Asia

The world’s largest and most diverse continent. It occupies the eastern four-fifths of the giant Eurasian
landmass. Asia is more a geographic term than a homogeneous continent, and the use of the term to describe such
a vast area always carries the potential of obscuring the enormous diversity among the regions it encompasses. Asia
has both the highest and the lowest points on the surface of Earth, has the longest coastline of any continent, is
subject overall to the world’s widest climatic extremes, and, consequently, produces the most varied forms of
vegetation and animal life on Earth. In addition, the peoples of Asia have established the broadest variety of
human adaptation found on any of the continents. The name Asia is ancient, and its origin has been variously
explained. The Greeks used it to designate the lands situated to the east of their homeland. It is believed that the
name may be derived from the Assyrian word asu, meaning “east.” Another possible explanation is that it was
originally a local name given to the plains of Ephesus, which ancient Greeks and Romans extended to refer first
to Anatolia (contemporary Asia Minor, which is the western extreme of mainland Asia), and then to the known world
east of the Mediterranean Sea.
When Western explorers reached South and East Asia in early modern times, they extended that label to
the whole of the immense landmass. Asia is bounded by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Pacific Ocean to
the east, the Indian Ocean to the south, the Red Sea (as well as the inland seas of the Atlantic Ocean—
the Mediterranean and the Black) to the southwest, and Europe to the west. Asia is separated from North
America to the northeast by the Bering Strait and from Australia to the southeast by the seas and straits
connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans. The Isthmus of Suez unites Asia with Africa, and it is generally
agreed that the Suez Canal forms the border between them. Two narrow straits, the Bosporus and
the Dardanelles, separate Anatolia from the Balkan Peninsula. he land boundary between Asia and Europe
is a historical and cultural construct that has been defined variously; only as a matter of agreement is it tied
to a specific borderline. The most convenient geographic boundary—one that has been adopted by most
geographers—is a line that runs south from the Arctic Ocean along the Ural Mountains and then turns
southwest along the Emba River to the northern shore of the Caspian Sea; west of the Caspian, the
boundary follows the Kuma-Manych Depression to the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait of the Black Sea.
Thus, the isthmus between the Black and Caspian seas, which culminates in the Caucasus mountain range
to the south, is part of Asia.
The total area of Asia, including Asian Russia (with the Caucasian isthmus) but excluding the island
of New Guinea, amounts to some 17,226,200 square miles (44,614,000 square km), roughly one-third of
the land surface of Earth. The islands—including Taiwan, those of Japan and Indonesia, Sakhalin and
other islands of Asian Russia, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, and numerous smaller islands—
together constitute 1,240,000 square miles (3,210,000 square km), about 7 percent of the total. (Although
New Guinea is mentioned occasionally in this article, it generally is not considered a part of Asia.) The
farthest terminal points of the Asian mainland are Cape Chelyuskin in north-central Siberia, Russia (77°43′
N), to the north; the tip of the Malay Peninsula, Cape Piai, or Bulus (1°16′ N), to the south; Cape Baba
in Turkey (26°4′ E) to the west; and Cape Dezhnev (Dezhnyov), or East Cape (169°40′ W), in northeastern
Siberia, overlooking the Bering Strait, to the east.
Asia has the highest average elevation of the continents and contains the greatest relative relief.
The tallest peak in the world, Mount Everest, which reaches an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850
metres; see Researcher’s Note: Height of Mount Everest); the lowest place on Earth’s land surface,
the Dead Sea, measured in the mid-2010s at about 1,410 feet (430 metres) below sea level; and the world’s
deepest continental trough, occupied by Lake Baikal, which is 5,315 feet (1,620 metres) deep and whose
bottom lies 3,822 feet (1,165 metres) below sea level, are all located in Asia. Those physiographic extremes
and the overall predominance of mountain belts and plateaus are the result of the collision of tectonic plates.
