Why call it 'America?'

[TWRoO]

Rath said:

TWRoO said:

 

Doesn't that depend entirely on whether you are talking politically or geographically?

Politically NZ is part of Oceania (I am not certain but I think Australasia is only Aus, NZ and the islands North towards Asia, wheras Oceania includes the Pacific islands as well)

Geographically you have to start talking about either borders with the sea, or continental crust. Using the Former then yes you are correct NZ is a seperate "continent" in the same way that every island is therefore a seperate continent.
If you use the difference between continental and Oceanic Crust, then there are only really 2 continents (those being Antarctica and everything else, I think New Zealand may not even be counted in this, and therefore would become 2 of the largest islands in the world along with Iceland)

There is no set definition geographically for the continents, which is why people use the political version with 7 continents.

 

Actually no not every island is seperate under my definition, the only non-major continents that I can think of are Zealandia and Madagascar. You can see how seperate they are in this picture here (thank you wikipedia);

 

As you can see Zealandia and Madagascar are continental entities in their own right as far as a strictly geographic sense goes while most other islands are, while seperate from other landmasses, still part of a continent even if some of it is submerged. Iceland and Hawaii are volcanic and not really included.

 Interesting. I was googling for something like this after I posted but most images were rather vague.

This does show the second thing I mentioned though, because The Americas, Afro-Eurasia and Australia are all joined in that image.... which is what I said (Antarctica and everything else)


I wouldn't mind knowing what the grey areas ae in that image? they are not in the key. And as they are on or near the other forms I would presume they are part of the Continental crust, and therefore join New Zealand to Australia. (And possibly, though not shown, connect South America and New Zealand to Antarctica)