This continent trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers all seven continents and the lines between them: which is largest, smallest, coldest, flattest and youngest by population, where Europe stops and Asia starts, which strait and which canals divide the landmasses, and the highest mountain on each one, from Everest to Vinson. It also digs into the deep past (Pangaea, Gondwana, Laurasia) and the geological oddities, including Zealandia, the continent that is 94 percent underwater, and Greenland's place on the North American plate. The easy questions suit school geography units and family quiz night: which continent has no permanent residents, which desert is the largest hot one, which city sits on two continents. The medium ones cover the Antarctic Treaty, the Bering Strait, Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro. The hard ones want the height of Europe's tallest peak, the length of the Urals and the year Denali got its name back. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Australia is the smallest continent in the seven-continent model. Roughly how large is it?
7.6 million km²
Europe, at about 10.2 million km², is the second-smallest; Australia is also the lowest, flattest and oldest landmass on Earth.
Q 02Roughly what share of the world's population lives in Asia?
60%
Its 4.7 billion people live on about 30 percent of Earth's land area, and the continent shares the Eurasian landmass with Europe.
Q 03How many fully recognised sovereign states does Africa contain, more than any other continent?
54
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.
Q 04Africa is the only continent to straddle both the equator and which other line of reference?
Prime meridian
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.
Q 05Besides the Urals, Caucasus, Black Sea and Turkish straits, which sea divides Europe and Asia?
Caspian Sea
The Turkish straits complete the line; the whole boundary is a convention rather than a physical break, since Europe and Asia share one landmass.
Q 06Which country spans about 39 percent of Europe, making it the continent's largest and most populous?
Russia
Europe itself covers only about 2 percent of Earth's surface, so Russia's European portion alone dwarfs every other state on the continent.
Q 07Which continent is the coldest, driest and windiest, with the highest average elevation?
Antarctica
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.
Q 08The lowest air temperature ever recorded on Earth, -89.2 °C, was measured in 1983 at which Antarctic station?
Vostok
The Russian station sits on the high East Antarctic plateau above a giant subglacial lake of the same name.
Q 09Roughly what proportion of the world's fresh water is frozen in the southern polar ice sheet?
About 70%
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.
Q 10Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest peak at 4,892 metres, stands in which mountain range?
Ellsworth Mountains
It was not even sighted until 1958 and first climbed in 1966; Mount Erebus, the famous volcano, is more than 1,000 metres lower.
Q 11In which year was the Antarctic Treaty opened for signature?
1959
Twelve countries active during the International Geophysical Year signed first; it entered into force in 1961 and had 58 parties by 2024.
Q 12Which country holds almost half of South America's population?
Brazil
It is also the continent's only Portuguese-speaking country of any size, a legacy of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas.
Q 13Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas and the highest outside Asia, stands in which country?
Argentina
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.
Q 21The supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart roughly how many years ago?
200 million
That was the end of the Triassic and start of the Jurassic; the C-shaped landmass was surrounded by the superocean Panthalassa.
Q 22The southern supercontinent Gondwana was named by Eduard Suess after a region of which modern country?
India
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.
Q 23Gondwana fused with which northern landmass during the Carboniferous to form Pangaea?
Laurasia
Laurasia later split into North America and Eurasia, while Gondwana's pieces drifted off to become the southern continents and India.
Q 14Which mountain is Africa's highest and the world's tallest free-standing peak?
Kilimanjaro
It is a dormant volcano in Tanzania rising 5,895 metres straight out of the plains, with no surrounding range to prop it up.
Q 15North America's highest peak, in Alaska, was officially known by what name from 1917 until 2015?
Mount McKinley
Denali, based on a Koyukon word for 'high' or 'tall', was restored as the official name in 2015; the summit is 6,190 metres.
Q 16The generally accepted highest summit in Europe, a dormant volcano in the Caucasus, is which mountain?
Mount Elbrus
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.
Q 17How tall is Europe's highest mountain, Elbrus?
5,642 m
The other figures are Mont Blanc, Denali and Aconcagua; Elbrus is a two-headed dormant volcano in the Caucasus.
Q 18Mount Everest's summit marks part of the border between Nepal and which other country?
China
A joint Nepalese-Chinese survey in 2020 put its height at 8,848.86 metres; Nepalis call it Sagarmatha and Tibetans Qomolangma.
Q 19Which peak replaces Kosciuszko on the Messner version of the Seven Summits?
Puncak Jaya
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.
Q 20Who became the first person to climb the highest mountain on every continent, finishing on 30 April 1985?
Richard Bass
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.
Q 24Roughly what fraction of Zealandia, argued in 2017 to be a continent, is underwater?
About 94%
At about 4.9 million square kilometres it is far bigger than any microcontinent; New Caledonia is its second-largest piece above the waves.
Q 25The Americas take their name from which Italian explorer, thanks to German cartographers?
Amerigo Vespucci
Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 map put 'America' on the southern landmass; Columbus went to his grave insisting he had reached Asia.
Q 26What is the world's largest island, a self-governing part of Denmark on the North American plate?
Greenland
Politically it looks to Copenhagen, but geographically it belongs with Canada; Iceland straddles the boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates.
Q 27The Australian continent, or Sahul, includes mainland Australia, Tasmania and which large island?
New Guinea
They sit on one continental shelf and were joined by dry land during the last ice age; New Zealand, by contrast, belongs to Zealandia.
Q 28Which of these is one of Oceania's four sub-regions, along with Australasia, Melanesia and Micronesia?
Polynesia
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.
Q 29Which headland is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans?
Agulhas
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.
Q 30Which artificial waterway, opened in 1869, links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea?
Suez Canal
It links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea at sea level, with no locks, and technically puts Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in Asia.