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<h1>Continents</h1>
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<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>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. In geology, continents are described by means of tectonic plates. Plate tectonics is the process and study of the movement, collision and division of continents.
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<td class="clearfix"><p>By convention, "continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water." Many of the seven most commonly recognized continents identified by convention are not discrete landmasses separated by water. The criterion "large" leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland, with a surface area of 2,166,086 square kilometres (836,330 sq mi) is considered the world's largest island, while Australia, at 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi) is deemed a continent. Likewise, the ideal criterion that each be a continuous landmass is often disregarded by the inclusion of the continental shelf and oceanic islands, and contradicted by classifying North and South America as two continents; and/or Eurasia and Africa as two continents, with no natural separation by water. This anomaly reaches its extreme if the continuous land mass of Europe and Asia is considered to constitute two continents. The Earth's major landmasses are washed upon by a single, continuous world ocean, which is divided into a number of principal oceanic components by the continents and various geographic criteria. Continents are sometimes extended beyond the major landmasses, in a way that every bit of land on earth is included in a continent.</td>
<td><p><img src="Globe.png" alt="Continents" title="Continents"/></td>
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<td><p><a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/" target="_blank">National Geographic</a></td>
<td><p><a href="http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/" target="_blank">Canadian Geographic</a></td>
<td><p><a href="http://www.theweathernetwork.com/" target="_blank">The Weather Network</a></td>
<td><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent" target="_blank">Continents on Wikipedia</a></td>
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<p>Created and designed by Radu Poenaru © 2015
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