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The Earth: Shape and Size-Continents of the Earth

The shape of the Earth is “Oblate Spheroid”. The continents of the Earth are “Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia”.

The shape of the Earth is not exactly round, rather is spherical in shape. The Earth is looking round according to the viewpoint of the people of the world. It is almost like an ellipsoid. The Earth is also like an “oblate spheroid”. The shape and interior decoration of the Earth are quite complex. Most of the Geologists saw the three layers in the Earth. Those three layers are- “the dense core, the bulky mantle, and the brittle crust”. The continents of the world are like the different divisions of the land on Earth. The continents are “Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia”.        

Continents of World

When the geologists find the continents and recognize them, then they connect the continents with the island of the Earth. The continents of the Earth covered almost “148 million square kilometres” of land. These continents do not cover all the lands of the Earth. There is a small part of the island that is not included in the continents. The oceans are doubled in size from the continents. Each continent covered an ocean. The lists of continents from bigger to smaller are like “Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia”. The Earth was built 4.6 billion years ago. It was built from “swirling clouds, gas, and dust”. The continents looked different “480 million” years ago, and they were “scattered chunks of lands lying along the south of the equator”. Most of the lands were connected together in a huge continent, “240 million” years ago.

The continents of the world take many shapes for mountain building, undermining, weather disintegrating, and many more situations or conditions. Sometimes, the water of the ocean can make a huge change and downpour the continents. Then the water automatically dried. The land above sea level is almost 838 metres. All the continents have rivers, mountains, forests, and they all are unique in shape and size. The continents are divided into two parts of basic features. One is “old, geologically stable regions”, and another one is “younger, somewhat more active regions”. A collision named “Himalaya” in Asia was built some million years ago. The Himalayas are growing taller than before every year.              

Shape of the Earth

The shape of the Earth is like a sphere from space. It is recognized as the tropical diameter of the Earth is more than its Siberian diameter of Earth. The tropical diameter is 43.5 kilometres away from the Siberian diameter. That is why the Earth is not exactly a sphere; rather, it is named as “Geoid”. Earth has a calculated mass of “5.9736*1024 kg.” and its volume is “108.321*1010 km3”.     

The process of beginning life on the Earth

There is no particular time when life entered the Earth when the Earth was built at that time, and life had come. Life had come into the Earth by “a series of progressive chemical reactions”. These reactions require more improved reactions to build a life. The first life that proved its presence on the Earth was almost “3.7 billion years ago”, and it was microbes. This microbe was a carbon molecule that was produced “by living things”. The stages of life on the Earth are of four types, and those are “the Hadean, the Archean, the Proterozoic, and the Phanerozoic”.           

The formation of the Earth

The Earth was formed from the “swirling clouds, gases, and dust”. When the Earth was formed, the solar system was settled to its current conditions “4.5 billion years ago”. The Earth was built when gravity attracted “the gases and dust” to form a “third planet from the sun”. Like other planets, the Earth has its “central core, rocky mantle, and a solid crust”. There are two theories by which the Earth was formed. One is “the core accretion model”, and another one is “the disk instability model”.  

Tectonics of Earth

Plate tectonics is a theory that covers the outer shell of the Earth, and it is divided into “large slabs of solid rocks” and its named plates. The tectonics of the Earth is divided into small and large plates, and it depends on their size. The seven large plates cover 95% of the surface of the Earth. The seven large plates are- “African, Antarctic, Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, Pacific, and South American”.        

Climate change on the Earth

Climate change of the Earth is like changing the weather. The atmosphere of the Earth is heated up day by day, and thus the Earth collects and drops water and also changes the weather. This process also makes the “dry areas drier” and the “wet areas wetter”. When climate change happens on the Earth, it occurs as “storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers”. 

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is clear that the shape of the Earth is not exactly a sphere. It is called “Oblate spheroid” because of the difference between its tropical diameters and Siberian diameters. The continents of the Earth were built almost the initial stage of when the Earth was formed. The continents of the Earth are “Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia”. Here the discussion covers some of the very important topics about the Earth, and those are like when life began on the Earth and also the tectonics of the Earth. It also covers how the Earth formed. 

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Frequently asked questions

Get answers to the most common queries related to the SSC Examination Preparation.

What are the continents of the world?

Ans. The seven continents of the world are- “Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia”.

What is the shape of the Earth?

Ans. The shape of the Earth is an “oblate spheroid”.

Which continent is the biggest?

Ans. The biggest continent is Asia.