Why are there still 7 continents?

19 jppope 6 7/7/2025, 5:50:14 PM jonpauluritis.com ↗

Comments (6)

OgsyedIE · 3h ago

The list of cratons on Wikipedia includes entries for Antarctica and Australia while omitting Greenland. I couldn't find a technical definition of a craton, but to geologists a continent must contain at least one craton to qualify.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shields_and_cratons

tharkun__ · 25m ago

It looks like the "North American Craton" reaches all the way up to Greenland if you look at the image.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_america_craton_np...

I wonder what would happen if you told this to Trump.

kazinator · 2h ago

"incontinent" also has a pretty loose definition.

gus_massa · 5h ago

> 6 continents (Russia/ Eastern Europe): Africa, Eurasia, Europe, North America, South America, Antartica, Australia

Should the article delete Europe from that list?

jppope · 5h ago

good catch. Should be updated in ~5min

fuzzfactor · 15h ago

Good question.

Probably nobody knows.

I figure it's been stable for quite a long time, and if number 8 were to show up any time soon it would be a major Earth-shaking event :)