The poor Icelanders must have a multiple personality disorder with that continental divide in the middle of the island.
Capitaine wrote:
Mainland Australia: 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 square miles)
The continent also comprises slightly more than the mainland.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Actually, Australia the continent is more than four times the size of Greenland the island
Embarassingly, I think I fell into the Mercator projection trap, and/or mixed km and sm.
Greenland: 2,166,086 square kilometres
Mainland Australia: 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 square miles)
Edit: the difference between the two is much clearer in this animated gif
terbang wrote:
I asked myself this too, for obvious reasons. It’s not that small, though
Actually, Australia the continent is more than four times the size of Greenland the island. You have to draw the line somewhere… Also, AFAIU, there is unbroken continental shelf between Greenland and Canada.
Why is Greenland a large island when similar-sized Australia is a small continent?
I asked myself this too, for obvious reasons. It’s not that small, though 🤣
The definition of a continent should be simple, a large landmass surrounded by water, but it soon gets complicated.
There is a human effect that alters the definition. Europe is tiny on a global scale (~2%), but was the centre of progress and expansionism for an extended period. Also, ‘continent’ is used synonymously with ‘mainland’ in at least the UK, Corsica, Australia, US.
Personally, I would put a geographical Europe as west of the Ural mountains and north of Caucasian mountains. Culturally, though, I don’t think this has been the case since the Soviet Union, and I would re-draw this on the lines of Russian influence, e.g. Georgia and Ukraine in, Belarus out.
gallois wrote:
Then on what continent is Greenland?
Europe of course… to my eyes at least it looks much closer to the European mainland than say… the UofK 
The usage has changed over the years. When I came to the UK (from CZ) in 1969, mainland was called “the continent” which is probably clearer but no more geologically accurate, because the UK is a part of the mainland continental mass (S UK being obviously geologically identical to N France in so many places).
Russia has often been called Europe but only west of the Urals.
Calling the mainland “Europe” is obviously wrong, but has come in over the past 20-30 years or so.
Quite right Turkey is the edge of Europe in one direction and Russia going in another direction.Then on what continent is Greenland?
Lots of people use the term “Europe” to mean either the EU, or (particularly Brits) continental Europe. It gets confusing and slightly annoying.
