The Western Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of Earth which lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere.
Video Western Hemisphere
Geography
The Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, the western portions of Eurasia and Africa, the extreme eastern tip of Siberia (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 attempt 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. This projection excludes the European and African mainlands and a small portion of northeast Greenland, but includes more of eastern Russia and Oceania.
The center of the Western Hemisphere is located in the Pacific Ocean at the intersection of the 90th meridian west and the Equator very close to the Galápagos Islands.
The highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere is Aconcagua in the Andes of Argentina at 6,960.8 metres (22,837 ft).
Maps Western Hemisphere
Sovereign states in both hemispheres
Below is a list of the sovereign states 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 Caribbean Netherlands lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere while the European Netherlands lies entirely in the Eastern Hemisphere.)
- France
- Spain
- Algeria
- Mali
- Burkina Faso
- Ghana
- Togo
Below is a list of the sovereign states which are in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres along the 180th meridian, in order from north to south:
- Russia (Siberia)
- United States (United States Minor Outlying Islands)
- Kiribati
- Tuvalu
- Fiji
- New Zealand (Kermadec and Chatham Island groups are east of the 180th meridian)
Countries and territories in the Western Hemisphere but not in the Americas
The following countries and territories lie outside the Americas yet are entirely/mostly or partially within the Western Hemisphere:
References
External links
- Media related to Western Hemisphere at Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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