[Scottish] Thursday Night Update (seriously off topic by now)

[James Webster]

There are, broadly speaking, two types of plates in the earth's 
crust --- continental and oceanic.  The continental plates are, 
basically, thicker than the oceanic ones (which is why they don't come 
up above the sea).  The islands of Oceania are mostly eruptions or 
growths (e.g. of coral) on oceanic crust and therefore probably not 
continental.  The edge of most continental plates is marked by a rapid 
increase in oceanic depth (the edge of the continental shelf).  IMHO the 
continents are Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa, 
Antarctica and Australasia (which is not completely coterminous with the 
country of Australia and, despite the ending, hasn't got anything to do 
with Asia).

This is what a colleague (a geography teacher told me).

James

ps.  Would this be the moment to mention India which is a 
*sub-continent*?

On Wednesday, October 9, 2002, at 10:45 AM, Ben Thorp wrote:

>
> I think they renamed and redefined Australasia into Oceania at some 
> point,
> IIRC.
>
> Ben Thorp
>
>
>
>
>                       Allan Whiteford
>                       <allan@whiteford.org.u        To:       
> scottish@mailman.lug.org.uk
>                       k>                            cc:
>                       Sent by:                      Subject:  Re: 
> [Scottish] Thursday Night Update
>                       scottish-admin@mailman
>                       .lug.org.uk
>
>
>                       09/10/02 10:17
>                       Please respond to
>                       scottish
>
>
>
>
>
> Kevin McDermott wrote:
>>
>> A _very_ quick Google turns up
> http://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm
>>
>> CONTINENTS OF THE WORLD
>>
>> CONTINENTS (by size)
>>
>> #1 Asia - (44,579,000 sq km)
>> #2 Africa - (30,065,000 sq km)
>> #3 North America - (24,256,000 sq km)
>> #4 South America - (17,819,000 sq km)
>> #5 Antarctica - (13,209,000 sq km)
>> #6 Europe - (9,938,000 sq km)
>> #7 Australia/Oceania - (7,687,000 sq km)
>>
>> Kevin
>>
>
> It was only an e-mail signature, a random number generator picked it!
>
> When I went to school, the continents were:
>
> Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and
> Australasia.
>
> Australasia covering Australia and the surrounding islands.
>
> I asked the guy who shares my office, and he said the same, so it must
> be true.
>
> (At this point I won't mention this guy happened to go to the same
> school as me and had the same Geography teacher.)
>
> At the bottom of this e-mail is another random signature, have fun with
> it, people.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Allan
> --
> You don't win silver - you lose gold.
>
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