<p>Is there a scientific definition of a continent? Is there an academic reference for such a definition? There's a tendency to correlate with tectonic plates, but of course lots of plates don't have continents.</p>

<p>I keep running across "by convention" and "landmass" but I don't see anything really definitive, or anything academic. I've got the whole Pangaea/Gondwana/craton/shield/continental crust/oceanic crust/plate tectonics fine, but this simple question is pretty vague. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-12T15:45:44.240Z
From the Wikipedia article: The criterion "large" leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland, with a surface area of 2,166,086 square kilometres (836,330 sq mi) is considered the world's largest island, while Australia, at 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi) is deemed a continent. Likewise, the ideal criterion that each be a continuous landmass is contradicted by classifying North and South America as two continents; and/or Eurasia and Africa as two continents, with no natural separation by water, and the continuous land mass of Europe and Asia is considered two continents.
f.thorpe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-12T15:47:22.013Z
and... historically some geographers divided the continents by rivers (the Nile and the Don), thus considering them "islands". Others divided the continents by isthmuses, calling the continents "peninsulas". These latter geographers set the border between Europe and Asia at the isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and the border between Asia and Africa at the isthmus between the Red Sea and the mouth of Lake Bardawil on the Mediterranean Sea.
f.thorpe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-12-12T16:21:29.490Z
No there is none although all have cratons associated with them and hence the name continental cratons.
stali
<plate-tectonics><structural-geology>
What is the definition of a continent?
sloopie72
# What is the definition of a continent?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-12-12)

Is there a scientific definition of a continent? Is there an academic reference for such a definition? There's a tendency to correlate with tectonic plates, but of course lots of plates don't have continents.

I keep running across "by convention" and "landmass" but I don't see anything really definitive, or anything academic. I've got the whole Pangaea/Gondwana/craton/shield/continental crust/oceanic crust/plate tectonics fine, but this simple question is pretty vague.

**Tags:** plate-tectonics, structural-geology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: From the Wikipedia article: The criterion "large" leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland, with a surface area of 2,166,086 square kilometres (836,330 sq mi) is considered the world's largest island, while Australia, at 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi) is deemed a continent. Likewise, the ideal criterion that each be a continuous landmass is contradicted by classifying North and South America as two continents; and/or Eurasia and Africa as two continents, with no natural separation by water, and the continuous land mass of Europe and Asia is considered two continents.  
> **username_1**: and... historically some geographers divided the continents by rivers (the Nile and the Don), thus considering them "islands". Others divided the continents by isthmuses, calling the continents "peninsulas". These latter geographers set the border between Europe and Asia at the isthmus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and the border between Asia and Africa at the isthmus between the Red Sea and the mouth of Lake Bardawil on the Mediterranean Sea.  
> **username_2**: No there is none although all have cratons associated with them and hence the name continental cratons.  

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