Content of the World
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with up to seven regions commonly regarded as continents. These are (from largest in size to smallest): Asia ,Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.[1] Some argue that continents are accretionary crustal "rafts" that, unlike the denser basaltic crust of the ocean basins, are not subjected to destruction through the plate tectonic process of seductions. This accounts for the great age of the rocks comprising the continental cartoonists. By this definition, Eastern Europe, India and some other regions could be regarded as continental masses distinct from the rest of Eurasia because they have separate ancient shield areas (i.e. East European carton and Indian cartons). Younger mobile belts (such as the Ural Mountains and Himalayas) mark the boundaries between these regions and the rest of Eurasia.
There are many micro continents, or continental fragments, that are built of continental crust but do not contain a cartons. Some of these are fragments of Gondwana or other ancient cratonic continents: Zealand, which includes New Zealand and New Caledonia ;Madagascar; the northern Mascarene Plateau, which includes the Seychelles. Other islands, such as several in the Caribbean Sea, are composed largely of granitic rock as well, but all continents contain both granitic and basaltic crust, and there is no clear boundary as to which islands would be considered micro continents under such a definition. The Kerguelen Plateau, for example, is largely volcanic, but is associated with the breakup of Gondwanaland and is considered a micro continent,[61][62] whereas volcanic Iceland and Hawaii are not. The British Isles, Sri Lanka, Borneo, and Newfoundland are margins of the Caucasian continent—only separated by inland seas flooding its margins.
Plate tectonics offers yet another way of...