what consists of huge landmasses of land called continents
Answers
Answer:
The large landmasses on Earth are called continents. There are seven recognized continents on the planet: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America
Answer:
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Explanation:
Continents are very large pieces of land. Earth has seven continents. Asia is the biggest and Australia is the smallest. Listed in order of size they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia/Oceania.
Islands near a continent are usually part of that continent. For example, Japan and the Philippines are part of Asia. Greenland and the islands in the Caribbean Sea are usually considered part of North America.
A very few islands don't follow this pattern. They are not part of any continent.
Europe and Asia are not really separate. They are both part of one giant piece of land. This land is called Eurasia. Still, Europe and Asia are thought of as separate continents because their peoples' cultures are so different.
Plates in Motion
Earth is covered with a layer of hard rock. This is broken into several huge parts called tectonic plates. These plates move around. They often crash into each other. Their crashing is what created the continents.
The continents started forming four billion years ago. At the time, Earth was almost completely covered by a huge ocean. Then, pieces of land began to appear. They were made of rock. This rock rose up when plates crashed together. It gathered at the edges of plates.
Some of this rock formed into small islands. When plates crashed together, an island on one plate might crash into an island on another plate. When this happened, islands joined together to become a single, larger island. Over time, such islands grew larger and larger. They became the first continents.
Over time, the early continents formed into one huge continent. This supercontinent is called Pangaea.
About 200 million years ago, Pangaea began to break apart. The separate pieces were the beginnings of today's continents. Slowly, they began to move away from each other.
One of the pieces that broke off was gigantic. Later, North America broke off from it. The rest became Europe and Asia.
Antarctica and Australia headed south. At the time, they were still joined together. The small piece of land that became India broke away too. It became an island. For millions of years it moved north. Finally, it ran into Asia. It then became part of Asia.
Slowly, the different continents moved to where they are now.
The continents are still moving. North America and Europe are moving away from each other. They travel about 2.5 centimeters (one inch) a year.
The continents are also continuing to break apart. In time, part of California will likely separate from North America. It will become an island.
The surface of the continents has changed many times. Great mountains have risen. Then, they have been worn away. Ocean waters have flooded across plains. Then, they have slowly dried up. Huge ice sheets have come and gone. Along the way, they shaped the land.
Mountains are still forming. They often form when two tectonic plates crash together. Such crashes push bits of land up.
North America is the third-largest continent. It stretches from the Aleutian Islands to the Isthmus of Panama.
The western part of the continent is full of young mountains. The Rockies are one example. They are North America's largest mountain chain. The East Coast has older mountain chains.
North America has many kinds of weather. It has a bigger range of climates than any other continent. Its Arctic regions are very cold. Other parts are very warm.
Some people think the United States and Canada are the only countries in North America. This is wrong. Mexico is in North America. So are Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Greenland is also geographically part of North America, even though Denmark partly controls it.
South America is the fourth-largest continent. It stretches from the Caribbean Sea to the Antarctic Circle.
The Andes is the world's longest mountain range. It runs the whole length of South America.