The New World is one of the names used for the continents of North and South America and adjacent islands collectively, in use since the 16th century. The continents were new to the Europeans, who knew the world consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa (the Old World).
Carte d'Amérique, Guillaume Delisle, 1774?
The New World should be distinguished from the Modern World.
Nowadays, the term is generally used:
in a historical context when talking about the European discovery of the Americas, as in discussions of Spanish exploration, Christopher Columbus, etc.
in describing biomes within biology: Paleotropics and Palearctic describe Old World organisms in their ecological settings, while Neotropics and Nearctic describe those of the Americas.
to describe any wine produced outside the traditional wine-growing areas of Europe and North Africa, particularly wines from North and South America, South Africa, and Australasia.
to describe a style of wine popularized by New World producers. Stereotypically produced in California and South-Eastern Australia, and described by grape variety rather than vineyard, these wines are riper, darker in color, fuller-bodied, smoother, fruitier and more alcoholic than traditional European products. The term has come to describe a wine with some or all of these characteristics produced in any wine region. Conversely, a wine produced in the New World might be considered Old World in style. (See New World wine, Old World wine)
Notice that while the Americas are always described as "New World," Australasia can be correctly described as either "Old World" or "New World", depending on the sphere of discourse.
The idea of the Five Continents is still strong in Europe and Asia, and is represented by the five rings on the Olympic flag.
The other large geologic continents are Sahul and Antarctica, but there are many so-called microcontinents as well: Madagascar, the Seychelles (the northern Mascarene Plateau), New Zealand, New Caledonia, etc., which are splinters of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.
During the 20th century, it became accepted by geologists that continents move location on the face of the planet over the geologic timescale, a process known as continental drift, explained by the theory of plate tectonics.
Lately, according to Dr. Gates, the New York region "has been neglected by geologists." But, he added, the basement rock of the metropolitan area is actually some of the most complex in the United States.
Geologists "paid a lot of attention to the New York region at the turn of the century, especially when the city's water tunnels were being built," said Leonardo Seeber, a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y. Later, the region became "unfashionable," Mr.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are riddled with ancient geological faults.
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