In geologic terms, Asia comprises several very ancient continental platforms and other blocks of
land that merged over the eons. Most of those units had coalesced as a continental landmass by about 160
million years ago, when the core of the Indian subcontinent broke off from Africa and began drifting
northeastward to collide with the southern flank of Asia about 50 million to 40 million years ago. The
northeastward movement of the subcontinent continues at about 2.4 inches (6 cm) per year. The impact
and pressure continue to raise the Plateau of Tibet and the Himalayas. Asia’s coastline—some 39,000
miles (62,800 km) in length—is, variously, high and mountainous, low and alluvial, terraced as a result of
the land’s having been uplifted, or “drowned” where the land has subsided. The specific features of the
coastline in some areas—especially in the east and southeast—are the result of active volcanism; thermal
abrasion of permafrost (caused by a combination of the action of breaking waves and thawing), as in
northeastern Siberia; and coral growth, as in the areas to the south and southeast. Accreting sandy beaches
also occur in many areas, such as along the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Thailand.
Asia’s population is unevenly distributed, mainly because of climatic factors. There is a
concentration of population in western Asia as well as great concentrations in the Indian subcontinent and
the eastern half of China. There are also appreciable concentrations in the Pacific borderlands and on the
islands, but vast areas of Central and North Asia—whose forbidding climates limit agricultural productivity—
have remained sparsely populated. Nonetheless, Asia, the most populous of the continents, contains some
three-fifths of the world’s people. Asia is the birthplace of all the world’s major religions
Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism— and of many minor ones. Of those, only
Christianity developed primarily outside of Asia; it exerts little influence on the continent, though many Asian
countries have Christian minorities. Buddhism has had a greater impact outside its birthplace in India and
is prevalent in various forms in China, South Korea, Japan, the Southeast Asian countries, and Sri Lanka.
Islam has spread out of Arabia eastward to South and Southeast Asia. Hinduism has been mostly confined
to the Indian subcontinent.
Asia is not only Earth’s largest continent but also its youngest and structurally most-complicated
one. Although Asia’s evolution began almost four billion years ago, more than half of the continent remains
seismically active, and new continental material is currently being produced in the island arc systems that
surround it to the east and southeast. In such places, new land is continuously emerging and is added to
the bulk of the continent by episodic collisions of the island arcs with the mainland. Asia also contains the
greatest mountain mass on Earth’s surface: the Plateau of Tibet and the bordering mountains of
the Himalayas, Karakoram Range, Hindu Kush, Pamirs, Kunlun Mountains, and Tien Shan. By virtue of its
enormous size and relative youth, Asia contains many of the morphological extremes of Earth’s land
surface—such as its highest and lowest points, longest coastline, and largest area of continental shelf.
Asia’s immense mountain ranges, varied coastline, and vast continental plains and basins have had a
profound effect on the course of human history. The fact that Asia produces vast quantities of fossil fuels—
petroleum, natural gas, and coal—in addition to being a significant contributor to the global production of
many minerals (e.g., about three-fifths of the world’s tin) heavily underlines the importance of its geology
for the welfare of the world’s population.

Australia
The smallest continent and one of the largest countries on Earth, lying between
the Pacific and Indian oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia’s capital is Canberra, located in the
southeast between the larger and more important economic and cultural centres of Sydney and Melbourne.
The Australian mainland extends from west to east for nearly 2,500 miles (4,000 km) and from Cape York
Peninsula in the northeast to Wilsons Promontory in the southeast for nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km). To
the south, Australian jurisdiction extends a further 310 miles (500 km) to the southern extremity of the island
of Tasmania, and in the north it extends to the southern shores of Papua New Guinea. Australia is
separated from Indonesia to the northwest by the Timor and Arafura seas, from Papua New Guinea to the
northeast by the Coral Sea and the Torres Strait, from the Coral Sea Islands Territory by the Great Barrier
Reef, from New Zealand to the southeast by the Tasman Sea, and from Antarctica in the far south by
the Indian Ocean.
Australia has been called “the Oldest Continent,” “the Last of Lands,” and “the Last Frontier.” Those
descriptions typify the world’s fascination with Australia, but they are somewhat unsatisfactory. In simple
physical terms, the age of much of the continent is certainly impressive—most of the rocks providing the
foundation of Australian landforms were formed during Precambrian and Paleozoic time (some 4.6 billion
to 252 million years ago)—but the ages of the cores of all the continents are approximately the same. On
the other hand, whereas the landscape history of extensive areas in Europe and North America has been
profoundly influenced by events and processes that occurred since late in the last Ice Age—roughly the
past 25,000 years—in Australia scientists use a more extensive timescale that takes into account the great
antiquity of the continent’s landscape.
