Why is the World's Land Mass mostly in the North?

[Vixen]

Why is the larger part of the world's land mass mostly in the north?


Credit for map: You are free to use the above map for educational and similar purposes (fair use); please refer to the Nations Online Project.

The Americas
The two continents of the Americas, North America, with the world's largest island Greenland, and South America. The Isthmus of Panama connects North and South America.

Africa
The continent of Africa, which includes Madagascar, the fourth-largest island on the planet.

Eurasia
The continent of Eurasia, which is home to the geopolitical entities of Europe and Asia. The most conventional borders between Europe and Asia are along the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains, and at the Bosporus (Strait of Istanbul).

Asia is further subdivided into the Middle East (Western Asia), Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Maritime Southeast Asia. Asia includes the subcontinents of Arabia (Arabian Peninsula) and India.

Australia/Oceania
Oceania isn't a real continent, a contiguous area of land surrounded by ocean. Oceania is a geographic region that includes the scattered islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean, plus Australasia, a vague term used to describe the combined area of Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea (island). Australia is considered to be an island country and a continent situated in the southern hemisphere.

Antarctica
Antarctica, as a continent is, in many ways, an exception. Earth's southernmost continent is currently uninhabited, beside a handful of hard-boiled scientists, which share the place with emperor penguins, New Zealand sea lions, and elephant seals. The climate is very hostile to almost any kind of life. It is the coldest, windiest, highest (on average), and driest continent. Mount Vinson is the highest mountain in Antarctica, at 4,892 meters (16,050 feet). On the surface of the continent, no crops will grow on its frozen four kilometer-thick ice sheet.

Arctic
The northernmost point of the Earth, the North Pole, where the Earth's axis meets the surface, is not located on a landmass, but on the Arctic polar ice cap, the surface of the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean. Therefore, the Arctic is not considered to be a continent. Parts of the northern regions of Europe, Asia (Russia), and North America (Canada and Greenland) are located within the Arctic Circle.

I am guessing it is to do with how the earth spins on its axis?

Distribution of landmasses of the Paleo-Earth. Our planet shows different features as it rotates along its axis, sometimes dominated by land and others by ocean. Land areas are distributed predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere (68%) relative to the Southern Hemisphere (32%) as divided by the equator.

PHL

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

they are now. I'm not familiar enough with archaeology to know if this always was the case, for all we know it's just coincidence?

 

[Sideroxylon]

Why should we expect a balanced distribution?

 

[sphenisc]

Centrifugal force. The dense, heavy basaltic rocks of the sea floor are thrown outwards towards the rim, so the lighter rocks of the continental land masses float in towards the centre.

 

[theprestige]

Why is the larger part of the world's land mass mostly in the north?

At this point in time, or in general?

You're basically looking at a photograph of Tom Cruise running, and asking why he's always hopping around on his left foot while his right foot dangles in front of him.

 

[Norman Alexander]

The oceans actually take up almost no relative thickness on the Earth's surface. And the highest mountains and deepest abysses are also miniscule by comparison to the Earth's radius. They are little more than surface wrinkles. The whole crust is less than 1% of the globe's radius, and that is where continents float. Apart from some centrifugal forces, it is fairly random.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

they are now. I'm not familiar enough with archaeology to know if this always was the case, for all we know it's just coincidence?

It hasn't and coincidence is likely.

 

[Agatha]

Nuna (2500 - 1500 mya) was about 60% north and 40% south, Gondwanaland (550 mya - 180 mya) was mostly in the southern hemisphere, Pangaea (335 mya - 175 mya) roughly equal. Stuff is constantly moving and shifting, and in a few more million years it will all look different again.

 

[casebro]

But aren't you all ignoring Antarctic that balances the rest?

 

[casebro]

Also don't see why oceans should define continents. Ignore the oceans, and the concept of land mass, and things look different. Continents are each surrounded by other continents. "Landmass" is an artifact of water filling the low spots.

 

[theprestige]

But aren't you all ignoring Antarctic that balances the rest?

I don't know. Are we?

Also don't see why oceans should define continents. Ignore the oceans, and the concept of land mass, and things look different. Continents are each surrounded by other continents. "Landmass" is an artifact of water filling the low spots.

Defining the continents by the oceans makes a ton of sense in terms of human experience and effort.

That said, different definitions make sense in different scenarios. To certain kinds of physicists, every element heavier than hydrogen counts as a metal.

Edited by zooterkin: 

<SNIP>
Response to post moved to AAH snipped.

 

[Sideroxylon]

Shouldn’t everything fall down to the bottom?

 

[The Atheist]

The oceans actually take up almost no relative thickness on the Earth's surface. And the highest mountains and deepest abysses are also miniscule by comparison to the Earth's radius. They are little more than surface wrinkles. The whole crust is less than 1% of the globe's radius, and that is where continents float. Apart from some centrifugal forces, it is fairly random.

We did a comparison a while back and if you shrink the earth to the size of a billiard ball, it would miss the tolerances by an incredibly small margin. It's as close to a sphere as you can get without some serious equipment

 

[Samson]

The oceans actually take up almost no relative thickness on the Earth's surface. And the highest mountains and deepest abysses are also miniscule by comparison to the Earth's radius. They are little more than surface wrinkles. The whole crust is less than 1% of the globe's radius, and that is where continents float. Apart from some centrifugal forces, it is fairly random.

Including Everest and Marinaras trench the world is smoother than a billiard ball.

Eta Atheist beat me. Ouch

 

[theprestige]

We did a comparison a while back and if you shrink the earth to the size of a billiard ball, it would miss the tolerances by an incredibly small margin. It's as close to a sphere as you can get without some serious equipment

I still feel like you should be able to find Mt Everest or the Mariana Trench on a billiard-sized Earth by running your thumb over it. Or by licking it.

 

[Dr. Keith]

I figured all the water was just running down to the bottom.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

Including Everest and Marinaras trench the world is smoother than a billiard ball.

Eta Atheist beat me. Ouch

It's rounder, not smoother. Earth has imperfections you could feel on that scale. You didn't quite say the same thing as The Atheist.

 

[Hans]

A 3:18 minute long review of the shifting of the continents to now and 100 million years in the future:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGcDed4xVD4

 

[alfaniner]

What if we've had the maps upside-down all this time?

 

[theprestige]

Argentina has entered the chat.