Introduction to Continental Theory 大陆理论介绍

The world‘s land masses are divided into 7 different regions. These geographic regions are called Continents. According to the dictionary the word continent is a noun that is used to describe any of the worlds continuous land masses.

世界地面部分分为7个不同的区域，我们把这些地理分区叫做陆地。字典里对陆地的解释是：用来描述地面上连续的区域。

Africa 非洲	The second largest continent covering 30.1 million square kilometers. Africa is south of Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.	第二大陆地，面积约3.01亿平方千米，非洲位于欧洲南部，濒临大西洋和印度洋。
Antarctica 南极洲	A continent around the South Pole, situated mainly within the Antarctic Circle and almost entirely covered by ice sheets.	南极点周围的一片区域，基本位于南极圈内，由冰雪覆盖。
Asia 亚洲	The largest of the world’s continents, constituting nearly one-third of the landmass, lying entirely north of the equator except for some Southeast Asian islands.	第一大陆地，占世界陆地面积的三分之一，基本上位于赤道以北，除了部分南亚岛屿。
Europe 欧洲	A continent in the northern hemisphere, separated from Africa on the south by the Mediterranean Sea and from Asia on the east by the Bosporus, Caucasus, and Ural Mountain ranges. Europe contains approximately 10 percent of the world’s population.	位于北半球，南部由地中海与非洲隔开，东边由博斯普鲁斯海峡、高加索山脉和乌拉尔山脉与亚洲隔开，欧洲总人口约占世界人口10%。
North America 北美洲	A continent comprising the northern half of the American landmass, connected to South America by the Isthmus of Panama.	北美区域的陆地部分，由巴拿马运河与南美洲隔开。
Oceania 大洋洲	The continent that encompasses an area that includes many of the islands in the south Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas.	包括南太平洋地区周围众多岛屿。
South America 南美洲	A continent that comprises the southern half of the American landmass.	美洲地区南部区域。

In addition to the seven Continents there are 4 major oceans. Most of the earths surface is covered by these four vast oceans. 

地球表面除了7大洲还有四大洋。

Arctic Ocean 北冰洋	The ocean that surrounds the North Pole and lies within the Arctic Circle. Much of the sea is covered with pack ice throughout the year.	围绕北极点，基本位于北极圈内，全年大部分区域被冰雪覆盖。
Atlantic Ocean 大西洋	The ocean that lies between Europe and Africa on the east, and North and South America on the west. It is divided by the equator into the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic oceans.	四面濒临欧洲、非洲和南北美洲，由赤道划分为北大西洋和南大西洋。
Indian Ocean 印度洋	The ocean south of India that extends from the eastern coast of Africa to the East Indies and Australia.	印度以南，延伸到非洲和澳大利亚。
Pacific Ocean 太平洋	The largest of the world’s oceans. It is to the east of North and South American and to the west of Oceania and Asia.	世界上最大洋，以东濒临南北美洲，以西濒临亚洲和大洋洲。

Many older English text books will indicate Australia as being the southern pacific continent now referred to as Oceania. The continent of Australia included Australia and many of the surrounding islands such as New Zealand and Tasmania. Oceania became widely used in Atlases after the year 2000 as a culturally sensitive and inclusive description of the region. Oceania replaced Australia to describe the southern pacific continent in the Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.) published in 2005, and the Scholastic Atlas of the World in 2003.

在很多旧版本的英语书中把南太平洋地区的陆地部分称为澳洲，现今称作大洋洲。澳洲包括澳大利亚以及其周围众多岛屿如新西兰和塔斯马尼亚岛。自2000起，更具概括性和文化性的大洋洲一词在地图册中广泛运用起来。2005年版的牛津英语词典和2003年版的世界学术地图都用大洋洲代替了澳洲来指南太平洋地区的陆地部分。

Introduction to Plate Tectonics 板块构造论简介

The surface of the Earth’s surface is called the “crust”. The earth’s crust is the outermost layer of solid rock of a planet above the planet mantle. Even below the oceans there is a thick layer of rock which is part of the Earth’s crust. The planets “mantle” is the region between a planets outer curst and inner core. The mantle consists of hot dense molten rock.

地球表面叫做“地壳”，地壳是指位于地幔之上的由岩石组成的固体外壳，甚至海洋之下的厚厚的岩石层也是地壳的一部分。地幔位于地球外壳和内核之间，地幔是由致密的熔融岩石构成的。

Natural phenomena such as the formation of mountains, earthquakes, and tsunamis are a result of the various sections of the world‘s landmasses forming the outer curst of the earth slowly moving on top of the earths mantle which is made of molten rock. The theory that explains the movements of the land masses forming the earth’s crust is called  “Plate Tectonics”.

很多现象如山脉的形成、地震和海啸都是由于地核慢慢移出地幔中的熔融岩石引发的。这一理论我们称为“板块构造论”。

Alfred Wegener was a German researcher, meteorologist, and geophysics who is known for his achievements in advancing the theory of continental drift. His research suggested that the contents were slowly moving. In his book The Origin of Continents and Oceans, which was published in 1915, he suggested that the continents were original one large supper content that he called “Urkontinent”.

Alfred Wegener是一位德国研究者、气象学家以及地理学家，并以大陆漂移学说出名。他的研究表明，大陆是在慢慢得移动的。在他1915年出版的著作《大陆与海洋的形成》中提到，大陆原本是一个超级大的一个整体，他称之为“超大陆”。

Pangea is the name now used to describe the super content theorized in Wegener’s book. The word Pangea is derived from Greek where the translation for pan (πᾶν) means  “entire”, and Gaia (Γαῖα) meaning “Mother Earth”. 

现今，我们使用“泛大陆”一词来描述超级大陆，该词出自Wegener一书中。泛大陆一词源于希腊语，pan意为“整个”，Gaia意为“大地”。

Activity 活动

Identify the continents and oceans based on the locations provided.
根据下列提供的信息标注出大陆和海洋。

	Latitude 纬线	Longitude 经线	Answer 答案
0	50º N (北）	100º W (西）	North America
1	0º	20º E（东）	_________________
2	10º S (南）	60º W (西）	_________________
3	20º N (北）	40º W (西）	_________________
4	30º S (南）	140º E（东）	_________________
5	80º N (北）	0º	_________________
6	80º S (南）	0º	_________________
7	0º	160º W (西）	_________________
8	50º N (北）	20º E（东）	_________________
9	50º N (北）	90º E（东）	_________________
10	10º S (南）	80º E（东）	_________________

11. The book “The Origins of Continents and Oceans” was written by who?
    《大陆和海洋的形成》一书的作者是谁？

12. What does the term “Pangea” mean?
    “泛大陆”一词什么意思？

13. The theory of continental drift suggest what?
    大陆漂移学说表明什么？

14. The earths surface, including continents and oceans, forms the Earth’s?
    陆地和海洋组成地球的__?

15. The Earth’s mantle is made of what?
    地幔是由什么构成的？

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