Australia is the last of lands only in the sense that it was the last continent, apart from Antarctica,
to be explored by Europeans. At least 60,000 years before European explorers sailed into the South Pacific,
the first Aboriginal explorers had arrived from Asia, and by 20,000 years ago they had spread throughout
the mainland and its chief island outlier, Tasmania. When Captain Arthur Phillip of the British Royal
Navy landed with the First Fleet at Botany Bay in 1788, there may have been between 250,000 and 500,000
Aboriginals, though some estimates are much higher. Largely nomadic hunters and gatherers, the
Aboriginals had already transformed the primeval landscape, principally by the use of fire, and, contrary to
common European perceptions, they had established robust, semipermanent settlements in well-favoured
localities. The American-style concept of a national “frontier” moving outward along a line of settlement is
also inappropriate. There was, rather, a series of comparatively independent expansions from the margins
of the various colonies, which were not joined in an independent federated union until 1901.
Frontier metaphors were long employed to suggest the existence of yet another extension of Europe and
especially of an outpost of Anglo-Celtic culture in the distant “antipodes.” The most striking characteristics
of the vast country are its global isolation, its low relief, and the aridity of much of its surface. If, like the
English novelist D.H. Lawrence, visitors from the Northern Hemisphere are at first overwhelmed by “the
vast, uninhabited land and by the grey charred bush…so phantom-like, so ghostly, with its tall, pale trees
and many dead trees, like corpses,” they should remember that to Australians the bush—that sparsely
populated Inland or Outback beyond the Great Dividing Range of mountains running along the Pacific coast
and separating it from the cities in the east—is familiar and evokes nostalgia. It still retains some of the
mystical quality it had for the first explorers searching for inland seas and great rivers, and it remains a
symbol of Australia’s strength and independence; the Outback poem by A.B. (“Banjo”) Paterson, “Waltzing
Matilda,” is the unofficial national anthem of Australia known the world over.
Australia’s isolation from other continents explains much of the singularity of its plant and animal
life. Its unique flora and fauna include hundreds of kinds of eucalyptus trees and the only egg-laying
mammals on Earth, the platypus and echidna. Other plants and animals associated with Australia are
various acacias (Acacia pycnantha [golden wattle] is the national flower) and dingoes, kangaroos, koalas,
and kookaburras. The Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of Queensland, is the greatest mass of coral
in the world and one of the world’s foremost tourist attractions. The country’s low relief results from the long
and extensive erosive action of the forces of wind, rain, and the heat of the sun during the great periods
of geologic time when the continental mass was elevated well above sea level.
Australia has a federal form of government, with a national government for the Commonwealth of
Australia and individual state governments (those of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South
Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania). Each state has a constitution, and its government exercises
a limited degree of sovereignty. There are also two internal territories: Northern Territory, established as
a self-governing territory in 1978, and the Australian Capital Territory (including the city of Canberra), which
attained self-governing status in 1988. The federal authorities govern the external territories of Norfolk
Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Ashmore and Cartier islands, the Coral Sea Islands,
and Heard Island and McDonald Islands and claim the Australian Antarctic Territory, an area larger than
Australia itself. Papua New Guinea, formerly an Australian external territory, gained its independence in
1975.
The earliest known manifestations of the geologic record of the Australian continent are 4.4-billion-year-old
detrital grains of zircon in metasedimentary rocks that were deposited from 3.7 to 3.3 billion years ago. Based on that
and other findings, the Precambrian rocks in Australia have been determined to range in age from about 3.7 billion to
541 million years (i.e., to the end of Precambrian time). They are succeeded by rocks of the Paleozoic Era, which
extended to about 252 million years ago; of the Mesozoic Era, which lasted until about 66 million years ago; and of
the Cenozoic Era, the past 66 million years. For millions of years Australia was part of the supercontinent
of Pangaea and subsequently its southern segment, Gondwanaland (or Gondwana). Its separate existence was finally
assured by the severing of the last connection between Tasmania and Antarctica, but it has been drifting toward the
Southeast Asian landmass. As a continent, Australia thus encompasses two extremes: on the one hand, it contains the
oldest known earth material while, on the other, it has stood as a free continent only since about 35 million years ago
and is in the process—in terms of geologic time—of merging with Asia, so that its life span as a continent will be of
relatively short duration.