Western Hemisphere

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The Western hemisphere. For the geopolitical term, see Western world. The Western Hemisphere[1] or occidental hemisphere[2] is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the Antimeridian, the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere, or "oriental hemisphere".[3] In this sense, the Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, the western portions of Europe and Africa, the extreme eastern tip of Russia, numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland. The term is often used in political rhetoric to refer to only North and South America (or the New World) and adjacent islands; however, the Western Hemisphere technically includes all of the aforementioned territories. In an effort 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.[4][5] This projection excludes the European and African mainlands and a small portion of northeast Greenland, but includes more of eastern Russia and Oceania (e.g., New Zealand). The population of the geographical Western Hemisphere exceeds 1 billion. The highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere is Aconcagua at 6,960.8 metres (22,837 ft). [6]

Countries in both hemispheres

Below is a list of the countries which are in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres on the IERS Reference Meridian, in order from north to south:

United Kingdom (England) Denmark (Because of Greenland and Faroe Islands. Mainland Denmark lies entirely in the eastern hemisphere.) Norway (Because of Jan Mayen. Mainland Norway lies entirely in the eastern hemisphere.) Netherlands (Because of the islands Saba, Bonaire and St. Eustatius; they lie in the Antilles. The "continental" Netherlands lies entirely on the eastern hemisphere.) France Spain Algeria Mali Burkina Faso Togo Ghana

Below is a list of the countries which are in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres along the 180th meridian, in order from north to south:

Russia United States (United States islands) Kiribati Tuvalu Wallis and Futuna (France) Fiji

Nations in the Western Hemisphere but not in the Americas

The following nations lie outside the Americas yet are in part or entirely within the Western Hemisphere.

Algeria American Samoa (United States) Burkina Faso Cape Verde Cook Islands (New Zealand) Faroe Islands (Denmark) Fiji France (Metropolitan) o French Polynesia o Wallis and Futuna Gambia Ghana Greenland (Denmark) (note: geographically a part of North America, but politically a part of Europe[7][8])

Guinea Guinea-Bissau Iceland Ireland Ivory Coast Kiribati Liberia Mali Mauritania Morocco o Western Sahara Niue (New Zealand) Portugal Russia Samoa Senegal Sierra Leone Spain Togo Tokelau (New Zealand) Tonga Tuvalu United Kingdom o Gibraltar o Guernsey o Isle of Man o Jersey o Pitcairn Islands o Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

Sources
1. Jump up ^ Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd ed.), London, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 2001 2. Jump up ^ "Western Hemisphere"

, Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary (based on Collegiate vol., 11th ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2006 3. Jump up ^ Britannica

4. Jump up ^ Olson, Judy M (1997), "Projecting the hemisphere", in Robinson, Arthur H; Snyder, John P, Matching the map projection to the need

, Bethesda, MD: Cartography and Geographic Information Society, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. 5. Jump up ^ "Western Hemisphere", Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2001, p. 1294. 6. Jump up ^ "Informe cientfico que estudia el Aconcagua, el Coloso de Amrica mide 6960,8 metros" [Scientific Report on Aconcagua, the Colossus of America measures 6960,8m]

(in Spanish). Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2012. 7. Jump up ^ http://www.eldey.de/English/sights/neighbours/greenland/greenland.html

8. Jump up ^ http://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/faq/geography.html

Coordinates:

0N 90W [hide]

v t e

Hemispheres of the Earth

Northern Hemisphere Southern Hemisphere Eastern Hemisphere Western Hemisphere Land hemisphere Water hemisphere Book:Hemispheres of the Earth Portal:Geography Commons:Maps of Earth's hemispheres

Categories:

Hemispheres of the Earth

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