Physical maps include information about landforms like deserts, mountains and plains. They also display all the continents and geographical features across the world like the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and river basins.
Continents
The total landmass of the earth is divided into seven continents i.e. Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Antarctica. Asia is the largest with 29% of the world land mass and Australia with 5.9% of the total landmass, is the smallest. Mount Everest is the highest point on earth and the Dead Sea is the lowest. Antarctica is the uninhabited continent.
Deserts
About 33% of the world land mass is occupied by deserts. The largest hot deserts are the Sahara and Arabian Desert. Gobi Desert and Kalahari Desert are the other large deserts. The largest cold deserts are the polar deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic Circle.
Mountain ranges
Mountains are spread over all the continents and cover 24% of the earth land mass. the Himalayas are the highest mountains. Mount Everest at 8,848 meters is the highest peak and K2 at 8,611 meters is the second highest peak. The mountain ranges in Europe are the Alps and the Rockies are in North America.
Oceans
We have read in earlier chapters that two-thirds of the earth's surface is covered with water. More than 97% of this water is in the oceans. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean in the world. The other oceans are the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean.
Lakes
The earth has many lakes on its surface. Lakes are bodies of fresh water or salt water bodies surrounded by land. many of fresh water lakes are in the Northern hemisphere. Aral Sea, Dead Sea, and Great Salt Lake are saltwater lakes. Caspian Sea is the largest. Other large lakes are Lake Michigan in North America, Lake Victoria in Africa, and Lake Eyre in Australia.
Rivers
Rivers are streams of water flowing towards oceans and seas. The Nile River, in Africa is the longest river in the world. The Brahmaputra and the Ganges are rivers in Asia. The Colorado and the Mississippi rivers are in North America. The Amazon, the second largest river, is in South America. The river Congo, in Africa is the deepest river.
Political Map of the world
Political maps are designed to show boundaries of countries and states. They also show the location of cities and important bodies of water. In political maps different colours are used to differentiate between the countries or other units, for easy reading and understanding.
There are seven continents on the earth and they are listed from the biggest to the smallest.
- Asia contains 50 countries and is the most populated continent. About 60% of the total population of the earth lives here.
- Africa comprises 54 countries and is the hottest continent. The world's largest desert, the Sahara is in Africa.
- North America comprises 23 countries .
- South America comprises 12 countries. The largest forest, the Amazon rainforest is located in South America.
- Antarctica is the coldest continent in the world, completely covered with ice. There are no permanent populations. but scientists maintain research stations in Antarctica.
- Europe comprises 51 countries and is the most developed economically continent .
- There are 14 countries in Australia. It is the smallest continent