# Since when is China larger than Canada (territory) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423 "2003-01-03T15:17:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423/41 "2017-01-03T14:30:04Z")
I am a rock. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423/42 "2017-01-03T15:41:39Z")
Just to follow up on **Martin Hyde’s** post above, the water in question is indeed [internal fresh water](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_area). So by the common-sense definition of size of a country, we remain second! ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423/43 "2017-01-03T17:30:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Personally, I don’t know why more general-purpose maps don’t use the Goode-Holosine projection, or something similarly interrupted. Oh, so you’re one of [_those_](http://xkcd.com/977/) people! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423/44 "2017-01-03T20:25:19Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > In the case of Greenland, [isostatic rebound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound) from the loss of the ice will counter most of the sea level rise. Well, except that Antarctica will also be melting and confounding the situation. Not that it matters that much – this is not going to be prime real estate any time soon, even if not submerged. Except the melting and the isostatic rebound occur on very different timescales. Greenland might lose all its ice in a thousand years or two. Full isostatic rebound is 100’s of thousands of years later. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423/45 "2017-01-03T21:01:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Except the melting and the isostatic rebound occur on very different timescales. > > Greenland might lose all its ice in a thousand years or two. Full isostatic rebound is 100’s of thousands of years later. Well, yes, I was going to go into that, but then I realized that Antarctica melting would make it mostly moot. However, the rebound will happen in two stages. The first is fairly fast and is because the crust straightens out, more or less. Crustal rock apparently has a certain amount of elasticity which causes this. The second is the long term flow of mantle material back under the area that was glaciated and that’s the part that takes thousands of years. I’m not sure of the relative magnitude of the two, but I think they’re roughly the same. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423/46 "2017-01-03T22:14:10Z")
Is Australia a continent or an island? Well, that depends on what you mean by “Australia”. “Australia” can mean the country, or it can be the main island of that country (i.e., roughly the country without the island state of Tasmania), or it can be the continent which includes the country, and which also includes the island of New Guinea (described in the Wiki article on [Australia (continent)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_(continent))). So, yes, Australia is both an island and a continent – but it’s slightly different Australias in those two cases, and neither case is the country of the Commonwealth of Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423/47 "2017-01-04T01:16:02Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Is Australia a continent or an island? Well, that depends on what you mean by “Australia”. “Australia” can mean the country, or it can be the main island of that country (i.e., roughly the country without the island state of Tasmania), or it can be the continent which includes the country, and which also includes the island of New Guinea (described in the Wiki article on [Australia (continent)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_(continent))). So, yes, Australia is both an island and a continent – but it’s slightly different Australias in those two cases, and neither case is the country of the Commonwealth of Australia. No its not an island. Its the mainland of the Australian continental plate. That there’s other definitions of “the australian continent” that you then suggests makes Australia an Island is spurious … the same argument could apply to the americas… hey they aren’t continents, its just a collection of islands !. Antarctica ? its an island ? Where does it stop ? Africa to Asia ? hey thats an island ! The earth’s land is composed of islands, there are no such thing as continents except in plate tectonic theory ? No … Australia ,the mainland , is not an island, and anything smaller is. It works. What doesn’t work with the definition of continents is Europe and Asia…is that one or two ? (or more… India and Arabia not obeying.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/since-when-is-china-larger-than-canada-territory/146423.md?page=2)