Why is Australia considered a continent, but Greenland an island and is larger?

Answer 1

Whether or not an area is a continent doesn't depend on how large it is, but rather on the underlying tectonic plates.

The earth's crust is broken into plates which are able to move relative to each other. The motion of the plates can give rise to earthquakes and is also the basis for continental drift.

If you look carefully at a map of the world's tectonic plates, you will see that Australia sits on its own plate while Greenland does not.

Answer 2

Australia is actually larger than Greenland. It just looks smaller due to distortion on a flat map.

Australia: This continent-country-island has an area of 2,966,368 square miles (7,682,300 square kilometers).

Greenland: It’s the world’s largest island at 810,810 square miles (2.1 million square kilometers)

Answer 3

The reason Greenland sometimes appears larger is because of the Mercator projection on flat maps. Look on a globe and you will see that Australia is larger.

Answer 4

Greenland is 2.17 million square kilometers; Australia is 7.96 million square kilometers -- over three times bigger, so your basic premise is wrong. You must be looking at a Mercator projection map of the world, which distorts areas in the far north and south.

Answer 5

sorry to burst your bubble, but australia is some 800,000 sq. miles larger than greenland and a vast majority of greenland is totally uninhabitable.