During the past decade, we surveyed, sampled and defined the hidden continent of Zealandia. Intense global media coverage of our work revealed deep-seated arguments about how we define continents ...

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." ...

With this definition in mind, one study recently published in the journal Gondwana Research argued — controversially — that North America and Europe are actually one continent, which makes six ...

The number of continents, it seems, depends on who you ask. The answer may have seemed clear in elementary school, but in truth, there is no single, definitive way to define a continent.

From Africa’s Namib to South America’s Atacama, explore the world’s most iconic deserts—where silence roars and dunes dance.

Australia’s claim to continent-hood is a bit shakier. There’s no scientific definition used to categorize these geographical giants. They tend to be large land masses with their own tectonic ...

The dispute arises in part because there are really two types of continents: Those recognized by cultures around the world, and those recognized by geologists. Cultures can define a continent any ...

To that end, they propose that qualifying landmasses more than 1 million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) across should be labeled as continents. By that definition, Zealandia would ...

During the past decade, we surveyed, sampled and defined the hidden continent of Zealandia. Intense global media coverage of our work revealed deep-seated arguments about how we define continents ...