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

Lukraak_Sisser said:
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?
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Geology is the correct field, not archaeology. It wasn't always the case, and the coincidence is just that humankind evolved when the continents were in their present configuration.
 
casebro said:
But aren't you all ignoring Antarctic that balances the rest?
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No. Antarctica is not an especially big continent. That plus Australia plus most of South America plus a relatively low fraction of Africa does not outweigh the combination of Eurasia, North America, most of Africa, and a fragment of South America. In fact it's about a ratio of 2:1, a wide enough difference to easily see by eye.

North
South

casebro said:
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.
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It would still be true that the northern hemisphere has most of the crust's conspicuously thick area and the southern hemisphere has most of its conspicuously thin area.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
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.
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I said smoother as I thought the world not round becaise spinning, so oblate but smooth.
 
The Continents: Land Area

Of the 7 major continents, 3 lie entirely in the Northern Hemisphere (Asia, North America, and Europe), 2 lie entirely in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia and Antarctica) and 2 straddle the equator (Africa and South America).

There isn't any real "reason" other than that just happens to be the way it is at this particular moment in geologic history. It was not always thus.
 
rjh01 said:
This map shows that the shortest route between Perth and South Africa is via India.
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In the sideways world that is true just like Campbell Mushroom soup is the base for an authentic curry.
 
Smoother is absolutely the right word.

The Earth's radius is 6,371km, so we're looking at a diameter of just under 13,000 km. Mount Everest is just under 9km tall. It's 0.07% of the diameter of the ball.

A billiards ball is up to 57mm in diameter, and 0.07% of that is 0.04mm, i.e., 40 microns. No, you wouldn't feel that with your thumb at all.
 
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