If Russia seceded and became its own continent, what would be the order of continents by size?

eyhung

All figures in millions of square miles (msm). First, the continent sizes can be found here: http://mistupid.com/geography/continents.htm Second, we need to know the size of Russia, and how much is in Europe vs. Asia Russia is roughly 6.59 msm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia). 1.53 msm are in Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Russia), so 5.06 msm are in Asia. Deducting the appropriate amounts from Asia and Europe, the new order would be: 1. Asia (12.07) 2. Africa (11.67) 3. North America (9.36) 4. South America (6.88) 5. Russia (6.59) 6. Antarctica (5.5) 7. Australia (2.97) 8. Europe (2.47) Jan 31 13, 8:04 PM

fiddlegoddess

A continent is a geographical formation, though, not a political dseignation. Feb 01 13, 12:36 PM

looney_tunes

The whole issue of defining continents and allocating values to the area of each is rather vague, at best. Continent boundaries are definitely political rather than purely geographical in a number of cases. The distinction between Europe and Asia is totally political, although geographical features are used to justify the dividing line at some places. North and South America are a single land mass (or were, before the Panama Canal was built, but it isn't the dividing point,anyway), but are generally considered to be two continents in lists such as used in the answer provided to this question. There is, in fact, z reasonable basis to argue that Russia is in many ways neither European nor Asian, and could be considered as a continent of its own. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Definitions_and_application Feb 01 13, 5:38 PM

davejacobs

And on the other hand, perhaps Russia could make a rule saying the whole country was European. that would greatly increase the size of Europe, and diminish the size of Asia! Feb 02 13, 3:59 AM