Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere[1][2] is a geographical term for the half of the earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, UK) and east of the antimeridian, the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.[3]
In this sense, the Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, the western portions of Europe and Africa, the extreme eastern tip of Russia, numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland.
In an effort to define the Western Hemisphere as the parts of the world which are not part of the Old World, there also exist projections which use the 20th meridian west and the diametrically opposed 160th meridian east to define the hemisphere.[4][5] This projection excludes the European and African mainlands and a small portion of northeast Greenland, but includes more of eastern Russia and Oceania.
The population of the geographical Western Hemisphere exceeds 1 billion. Of the four hemispheres, only the Southern Hemisphere is less populated.
The highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere is Aconcagua in the Andes of Argentina at 6,960.8 metres (22,837 ft). [6]
Contents
Countries in both hemispheres[edit]
Below is a list of the countries which are in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres on the IERS Reference Meridian, in order from north to south:
Denmark (due to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; mainland Denmark lies entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere).
Norway (due to Jan Mayen; mainland Norway lies entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere).
United Kingdom
Netherlands (The islands of the Netherlands Antilles lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere while the European Netherlands lies entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere).
France
Spain
Algeria
Mali
Burkina Faso
Togo
Ghana
Below is a list of the countries which are in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres along the 180th meridian, in order from north to south:
Russia
United States (United States islands)
Kiribati
Tuvalu- Wallis and Futuna (France)
Fiji
New Zealand (Kermadec and Chatham Island groups are east of the 180th meridian)
Countries in the Western Hemisphere but not in the Americas[edit]
The following nations lie outside the Americas yet are partially or entirely within the Western Hemisphere.
- Algeria
American Samoa (United States of America)- Burkina Faso
Cape Verde
Cook Islands
Faroe Islands (Denmark)- Fiji
- France (Metropolitan)
Gambia- Ghana
Greenland (Denmark) (note: geographically a part of North America, but politically a part of Europe[7][8])
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Iceland
Ireland
Ivory Coast- Kiribati
Liberia- Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Niue
Portugal- Russia
Samoa
Senegal
Sierra Leone- Spain
- Togo
Tokelau (New Zealand)
Tonga- Tuvalu
- United Kingdom
Sources[edit]
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd ed.), London, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 2001
- ^ "Western /western%20hemisphere", Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary (based on Collegiate vol., 11th ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2006
- ^ Britannica
- ^ Olson, Judy M (1997), "Projecting the hemisphere", in Robinson, Arthur H; Snyder, John P, Matching the map projection to the need, Bethesda, MD: Cartography and Geographic Information Society, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping External link in
|title=(help). - ^ "Western Hemisphere", Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2001, p. 1294.
- ^ "Informe científico que estudia el Aconcagua, el Coloso de América mide 6960,8 metros" [Scientific Report on Aconcagua, the Colossus of America measures 6960,8m] (in Spanish). Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2012.
- ^ "Greenland". eldey.de.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". nationalgeographic.co.uk.
External links[edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Western Hemisphere. |
Coordinates: 0°N 90°W / 0°N 90°W
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