Landmass

A landmass, or land mass, is a large region or area of land that is in one piece and not noticeably broken up by oceans. The term is often used to refer to lands surrounded by an ocean or sea, such as a continent or a large island. In the field of geology, a landmass is a defined section of continental crust extending above sea level.

Afro-Eurasia, the largest landmass on Earth

Continents are often thought of as distinct landmasses and may include any islands that are part of the associated continental shelf. When multiple continents form a single contiguous land connection, the connected continents may be viewed as a single landmass. Earth's largest landmasses are (starting with largest):

1. Afro-Eurasia (main landmass of the geoscheme region of the same name and its continental parts Africa and Eurasia, or Europe and Asia; the center of Earth's land hemisphere, comprising more than half of Earth's landmass)
2. Americas (main landmass of the geo-region of the same name and its continental parts North and South America; comprising most of the landmass of the Western Hemisphere)
3. Antarctica (main landmass of the geo-region and continent of the same name)
4. Mainland Australia (main landmass of the geo-region Oceania, its subregion Australasia, the continent Australia and the country Australia)

Continental landmasses

Generally, the continental landmasses are not all classified as islands despite being completely surrounded by water. However, because the definition of continent varies between geographers, the Americas are sometimes defined as two separate continents while mainland Australia is sometimes defined as an island as well as a continent.

Nevertheless, for the purposes of this list, mainland Australia along with the other three major landmasses have been listed as continental landmasses for comparison. The figures are approximations and are for the four continental landmasses only.

Rank	Continental landmass	Area		Nation(s)	Notes
		(km^2)	(sq mi)
I	Afro-Eurasia (Africa-Eurasia)	79,810,726	30,815,094	126 countries 6 de facto states	48 countries and two de facto states on mainland Africa. 78 countries and four de facto states on mainland Eurasia: - 38 countries and two de facto states on continental Asia. - 40 countries and two de facto states on continental Europe
II	America (landmass)	37,699,623	14,555,906	22 countries 1 overseas territory	Ten countries on mainland North America. Twelve countries and an overseas department and region of France on mainland South America.
III	Antarctica	12,272,800	4,738,600	None	Antarctica is a special case, for if its ice is considered not as land, but as water, it is not a single landmass, but several landmasses of much smaller area, since the ice-bedrock boundary is below sea level in many regions of the continent. If its ice cover were to be lifted, some rocks that are currently below sea level would rise as the weight of the ice would be removed, although this would in part be counteracted, and in some areas of the continent overtaken, by eustatic rises in sea level.
IV	Australia (landmass)	7,591,608	2,931,136	Australia	Mainland Australia is more than three times the size of Greenland, the largest island. Australia is sometimes dubbed "The Island Continent" or "Earth's largest island, but its smallest continent".

 

Dymaxion map (Fuller map) with continental landmasses (I,II,III,IV) and largest islands (1–30) roughly to scale

See also

• Coastline paradox
• Continent
  • Boundaries between the continents of Earth
• Island
  • List of islands by area
• Landform
  • Glossary of landforms
• Mainland
• Supercontinent
• Pangaea