Boundaries Between Continents - Europe and North America

Europe and North America

Europe and North America are separated by the North Atlantic. In terms of associating islands with either continent, the boundary is usually drawn between Greenland and Iceland. The Norwegian islands of Jan Mayen and Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean are usually associated with Europe. Iceland and the Azores are protrusions of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and are associated with and peopled from Europe, even though they have areas on the North American Plate. (Definitions of "continents" are a physical and cultural construct dating back centuries, long before the advent or even knowledge of plate tectonics; i.e., defining a "continent" falls into the realm of physical and cultural geography, while continental plate definitions fall under plate tectonics in the realm of geology.)