Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, following Asia. It covers approximately 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles), which accounts for 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Africa also includes Madagascar and various archipelagos.
North America, often referred to as just America or the US, is a continent primarily located in the northern hemisphere. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. North America is third in area at 9.4 million square miles (24.5 million square kilometers).
Let's delve into a detailed comparison of these two significant continents.
Defining a Continent
Before comparing the sizes of Africa and North America, it's important to understand what defines a continent. A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria.
A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass (as in the case of Asia or Europe within Eurasia), or a landmass and nearby islands within its continental shelf. Due to these varying definitions, the number of continents varies; up to seven or as few as four geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents.
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Most English-speaking countries recognize seven regions as continents. In order from largest to smallest in area, these seven regions are Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia (sometimes called Oceania or Australasia). Oceanic islands are occasionally grouped with a nearby continent to divide all the world's land into geographical regions.
In geology, a continent is defined as "one of Earth's major landmasses, including both dry land and continental shelves". The geological continents correspond to seven large areas of continental crust that are found on the tectonic plates, but exclude small continental fragments such as Madagascar that are generally referred to as microcontinents.
The idea of continental drift gained recognition in the 20th century. While continent was used on the one hand for relatively small areas of continuous land, on the other hand geographers again raised Herodotus's query about why a single large landmass should be divided into separate continents.
By convention, continents "are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water". By this definition, all continents have to be an island of some metric. In modern schemes with five or more recognized continents, at least one pair of continents is joined by land in some fashion.
The most restricted meaning of continent is that of a continuous area of land or mainland, with the coastline and any land boundaries forming the edge of the continent. In this sense, the term continental Europe (sometimes referred to in Britain as "the Continent") is used to refer to mainland Europe, excluding islands such as Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, and Malta, while the term continent of Australia may refer to the mainland of Australia, excluding New Guinea, Tasmania, and other nearby islands.
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From this perspective, the edge of the continental shelf is the true edge of the continent, as shorelines vary with changes in sea level. In this sense the islands of Great Britain and Ireland are part of Europe, while Australia and the island of New Guinea together form a continent.
As a cultural construct, the concept of a continent may go beyond the continental shelf to include oceanic islands and continental fragments. In this way, Iceland is considered a part of Europe, and Madagascar a part of Africa. Extrapolating the concept to its extreme, some geographers group the Australian continental landmass with other islands in the Pacific Ocean into Oceania, which is usually considered a region rather than a continent.
The criterion that each continent is a discrete landmass is commonly relaxed due to historical conventions and practical use. Of the seven most globally recognized continents, only Antarctica and Australia are completely separated from other continents by the ocean.
Several continents are defined not as absolutely distinct bodies but as "more or less discrete masses of land". Africa and Asia are joined by the Isthmus of Suez, and North America and South America by the Isthmus of Panama. In both cases, there is no complete separation of these landmasses by water (disregarding the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, which are both narrow and shallow, as well as human-made).
North America and South America are treated as separate continents in the seven-continent model. However, they may also be viewed as a single continent known as America.
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The criterion of a discrete landmass is completely disregarded if the continuous landmass of Eurasia is classified as two separate continents (Asia and Europe). Physiographically, Europe and the Indian subcontinent are large peninsulas of the Eurasian landmass. However, Europe is considered a continent with its comparatively large land area of 10,180,000 square kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi), while the Indian subcontinent, with less than half that area, is considered a subcontinent.
The alternative view-in geology and geography-that Eurasia is a single continent results in a six-continent view of the world. Some view the separation of Eurasia into Asia and Europe as a residue of Eurocentrism: "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country.
When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice ages, greater areas of the continental shelf were exposed as dry land, forming land bridges between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. At those times, Australia and New Guinea were a single, continuous continent known as Sahul. Likewise, Afro-Eurasia and the Americas were joined by the Bering Land Bridge. Other islands, such as Great Britain, were joined to the mainlands of their continents.
Apart from the current continents, the scope and meaning of the term continent includes past geological ones. Supercontinents, largely in evidence earlier in the geological record, are landmasses that comprise most of the world's cratons or continental cores. These have included Vaalbara, Kenorland, Columbia, Rodinia, Pannotia, and Pangaea.
Certain parts of continents are recognized as subcontinents, especially the large peninsulas separated from the main continental landmass by geographical features. Some areas of continental crust are largely covered by the ocean and may be considered submerged continents. Some islands lie on sections of continental crust that have rifted and drifted apart from a main continental landmass.
While not considered continents because of their relatively small size, they may be considered microcontinents. Some of these are fragments of Gondwana or other ancient cratonic continents: Zealandia,[74] which includes New Zealand and New Caledonia; Madagascar; the northern Mascarene Plateau, which includes the Seychelles.
The Kerguelen Plateau, for example, is largely volcanic, but is associated with the breakup of Gondwanaland and is considered a microcontinent.
Historical Perspectives
The Ancient Greek geographer Strabo holding a globe showing Europa and AsiaThe term "continent" translates the Greek word ἤπειρος, meaning "landmass, terra firma", the proper name of Epirus and later especially used for Asia (i.e.
Ancient Greek thinkers subsequently debated whether Africa (then called Libya) should be considered part of Asia or a third part of the world. Division into three parts eventually came to predominate. From the Greek viewpoint, the Aegean Sea was the center of the world; Asia lay to the east, Europe to the north and west, and Africa to the south.
The boundaries between the continents were not fixed. Early on, the Europe-Asia boundary was taken to run from the Black Sea along the Rioni River (known then as the Phasis) in Georgia. Later it was viewed as running from the Black Sea through Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov and along the Don River (known then as the Tanais) in Russia.
