this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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That's exactly what happens to me when I tell them America is a continent. Like, WTF?
So is America one or two continents? Our US schools call them North America and South America despite being connected as a single land mass.
The other fun one to spring on we United States of America citizens if that the full and proper name of Mexico is "The United Mexican States". Having Mexico have a name and a similar idea of states forming a union, but not bring the USA doing it really bugs people here.
America is indeed two continents, North and South. Continents aren't just connected land masses, they are the major tectonic plates that the earths crust is divided into. North America is on the North American plate, South America on the South American plate.
There ARE some interesting facts on this though. Unlike NA and SA, which ARE distinct continents, Europe and Asia genuinely are NOT separate continents; both are contained on the absolutely massive Eurasian tectonic plate(NA plate is technically bigger, but a lot of it's in the ocean). Another fun fact is that the absolute most north-eastern part of Siberia is technically part of North America.