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This is a list of continental landmasses, continents, and continental subregions by population. For statistical convenience, the population of continental landmasses also include the population of their associated islands .
Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single landmass or a part of a very large landmass, as in the case of Asia or Europe. Due to this, the number of continents varies; up to seven or as few as four geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents.
However, as the change of sound from ph to f in Greek is datable to about the 10th century, it is unlikely this is the origin. [citation needed] Latin aprica "sunny". Another suggestion is that the name comes from the Ancient Egyptian word afruika - which means 'turning towards the ka' or 'turning towards the birthplace' or 'motherland' of ...
In the modern day, there are seven continents. However, there have been more continents throughout history. Vaalbara was the first supercontinent. [2] Europe is the newest continent. [3] Geologists have predicted that certain continents will appear, these being Pangaea Proxima, Novopangaea, Aurica, and Amasia.
The speculation that continents might have "drifted" was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. A pioneer of the modern view of mobilism was the Austrian geologist Otto Ampferer. [3] [4] The concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in his 1915 publication, "The Origin of Continents and Oceans". [5]
The outlines of the modern continents and other landmasses are indicated on this map. At the end of the Proterozoic, the supercontinent Pannotia had broken apart into the smaller continents Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia and Gondwana. [153] During periods when continents move apart, more oceanic crust is formed by volcanic activity.
Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek γῆ (gê) 'earth' μορφή (morphḗ) 'form' and λόγος 'study') [2] is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface.
The distribution of fossils across the continents is one line of evidence pointing to the existence of Pangaea. The geography of the continents bordering the Atlantic Ocean was the first evidence suggesting the existence of Pangaea.