Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere[1] or western hemisphere[2] is mainly used as 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 International Date Line), the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.[3]
In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions of Europe and Africa, the Americas, the easternmost 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, however, often also used in political rhetoric to mean only the Americas (or the New World) and adjacent waters, while excluding all other territories in the geographical western hemisphere; thus, it is sometimes also referred to as the American hemisphere.[4][dead link]
In an effort to define the western hemisphere as the parts of the world which are not part of the Old World, there also exists projections which use the 20th meridian west and the diametrically opposed 160th meridian east to define the hemisphere.[4][dead link][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.
[edit] Countries in both hemispheres
Below is a list of the countries which are in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres on the Prime Meridian, in order from north to south:
United Kingdom
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
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
Kiribati
Tuvalu- Wallis and Futuna (France)
[edit] Nations in the Western Hemisphere but not in the Americas
The following nations lie outside the Americas (or New World) 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 area)
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Iceland
Ireland
Ivory Coast- Kiribati
Liberia- Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Niue (New Zealand)
Portugal
Samoa
Senegal
Sierra Leone- Spain
- Togo
Tokelau (New Zealand)
Tonga- Tuvalu
- United Kingdom
[edit] Sources
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd ed.), London, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 2001.
- ^ "Western Hemisphere", Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary (based on Collegiate vol., 11th ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2006, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/western%20hemisphere
- ^ , http://www.britannica.com/oscar/print?articleId=275388&fullArticle=true&tocId=203675
- ^ a b 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, http://www.gis.psu.edu/projection/chapter4.html.
- ^ "Western Hemisphere", Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2001, p. 1294.
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