Question

Africa is the second largest continent after ____________.

Answer 1

Hint: Continents are a category of a large landmass that is ideally separated by water. However, at present, some continents are joined by land in a way. There are seven continents in the world—Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica. Six of these except for Antarctica are widely inhabited.

Complete Answer:Africa is the second-largest continent based on area as it covers 30.37 million sq. km. The largest continent based on area is Asia which covers 44.57 million sq. km. The smallest continent based on area is Australia which covers 8.6 million sq. km. Asia is also the most populated continent on earth with a population of 4.5 billion which is almost 60% of the world’s population. Following Asia, Africa is the second most populated continent in the world with a population of 1.2 billion and 17% of the total world’s population. Antarctica, being a virtually inhabitable continent, is the least populated one with a population of merely 4490.

So, the answer to this question is Asia.

Note: The continental drift theory was proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 but records show that a similar theory was first put forth in 1596 by a dutch map maker named Abraham Ortelius. The theory posits that all the continents were originally one single continental mass or supercontinent called Pangea which was surrounded by a mega ocean called Panthalassa. This supercontinent broke up about 200 million years ago to form two giant continents, Gondwana and Laurasia forming the southern and northern modules respectively. Later, Gondwanaland and Laurasia continued to break into several smaller continents that exist today.