[Geo4All] asking for help

[Andy Anderson]

I would follow the references in Wikipedia to their original source. Think of it as a research guide.

Keep in mind that the division of the continent of Eurasia into the two separate pieces of Europe and Asia is based primarily on human geography, not physical geography. It is now generally extended to the Urals, but in history I think it has been defined by the expansion of Christian kingdoms eastward into Poland and Russia.

My 1968 Encyclopedia Britannica says “There has long been doubt as to the exact boundary between Europe and Asia; in general the watershed of the Ural mountains and that of the Caucasus as been taken, though sometimes the latter is replaced by the official frontier of the U.S.S.R. [south of the Caucasus to Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan] A conference of  Russian geographers in 1958 made recommendations, subsequently accepted by the Soviet government. The boundary now follows the foot of the eastern slopes of the Urals and their prolongation the Mugodzhar hills, the Emba river, the northern shore of the Caspian sea, the Kumo-Manychskaya Vpadina (depression) and the Kerchenski strait to the Black Sea. Thus the Urals are now all included in Europe, the Caucasus in Asia.”

The watersheds of the Urals and the Caucasus seems far more natural boundaries to me, though.

— Andy

> On Nov 2, 2018, at 6:23 AM, Christian Willmes <c.willmes at uni-koeln.de> wrote:
> 
> I would not just cite it as a fact. When citing from Wikipedia, you always have to give context and a clear argument.
> 
> Though nowadays (at least the English, and as far as I see also the German version of) Wikipedia can be trusted quite well, because it is very much peer reviewed by the volunteers and admins. Just try to edit an existing article and write some non-sense into it. It will be a matter of minutes until it will be deleted... ;)
> 
> Best,
> Christian
> 
> Am 02.11.18 um 11:17 schrieb labrinos at eled.auth.gr:
>> 
>> Thank you very much Christian.
>> That was really helpful.
>> Is wikipedia a trusted site? I mean, can we proceed in the future with a publication based on data from wikipedia?
>> 
>> regards
>> Nikos
>> 
>> 
>> Παραθέτοντας από Christian Willmes <c.willmes at uni-koeln.de>:
>> 
>>> Hello,
>>> 
>>> This is an interesting question, which I asked myself also recently.
>>> 
>>> I would prefer plate tectonics as the ground for defining continents, but this is not a Law. ;) In the according Wikipedia article [1] you can find a nice map, which clarifies at least the border between Asia and Africa, that is through the Red Sea and Jordan valley (east of Sinai). Arabia has its own plate, but geographically it is part of Asia.
>>> 
>>> For Europe and Asia, this is more complicated, because Eurasia is one large tectonic plate. According to the German Wikipedia article [2], there is no international law based definition of this border. But you will find two maps showing borders in this article, based on different historic definitions.
>>> 
>>> I would propose to define the inner Eurasian border based on River catchments or Hydrobasins. HydroSHEDS [3] draws the border between Europe and Asia, where the Volga (Europe) and the Ob (Asia) Basins meet. Further south, I would go west of Caspian Sea through the Caucasus to the Black Sea through the Bosporus... but this is not clearly defined as fa as I know?
>>> 
>>> Best regards,
>>> Christian
>>> 
>>> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
>>> 
>>> [2] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasien
>>> 
>>> [3] https://www.hydrosheds.org/page/hydrobasins
>>> 
>>> Am 02.11.18 um 08:33 schrieb labrinos at eled.auth.gr:
>>>> 
>>>> Dear GeoForAll members,
>>>> 
>>>> In the context of an undergraduate thesis, a student of mine is looking for the official borders between continents.
>>>> The "problem" rises between Europe and Asia, Asia and Africa.
>>>> Can you show me references and/or links where I can find official documents regarding the borders between these areas?
>>>> I understand that in many cases it is a matter arranged between countries (except Russia where the borders divide the country into European and Asian part and Turkey where Vosporus separates the two continents) because the borders between countries form the borders between continents.
>>>> I would appreciate any idea and help.
>>>> 
>>>> Thank you very much
>>>> Nikos Lambrinos
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> --
>>> Dr. Christian Willmes
>>> AG GIS & Fernerkundung      | GIS & RS Group
>>> Geographisches Institut     | Institute of Geography
>>> Universität zu Köln         | University of Cologne
>>> Tel.: +49 (0)221 470 6234
>>> http://www.geographie.uni-koeln.de/14126.html
>>> http://www.sfb806.de
>>> http://crc806db.uni-koeln.de
>>> http://publons.com/a/1316706/
>>> http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5566-6542
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> GeoForAll mailing list
>>> GeoForAll at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/geoforall
>> 
>> 
>> 
> --
> Dr. Christian Willmes
> AG GIS & Fernerkundung      | GIS & RS Group
> Geographisches Institut     | Institute of Geography
> Universität zu Köln         | University of Cologne
> Tel.: +49 (0)221 470 6234
> http://www.geographie.uni-koeln.de/14126.html
> http://www.sfb806.de
> http://crc806db.uni-koeln.de
> http://publons.com/a/1316706/
> http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5566-6542
> 
> _______________________________________________
> GeoForAll mailing list
> GeoForAll at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/geoforall

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 529 bytes
Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geoforall/attachments/20181102/429e1c73/attachment.sig>