National Geographic now recognizes The Southern Ocean

Re:National Geographic now recognizes The Southern Ocean by bshimmin on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @09:00AM (#27447363)

My 7-year-old came home recently with several maps with a continent on them marked, variously, either as "Australia" or "Oceania". My wife and I were both confused since we had been taught that this was called "Australasia". Apparently people don't call it that nowadays!

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Re:National Geographic now recognizes The Southern Ocean by coldtea on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @09:43AM (#27447728)

A lot of these divisions and names are country or culture-specific.

Asian countries call those one way, European another, the US a different, some countries prefer their own, etc.

As the Wikipedia entry below says e.g.:

"Australasia is a region which comprises Australia, New Zealand, and some neighbouring islands. The term is used in a number of different contexts including geopolitically, physiogeographically, and ecologically where the term covers several slightly different but related regions."

This include continents, which, depending on the context, country, etc can be seen as being anywhere from 4 to 7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Separation

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Re:National Geographic now recognizes The Southern Ocean by soneca on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @09:13AM (#27447481)

Never heard of Australasia. It was always Oceania for me. I am 42 yo

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Re:National Geographic now recognizes The Southern Ocean by have_faith on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @09:29AM (#27447616)

I don't think I've thought of the name Oceania outside of references to 1984 (the book). I knew the word didn't originate from there but it's all I think of when I hear the term used.

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Re:National Geographic now recognizes The Southern Ocean by kmlx on Wednesday June 09, 2021 @09:20AM (#27447544)

Australasia is still a thing today: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasia

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