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How many continents are there?

How many continents are there?

Science

w

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Wrong!

There are 8!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-just-discovered-continent-wait-163821071.html

twhitehead

Cape Town

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Sorry to spoil your day, but there are still only 7.

h

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I have looked at the link and I think it stretches the meaning of the word 'continent' to unreasonable limits and far beyond that which most people would naturally agree with. They confirmed that it contains some 'continental crust', which I don't dispute, but I think the problem here is that the land mass associated with it is still simply far too small for most people to agree that it conforms to what they would naturally mean by the word 'continent'.

I would say there are still just 7 continents of the Earth.

D
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Quarantined World

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Originally posted by whodey
Wrong!

There are 8!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-just-discovered-continent-wait-163821071.html
Since a continent is defined as a contiguous land mass then either there are thousands of the things, since we'd have to treat every island as a continent, or there are four: Afro-eurasia, the Americas, Oceania and Antarctica.

The word "continent" isn't terribly precisely defined. What constitutes a continent depends on the context. The evidence is that a couple of hundred million years ago there was just one large continent. So I don't think that Australia is in much danger of losing her smallest continent status to Mauritius.

D
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Quarantined World

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Incidentally, the original article below does not talk about a new continent, but the shattered remains of an old one.

http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14086

w

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Killjoys!! 😠

Ghost of a Duke

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Originally posted by whodey
Killjoys!! 😠
Quick sir, go find another deadly sin.

apathist
looking for loot

western colorado

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07 Feb 17

There were seven posts here. Now there are eight.

Kewpie
Felis Australis

Australia

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The Wikipedia article on continents reports that the term "continents" means different things to different communities reporting on different time periods. Also that the number currently taught in schools around the world ranges from 4 to 7. Nobody's counting Mauritius that I can see.

w

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08 Feb 17

Originally posted by Kewpie
The Wikipedia article on continents reports that the term "continents" means different things to different communities reporting on different time periods. Also that the number currently taught in schools around the world ranges from 4 to 7. Nobody's counting Mauritius that I can see.
Maybe they are alternate continents! 😲

Ghost of a Duke

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08 Feb 17

Originally posted by whodey
Maybe they are alternate continents! 😲
Dude, do you have alternate brain cells?

rc

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08 Feb 17

Scotland is a continent.

Ghost of a Duke

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09 Feb 17

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Scotland is a continent.
Scotland's incontinent? 😲

I guess haggis will do that to you...

E

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/16/scientists-discover-eighth-continent-zealandia/

Soothfast
0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,

☯️

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Originally posted by whodey
Wrong!

There are 8!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-just-discovered-continent-wait-163821071.html
In my opinion there are six, with Europe and Asia counting as one.

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