Pangaea was one of the largest continents in world history, but now it's broken up. So which continent today is the largest, and which is the smallest?
Hundreds of millions of years ago, a supercontinent called Pangaea formed. For about 125 million years, it contained almost all of the dry land on Earth. Since then, chunks of Pangaea have drifted apart and recombined in new ways. So which is the largest continent today? And what about the smallest?
Continents are large areas of land mostly surrounded by water — but that definition leaves room for interpretation. Today, Europe and Asia are sometimes combined and called"Eurasia." Likewise, many children in Latin American countries like Chile learn the Americas as one continent instead of two. Combined, the Americas have an area of just over 16 million square miles — larger than Africa but still smaller than Asia.
When tectonic plates bump into each other, areas made of ocean crust often get shoved under continental crust and back into the magma."They get recycled," Stock told Live Science. Continents, on the other hand, tend to stay on the surface of the Earth. Even though continental rock is usually light enough to stay above sea level, it doesn't always remain above water.
The smallest continentsBut if Zealandia counts as a continent, is it the smallest continent? Or are there even smaller continents in the running? When large continents break apart, it looks like a shattered plate — there are big pieces like Africa, medium-size pieces like Zealandia, and lots of tiny shards of continental rock. Those shards are known as microcontinents. Some are islands; others are entirely below sea level.
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