Island or continent?

Question

If the concept of an island is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water. Why aren't continents also called islands?

Answer 1

Continents of the world are ISLANDs. ISLAND - a land area surrounded by water body. CONTINENT - a land area having significant variation in nature of lands, climate, weather conditions, cultures etc. Thus for example, Australia is an ISLAND. At the same time, Australia posseses all significant variation in nature of lands, climatic conditions, weather conditions, culture etc. Thus, Australia is a CONTINENT.

Answer 2

the definition of continent is not very exact - it really only is a large land mass, with no set limit for the minimum size. yes - all the continents are eventually surrounded by water and so in a sense can be considered islands of a sort.

An island is more properly defined as a land mass smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by a natural body of water.

Australia is a continent and not an island. (It is also a country)
Greenland is an island and not a continent.

The definition of continent is a bit fuzzed because while it corresponds to a physical land mass, the definitions were set more or less on cultural terms - thus Europe and Asia are part of the same land mass, but are generally considered different continents. Sometimes the entire land mass is called Eurasia. Similarly, North and South America are physically connected (with the Isthmus of Panama) but are considered different continents.

From a geologic point of view, continents can be viewed as their entire tectonic plate, with the bulk of the continent being the part above sea level. Thus you can tell that North America is really separate from South America because they are on separate plates that happen to be touching at this time.

The seven continents are:
Europe
Asia
Africa
Australia
Antarctica
North America
South America

all other land masses that are not connected to these are islands. at earlier times in the earth's history, the continents were joined into much larger 'supercontinents' before breaking apart and shifting to their current locations, and are continuing to shift and move around the planet at a slow pace.

you can't use man-made waterways to define where a continent begins or ends. Africa doesn't end at the Suez Canal because humans built a waterway there - it was determined to end at the Suez long before the canal was built. likewise, North America didn't get cut up into separate continents when the Erie Canal connected the great lakes to the hudson river (or else all of New England, and parts of upstate new york and eastern canada south of the St Lawrence river would all be separate from the rest of north america).

when continents touch each other via land, the dividing line is arbitrarily set by humans - the Ural and Caucausus mountains divide Europe and Asia simply because early european powers declared it to be so.

Answer 3

Which Continents Are Islands

Answer 4

The only island continent in Australia. I believe (but am not completely sure) that islands need to be surrounded by the same body of water. All other continents have the Atlantic on one side and Pacific on the other.

Answer 5

I believe it has something to do with the tectonic plates of the earth's crust. There is a plate for each of the continents--although one is really the "Eurasian" plate. This is why Australia qualifies as a continent and Greenland does not--Greenland is on the North American plate.
And, if it is just a question of semantics, then yes pretty much all the continents are islands, but not all islands are continents.

Answer 6

Well in the case of Australia it is an island and a continents. Contenents have a separateness from other areas and they contain whole governments - islands only do notl

Answer 7

Continents are technically islands but they are in an entirely different class of islands (continents)

Answer 8

The only one surrounded by water, and thus an island, is Australia. How do you see the others that way when they all touch? Curious question that you've asked here.

Answer 9

There is a size issue at stake, so Greenland is an island, but Australia is a continent.

Answer 10

the only continent that is considered an island is australia. everyother one is connected to another except aantartica, but that isn't completely surrounded either