Clearly, it’s not part of one in the same sense as Colorado is part of a continent, but does it “count” towards the size of one of the seven major continents? My friend says it has to, and he’s guessing either Australia or Asia, I say it’s just an archipeligo in the midst of the Pacific. Who’s right?
You’re right, he’s wrong. Though it is part of Oceana.
Or you could say it’s part of Australasia.
Looking at a map it is a close call. At a guess I would say Fiji is on the Pacific Plate which is not a continental plate. However, Fiji just might be on the Australian Plate. Either way it is close (Fiji would be very near the border of these two plates) but if I were betting on this I’d go for the Pacific Plate.
Fiji play in their football (or soccer if you like) in the Oceania regional football association.
Whether or not there in Oceania seems arbitary to me (though I think Oceania is usually thought of as the Pacfic Islands too).
According to this, Fiji is part of Oceania, as are also New Zealand and Australia.
“Australasia” is defined as:
So the two terms overlap. However, Fiji is not part of Australia. The terms “Oceania” and “Australasia” are for regions, not continents.
Here’s a map of the tectonic plates ( http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eastern/plates.html ). Due east of Australia is New Caledonia and souteast is New Zealand (you can see both represented on this simple map). Fiji is northeast of New Caledonia so it looks like it fits in that ‘dip’ of the Pacific Plate into the Australian Plate. Hardly surprising Fiji is near the border though as plate boundaries are great for forming islands and such.
If you want to bust your friend’s chops further tell him that Los Angeles is on the Pacific Plate along with Fiji (which is why LA will someday end-up by San Francisco). Even parts of major continents aren’t necessarily part of the continent you’d think it would be.
New Zealand is half on the Australian Plate and half on the Pacific Plate.
A recent thread on a similar topic may be of interest: Is Hawaii considered part of North America?
The OP tends to dsemonstrate one of the quirks of human intelligence, specifically, the dichotomy of lumpers and splitters. The friend claims that Fiji “must” be part of a continent, so we go out looking for tectonic plates to see which on continent it might be located.
Yet, the whole notion of continents is purely an arbitrary (if sometimes useful) creation. Many people divide Eurasia into Europe and Asia, quite appropriate for the Greeks who gave the names Europe, Asia, and Africa to the lands separated by the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara, and Black seas or the Mediterranean and Red seas, but rather silly when a world map is viewed. Similarly, many Europeans consider “the Americas” to be a single continent, although few people in the Western hemisphere (another human construction) would agree.
I’ll throw my opinion onto the Fiji is not “part” of any continent. If a continent is a large land mass, going about adding up distant islands to “add” to it seems to defeat the definition.
YMMV, obviously.
Yes, correct. Parts of the continental Americas are similarly split. But – so? Since when does “tectonic plate” equal “continent”?