Download to World Map Checklist.

Name_____________________________
Period_______
World Map Checklist
Date___________
Directions: Use the atlas section in the World Geography textbook or the World Cultures and Geography textbook or use the atlas to complete your map of the World. Label all of the features listed below on your map and
check the box on this sheet when you have marked it on your map. Read the descriptions below, they will help
you find each feature.
q Africa - the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia, at about 11,668,545
square miles. Including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area.
q Asia - the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or
29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human
population.
q Antarctica- Earth's southernmost continent, covering the South Pole. It is in the southern hemisphere,
almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 5.4 million square
miles, it is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. Some 98%
of Antarctica is covered by ice, which averages at least 1 mile in thickness.
q Australia - the smallest and lowest-lying human-inhabited continent on Earth, having a total land area of
some 5,318,937 square miles. As Australia the country is largely comprised of a single island, and comprises
most of Australia the continent, it is sometimes informally referred to as “the island continent.”
q Europe - the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, covering about 3,930,000 square miles or
2.0% of the Earth's surface. The only continent smaller than Europe is Australia.
q North America - the continent in the northern and western hemishpere that covers an area of about
9,450,000 square miles, about 4.8 percent of the planet's surface.
q South America - a continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in
the Southern Hemisphere. It covers about 6,890,000 square miles.
q Greenland - the island of the coast of northern North America. It is the largest island in the world that is
not considered a continent.
q Madagascar - an island off the coast of east Africa. It is the fourth largest island that is not considered a
continent.
q Borneo - an island off the coast of Southeast Asia.It is considered to be the third largest island that is not
considered a continent.
q New Guinea - an island off the coast of northern Australia. It is considered the second largest island that
is not a continent.
q Atlantic Ocean - the second-largest ocean in the world, covering approximately one-fifth of the Earth's
surface. The Atlantic is between the Americas on the west and Europe and Africa on the east.
q Pacific Ocean - the largest of the earth's oceans. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Antarctic
in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia on the west and the Americas on the east. The Pacific covers one
third of the earth’s surface, and is larger than all the landmasses combined.
q Indian Ocean - the third largest of the world's oceans, covering about 20% of the earth's water surface.
It is bounded on the north by Asia (including the Indian subcontinent, after which it is named); on the west by
Africa; on the east by the Malay Peninsula, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern
Ocean.
q Arctic Ocean - the smallest of the world's five major oceans, and it is also the shallowest. It is located in
the northern polar regions.
q Southern Ocean - the fourth largest of the five oceans, located around Antarctica.
q Mediterranean Sea - a sea of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by
Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia.
q Caribbean Sea - a tropical sea in the Western Hemisphere, part of the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of the
Gulf of Mexico. It is bounded on the south by South America, on the west and south by Mexico and Central
America, and on the north and east by the Greater and Lesser Antilles.
q Arabian Sea - a part of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran,
on the west by Arabian Peninsula.
q Weddell Sea - part of the Southern Ocean. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the
coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula.
q Equator - an imaginary line on the earth's surface equally distant from the North Pole and South Pole. It
divides the Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. It is 0º latitude.
q Prime Meridian - also known as the International Meridian or Greenwich Meridian, is the meridian (line
of longitude) passing through the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London — it is the meridian at which longitude is defined to be 0º. The prime meridian, and the opposite 180th meridian (at 180° longitude), which the
International Date Line generally follows, separate the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
q Arctic Circle - one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the earth. It is the parallel of
latitude that (as of 2000) runs at about 66.5° north of the Equator. The region north of this circle is known as the
Arctic, and the zone just to the south is called the Northern Temperate Zone.
q Antarctic Circle - one of the five major circles (or parallels) of latitude that mark maps of the earth. It
lies at latitude of about 66.5° south of the equator. The area south of the Antarctic Circle is known as the
Antarctic, and the zone immediately to the north is called the Southern Temperate Zone.
q Tropic of Capricorn - one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the earth. It lies at about
23.5° south of the Equator. Between it and the Tropic of Cancer lies the Tropics.
q Tropic of Cancer - one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the earth. It lies at about
23.5° north of the Equator. Between it and the Tropic of Capricorn lies the Tropics.