Continents homework

The plates interact along their boundaries, as they collide, slide apart, and slip past one another. These interactions create mountain belts and other continental features and also cause earthquakes and volcanoes. The theory describing the plates and their motions is known as plate tectonics.

The island of Great Britain is part of the British Isles (a group of islands which also includes Ireland and lots of smaller islands). There are seven continents in the world, and tens of thousands of islands. Some are connected to each other, and some are surrounded by water – like Australia – but these are too large to be an island.

In 1912 a German scientist named Alfred Wegener came up with the idea that the continents were once all joined together. He called this large body of land Pangaea. He suggested that more than 200 million years ago Pangaea split apart to form the continents. The continents then drifted apart to their current locations.

The continents are the huge landmasses that separated by the waters of the oceans. On this page we will tell you more about the continents, about their sizes and special features. The seven continents on our planet are: Africa , Asia , Antarctica , Europa, North America and South America and Oceania/Australia.