Since Europe and Asia is connected together, then why do we have a separate continent??

Question

When you look at the world map, you see europe and asia connect together. But why dosen't it counts as a one full continent.

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Because they have different rock shelves underneath

Answer 3

They're not on the same tectonic plates, and are two separate continents that happened to bang together with the joint line being the Ural Mountains in Russia.  There's also a land connection with Africa.

Actually, that answer is somewhat simplistic.  Asia is composed of various tectonic plates, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same could be said of Europe to a lesser degree.  The Indian subcontinent, for example, is a relatively recent addition that happened to collide with the rest of the continent.

To refer to the entire Asiatic-European landmass you can use the word Eurasia.  Whether it should "officially" count as one, two or more continents is actually unimportant.

Answer 4

KTDykes has given a good answer.  India is on the same plate as Australia, hence the common reference to the "Indian sub-continent"  Yet it abuts Asia, and is often considered part of it.

Answer 5

I believe it's due to historical and cultural reasons and nothing really to do with geology or geography. The white Indo-european nations versus the semetic and non white Asian nations.