Eastern Hemisphere
The Eastern Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth which is east of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and west of the antimeridian (which crosses the Pacific Ocean and relatively little land from pole to pole). It is also used to refer to Afro-Eurasia (Africa and Eurasia) and Australia, in contrast with the Western Hemisphere, which includes mainly North and South America. The Eastern Hemisphere may also called the "Oriental Hemisphere", and may in addition be used in a cultural or geopolitical sense as a synonym for "Old World."
Geography
The almost perfect circle (the earth is an
Consequently, meridians of 20°W and the diametrically opposed 160°E are often used outside of matters of physics and navigation,[1][2] which includes all of the European and African mainlands, but also includes a small portion of northeast Greenland (typically reckoned as part of North America) and excludes more of eastern Russia and Oceania (e.g., New Zealand). Prior to the global adoption of standard time, numerous prime meridians were decreed by various countries where time was defined by local noon (thereby, local).
The centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is located in the Indian Ocean at the intersection of the equator and the 90th meridian east, 910 km west of Indonesia in the Ninety East Ridge. The nearest land is Simeulue Island at 2°35′N 96°05′E / 2.583°N 96.083°E.
The land mass of the Eastern Hemisphere is larger than that of the Western Hemisphere and has a wide variety of habitats.
Demographics
82-88% of humans live in the Eastern Hemisphere, and 18% in the Western Hemisphere.[3]
References
- ^ Olson, Judy M. "Projecting the hemisphere Archived 2007-08-14 at the Wayback Machine", ch. 4 from Matching the map projection to the need, Archived 2007-08-18 at the Wayback Machine; Robinson, Arthur H. & Snyder, John P., eds. 1997. Bethesda, MD: Cartography and Geographic Information Society, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.
- ^ "Eastern Hemisphere". Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. 2001. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., p. 340.
- ^ "How Much of Humanity is in Your Hemisphere? - Brilliant Maps". Archived from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
External links
- Media related to Eastern Hemisphere at Wikimedia Commons