Eurasia is the largest continent on our planet. It occupies about 54.3 million km2, which is 36% of the entire land area of the Earth. It includes two parts of the world - Europe and Asia.
Geography of the mainland
Most of Eurasia is located in the northern hemisphere, although 11o deepens into the southern hemisphere. Extreme continental points of Eurasia:
- northern - Cape Chelyuskin (Taimyr Peninsula, Russia);
- south - Cape Piai (Malacca Peninsula, Malaysia);
- western - Cape Roca (Portugal);
- east - Cape Dezhnev (Chukotka Peninsula, Russia).
From the north, the mainland is washed by the Arctic Ocean, in the west by the Atlantic, from the east by the Pacific, and in the south by the Indian.
It is separated from other continents by straits and seas. North America is located beyond the Bering Strait, separated from Africa by the Strait of Gibr altar, the Mediterranean and Red Seas, where they are connected by the Isthmus of Suez.
Eurasia Islands
They surround the mainland in a semicircle. The islands and archipelagos of Eurasia are more concentrated in eastern waters. But also in the northwestern part there are quite large individual islands or groups of islands.
Mostly cerealarchipelagos are found in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Small ones are located in the Aegean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The large ones include the Japanese archipelago (Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido), the Philippine Islands (Mindanao, Palawan, Luzon), the Malay Archipelago (Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes), British (Great Britain, Ireland).
Now more about each.
The Japanese archipelago consists of four large and 6848 small islands. The first four large ones - Kyushu, Hokkaido, Honshu and Shikoku - are 97% of the total area of the state, which is equal to 377.9 thousand km 2 (364.4 km 2 is land, the remaining 13.5 km2 is water). The islands themselves are of volcanic origin and are part of the Pacific volcanic ring of fire, which is a consequence of the strongest earthquakes and tsunamis.
Philippines are washed by the western waters of the Pacific Ocean, consist of three large islands stretching from north to south. The state also includes 7638 islands. The total area of the entire territory is 299.764 km2.
The British archipelago consists of two large islands (Great Britain and Ireland), archipelagos (they include the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Islands) and other small islands. The entire territory of Great Britain is isolated from the mainland by the Pas de Calais and the English Channel. Its total area is 325 thousand km2.
The Malaysian archipelago is located southwest of the Philippines and is washed by the waters of two oceans: the Indian and the Pacific. This is the largest archipelago in the world. Its total area is approximately 2 million km2. The largest islands are among the largest in the world.
The largest island in Eurasia
The islands of Eurasia are scattered around the mainland, but there are also archipelagos. This is a cluster of a large number of islands in a relatively small area. Kalimantan, the third largest island in the world and the largest island in Eurasia, is located in the central part of the Malaysian archipelago. Borneo is its second name.
The island covers an area of 743,330 km2. An interesting fact is that this is the only island in the world that is shared by three states at once: Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia.
Large peninsulas and islands of Eurasia
A peninsula is a piece of land that wedged at a certain distance into the adjacent waters of the seas and oceans and is washed by water from all sides except one. This side connects the peninsula to the mainland.
The "record holder" of the world was the Arabian Peninsula, whose area is 3.25 million km22. It is located in the southwest of Eurasia and is almost completely covered by the desert sands. Behind him, with a large lag, is the Indian subcontinent, located in the south of the mainland. Its area is 2 million km2. They are followed by Scandinavian, Yukotan, Balkan, Taimyr, Yamal and many others, whose area is much smaller.
Sakhalin is one of the largest islands in Eurasia. Pulled out fromnorth to south. The area of the island is 76,400 km2. It is washed by the waters of the warm Sea of Japan and the cold Sea of Okhotsk.
Java Island is considered the most populated in the Malay Archipelago. Its area is 132 thousand km2 (land area 128.297 km2). About 120 volcanoes are located on the island, of which 30 are active. The total length from west to east is 1,000 km.
Sumatra is an island in the Malay Archipelago, washed by the Indian Ocean. It is the sixth largest in the world. The area is 473.481 km2 (including the adjacent islands, which are approximately 30 thousand km22). Earthquakes are not uncommon here, reaching an amplitude of 7-8 points.
