antiquity, Africa was known to Greek thinkers by what name?

The Greeks debated whether it was part of Asia or a third part of the world; the three-way division eventually won out.

The Don River, once used as the Europe-Asia boundary, was known to the ancients by what name?

An earlier boundary followed the Rioni River in Georgia, then called the Phasis.

Which nearly submerged feature of the southern Indian Ocean is considered a microcontinent?

Though largely volcanic, it is linked to the breakup of Gondwana, unlike volcanic Iceland or Hawaii.

Which large island off Africa is a continental fragment usually classed as a microcontinent?

Culturally it is grouped with Africa, just as Iceland is treated as part of Europe despite lying off the shelf.

Which of these countries teaches the seven-continent model?

The seven-continent model is standard in English-speaking countries and also in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Whose mid-17th-century Cosmographie defined a continent as land 'not separated by any Sea'?

Ephraim Chambers offered his own definition in the 1727 Cyclopædia.