The boundary between Asia and Africa was generally taken to be the Nile River. Herodotus in the 5th century BCE objected to the whole of Egypt being split between Asia and Africa ("Libya") and took the boundary to lie along the western border of Egypt, regarding Egypt as part of Asia. He also questioned the division into three of what is really a single landmass, a debate that continues nearly two and a half millennia later.
Eratosthenes, in the 3rd century BCE, noted that some geographers divided the continents by rivers (the Nile and the Don), thus considering them "islands". Others divided the continents by isthmuses, calling the continents "peninsulas".
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the culture that developed in its place, linked to Latin and the Catholic church, began to associate itself with the concept of Europe. Through the Roman period and the Middle Ages, a few writers took the Isthmus of Suez as the boundary between Asia and Africa, but most writers continued to consider it the Nile or the western border of Egypt (Gibbon).
In the Middle Ages, the world was usually portrayed on T and O maps, with the T representing the waters dividing the three continents. Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean in 1492, sparking a period of European exploration of the Americas.
In 1501, Amerigo Vespucci and Gonçalo Coelho attempted to sail around what they considered the southern end of the Asian mainland into the Indian Ocean, passing through Fernando de Noronha. Within a few years, the name "New World" began appearing as a name for South America on world maps, such as the Oliveriana (Pesaro) map of around 1504-1505.
In 1507 Martin Waldseemüller published a world map, Universalis Cosmographia, which was the first to show North and South America as separate from Asia and surrounded by water. A small inset map above the main map explicitly showed for the first time the Americas being east of Asia and separated from Asia by an ocean, as opposed to just placing the Americas on the left end of the map and Asia on the right end.
From the late 18th century, some geographers started to regard North America and South America as two parts of the world, making five parts in total. Europeans discovered Australia in 1606, but for some time it was taken as part of Asia.
Antarctica was sighted in 1820 during the First Russian Antarctic Expedition and described as a continent by Charles Wilkes on the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838, the last continent identified, although a great "Antarctic" (antipodean) landmass had been anticipated for millennia.
Over time, the western concept of dividing the world into continents spread globally, replacing conceptions in other areas of the world. The idea of continents continued to become imbued with cultural and political meaning. In the 19th century during the Meiji period, Japanese leaders began to self-identify with the concept of being Asian, and renew relations with other "Asian" countries while conceiving of the idea of Asian solidarity against western countries.
From the mid-19th century, atlases published in the United States more commonly treated North and South America as separate continents, while atlases published in Europe usually considered them one continent.
With the addition of Antarctica, this made the seven-continent model.
Geological Definition
Geologists use the term continent in a different manner from geographers. In geology, a continent is defined by continental crust, which is a platform of metamorphic and igneous rocks, largely of granitic composition.
Continental crust is less dense and much thicker than oceanic crust, which causes it to "float" higher than oceanic crust on the dense underlying mantle. Some geologists restrict the term continent to portions of the crust built around stable regions called cratons.
Cratons have largely been unaffected by mountain-building events (orogenies) since the Precambrian. A craton typically consists of a continental shield surrounded by a continental platform. The shield is a region where ancient crystalline basement rock (typically 1.5 to 3.8 billion years old) is widely exposed at the surface.
The platform surrounding the shield is also composed of ancient basement rock, but with a cover of younger sedimentary rock. The 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 subduction.
The margins of geologic continents are either active or passive. An active margin is characterised by mountain building, either through a continent-on continent collision or a subduction zone. Continents grow by accreting lighter volcanic island chains and microcontinents along these active margins, forming orogens.
At a passive margin, the continental crust is stretched thin by extension to form a continental shelf, which tapers off with a gradual slope covered in sediment, connecting it directly to the oceanic crust beyond.
There are many microcontinents, or continental fragments, that are built of continental crust but do not contain a craton.
Size and Geographical Features
Africa spans 11.6 million square miles (30 million square kilometers). It is home to the longest river in the world, the Nile.
North America is third in area at 9.4 million square miles (24.5 million square kilometers). North America boasts Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world.
Here is a table providing areas for each continent:
| Continent | Area (million sq km) |
|---|---|
| Asia | 44.6 |
| Africa | 30 |
| North America | 24.5 |
| South America | 17.8 |
| Antarctica | 14.2 |
| Europe | 9.9 |
| Australia | 7.7 |
Based on area, Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent at 5.5 million square miles (14.2 million square kilometers). The amount of ice cover in Antarctica affects the exchange of heat, moisture, and gases between the ocean and the atmosphere.
By area, Europe is sixth on the list of continents, spanning 3.8 million square miles (9.9 million square kilometers). The only continent that is its own country, Australia is also the smallest, with 3 million square miles (7.7 million square kilometers).
North America vs Africa Continent Comparison
Climate Comparison
The climate in South Africa and the United States varies significantly. Here's a brief overview:
Daily Maximum Temperatures
- South Africa: The highest daytime temperatures are reached in January with an average of 29.8 °C. The coldest month is July, with an average of 21.5 °C.
- United States: July is the warmest month, with 31.1 °C. January is the coolest, with an average of 6.2 °C.
Night Time Lows
- South Africa: Temperatures drop as low as 6.5 °C in July. The warmest nights are in January at 18.4 °C.
- United States: It is coolest at night in January at -3.9 °C and warmest in July at 19.0 °C.
Rainy Days per Month
- South Africa: December brings the most rainy days (7.5). July is the friendliest with only 2.3 days.
- United States: It rains most often in May with 8.1 days.
Sunshine Hours per Day
- South Africa: Leads with 3,103 hours of sunshine per year. The most hours of sunshine (8.9 per day) are in July.
- United States: Falls into second place with 2,628 hours. The sun is visible in December for only 4.2 hours per day.
Hours of Daylight
- South Africa: In June, the day is only 10.4 hours long. In December, it is 14.0 hours.
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