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Field Listing :: Geographic overview
Country
Geographic overview
World
The surface of the earth is approximately 70.9% water and
29.1% land. The former portion is divided into large water bodies
termed oceans. The World Factbook recognizes and describes five
oceans, which are in decreasing order of size: the Pacific Ocean,
Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean.
The land portion is generally divided into several, large, discrete
landmasses termed continents. Depending on the convention used, the
number of continents can vary from five to seven. The most common
classification recognizes seven, which are (from largest to
smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica,
Europe, and Australia. Asia and Europe are sometimes lumped together
into a Eurasian continent resulting in six continents.
Alternatively, North and South America are sometimes grouped as
simply the Americas, resulting in a continent total of six (or five,
if the Eurasia designation is used).
North America is commonly understood to include the island of
Greenland, the isles of the Caribbean, and to extend south all the
way to the Isthmus of Panama. The easternmost extent of Europe is
generally defined as being the Ural Mountains and the Ural River; on
the southeast the Caspian Sea; and on the south the Caucasus
Mountains, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean. Portions of
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkey fall within both
Europe and Asia, but in every instance the larger section is in
Asia. These countries are considered part of both continents.
Armenia and Cyprus, which lie completely in Western Asia, are
geopolitically European countries.
Asia usually incorporates all the islands of the Philippines,
Malaysia, and Indonesia. The islands of the Pacific are often lumped
with Australia into a "land mass" termed Oceania or Australasia.
Africa's northeast extremity is frequently delimited at the Isthmus
of Suez, but for geopolitical purposes, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula
is often included as part of Africa.
Although the above groupings are the most common, different
continental dispositions are recognized or taught in certain parts
of the world, with some arrangements more heavily based on cultural
spheres rather than physical geographic considerations.
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Field Listing :: Economy of the area administered by Turkish Cypriots
Country
Economy of the area administered by Turkish Cypriots