REFERENCE BASE
LANDMASS

O.T. FORD

A landmass is a continuous unit of dry land, surrounded on all sides by water. The distinction between continents (large) and islands (small) is arbitrary and unsustainable. The term ‘continent’ is also applied conventionally to parts of larger landmasses, notably Europe, which has nothing objectively in common with Antarctica or Australia, but was singled out by its own inhabitants for cultural reasons.

The largest landmasses in the world, in order, are:

1. The Old World (Afro-Eurasia) 2. The New World (America, the Americas) 3. Antarctica 4. Australia 5. Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) 6. New Guinea (Papua) 7. Borneo (Kalimantan) 8. Madagascar (Madagasikara) 9. Baffin (ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ « Qikiqta:luk ») 10. Sumatra (Sumatera)

11. Honshu (本州 « Hon-sijuu ») 12. Victoria (Kitlineq) 13. Britain 14. Ellesmere (ᐅᒥᖕᒪᒃ ᓄᓇ « Umiŋmak Nuna ») 15. Sulawesi 16. South New Zealand 17. Java (Jawa) 18. North New Zealand 19. Luzon (Kalusunan) 20. Newfoundland

It can be argued that the Suez Canal effectively divides the Old World into two landmasses, and the Panamá Canal does the same with the New World. There are two issues with this. The first is that canal locks are isolated boxes of water, sometimes temporary, and thus quite different from the water that divides other landmasses. The second is that the canals themselves, even if constituting real waterways that divide their respective landmasses, are traversed by bridges: artificial land over artificial waterways. Taking these points together, the canals are not sufficient to consider the lands on either side discontinuous.

The most populous landmasses in the world, in order, are:

1. The Old World (Afro-Eurasia) 2. The New World (America, the Americas) 3. Java (Jawa) 4. Honshu (本州 « Hon-sijuu ») 5. Britain 6. Luzon (Kalusunan) 7. Sumatra (Sumatera) 8. Taiwan (臺灣 / 台灣 / 台湾 « Tai35 Uan35 » / « T‛ai35 Uan5 ») 9. Australia 10. Sri Lanka (ශ්‍රී ලංකා « Śrī Lãkā » / இலங்கை « Ilaŋkæ ») 11. Borneo (Kalimantan) 12. Madagascar (Madagasikara) 13. Mindanao (Mindanaw) 14. Hispaniola (Ispayola / Española) 15. Sulawesi 16. Salsette (साष्टी « Sāstī ») 17. Kyushu (九州 « Kijuu-sijuu ») 18. Cuba 19. New Guinea (Papua) 20. Hainan (海南 « Hai53 Lam35 » / « Xai214 Nan35 »)

© O.T. FORD