NCERT Solutions Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 2: Oceans and
Continents

NCERT Textbook — Exploring Society: India And Beyond

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

27 – 40 10 23 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 34 pages

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 6 · SOCIAL SCIENCE · EXPLORING SOCIETY: INDIA AND BEYOND

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 2: Oceans and Continents
Complete NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents from the NCERT
textbook Exploring Society: India and Beyond. Every question of the chapter is answered — The Big Questions,
all three LET'S EXPLORE boxes (pages 29, 32 and 36), the THINK ABOUT IT box on page 31, the in-text
questions, Before we move on … and all four Questions, activities and projects, including the complete
crossword solution.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 6) 27 – 40

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

10 23

MEDIUM

English

The Big Questions — Page 27
Chapter opening

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Q1 What are oceans and continents? What are their names and their distribution?

Oceans are the largest water bodies on the Earth. Continents are the large, continuous
expanses of land. Together they make up the whole surface of the planet.

Water covers about three-fourths (roughly 71%) of the Earth's surface

Land covers a little over one-fourth (roughly 29%)
That is why the Earth looks blue from space — the ‘blue planet’

The five oceans, from largest to smallest:

Page 1 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

OCEAN SIZE ROUGHLY WHERE IT LIES

Pacific Ocean 1st — largest Between Asia and Australia on one side and the Americas on the
other

Atlantic Ocean 2nd Between the Americas and Europe–Africa

Indian Ocean 3rd Asia to the north, Africa to the west, Australia to the east

Southern (Antarctic) 4th The ring of water around Antarctica
Ocean

Arctic Ocean 5th — Around the North Pole, mostly covered with ice
smallest

The seven continents, from largest to smallest: Asia, Africa, North America, South America,
Antarctica, Europe, Australia. (The book explains that they can also be counted as four, five or
six — see page 35 — but seven is the count most widely used.)
Their distribution is not equal between the two halves of the Earth:

The Northern Hemisphere has most of the land — Europe, Asia, North America and the
northern part of Africa.
The Southern Hemisphere is mostly water, with only South America, Australia, Antarctica
and the southern part of Africa.
The oceans are not really separate either. They are all joined, so the dividing lines drawn on a
map are only agreed conventions.

Northern Hemisphere
more land

Equator (0°)
divides the Earth in half

The whole Earth's surface
Southern Hemisphere
water ≈ 3/4
more water
land ≈ 1/4

Page 2 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Equator splits the Earth into two hemispheres. Water takes about three-fourths of the whole
surface, and it is not shared equally between the two halves.

Q2 In what ways do oceans and continents impact life on Earth, including human life?

They shape the climate, the air we breathe, our food, our travel and trade, and even our
stories and festivals. Here is the chapter's answer, arranged:

HOW THEY WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS
AFFECT US

Rain and the Seawater evaporates, forms the great white cloud masses you can see in Fig. 2.1, and falls as rain
water cycle on the continents. India's monsoon is born over the ocean. Without oceans there would be no
rainfall and the Earth would be a desert.

Oxygen More than half of the world's oxygen is made by the tiny plants (algae and other marine flora) of
the oceans. That is why oceans are called ‘the planet's lungs’.

Climate control Water heats and cools slowly, so the oceans even out temperatures. Coastal Mumbai or Chennai
never gets as hot or as cold as inland Nagpur or Delhi.

Food Fishing feeds millions. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal all have large
fishing communities.

Movement and From early times people have crossed the seas to migrate, to trade goods, and to send fleets and
trade armies. Most of India's foreign trade still moves by sea, through ports such as Mumbai, Kandla,
Chennai, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam.

Culture Coastal peoples everywhere have tales of sea gods and goddesses, sea monsters and treasures. In
India the Vedic deity Varuṇa is linked with the ocean — the Indian Navy's motto is Śham no
Varuṇaḥ, “Be auspicious to us, O Varuna.”

Disasters Oceans also send cyclones and tsunamis, which can destroy coastal towns and take many
lives.

The continents' Continents hold the soil, forests, rivers and mountains on which land life depends; their shape and
part position decide which winds blow where, and so decide the climate of each region.

Why this matters right now: because we depend on the oceans so completely,
damaging them damages us. Several million tonnes of plastic waste are thrown into
the sea every year, and overfishing is emptying it of life. Protecting the ocean is not
charity — it is self-defence.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents
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In-text Questions — Page 28
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The Earth seen from space (Fig. 2.1)
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The most widespread colour is blue, and it represents water.

Almost three-fourths of the Earth's surface is covered with water, which is why the planet

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looks blue from outer space. Early astronauts lovingly called it the ‘blue planet’.

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the whole point of this chapter.

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— Page 29
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Distribution of Water and Land on the Earth (Fig. 2.2)

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 What are the circular lines in each map called? And do you know what the lines
radiating out of the two poles are called? (Hint: you studied them in the previous
chapter, but here they are presented differently.)

as seen from above the North Pole as seen from above the South Pole

Fig. 2.2, page 29 — maps of the Earth as seen from above the North Pole (left) and above
the South Pole (right); redrawn.

Both sets of lines are the grid of Chapter 1, only seen from directly above a pole instead of from
the side.

ON THE MAP IN FIG. WHAT IT IS WHY IT LOOKS LIKE THAT
2.2 CALLED

The circular lines, one Parallels of Parallels really are circles round the Earth. Looking straight
inside the other latitude down on a pole, you see them as rings — the pole itself is the
centre, and the outermost ring is the Equator (0°).

The lines radiating out of Meridians of Every meridian runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, so
the pole like the spokes of longitude all of them meet at the pole. From above, they spread out from
a wheel that single point.

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the same lines look so different: in Chapter 1 you saw the globe from the
side, so parallels looked like straight horizontal lines and meridians like curves
joining top and bottom. Here you are looking down the Earth's axis. The lines have
not changed — only your point of view has.

Check it yourself: hold a globe so that the North Pole points straight at your eye.
The Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator become three circles, one
inside the other, and all the meridians fan out from the pole.

Q2 Which hemisphere holds more water?

The Southern Hemisphere holds more water.
Compare the two maps of Fig. 2.2:

The North Pole map (left) is crowded with land — North America, Europe, Asia and the top
of Africa ring the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean itself is the smallest of the five oceans.
The South Pole map (right) is almost all blue. Apart from Antarctica in the middle, the only
land you can see is the far tip of South America, the south of Africa and Australia — small
pieces in a huge stretch of ocean.

Why it works out this way: almost all the big landmasses happen to sit north of the
Equator. So the Northern Hemisphere gets more land, and the Southern Hemisphere
is left with more water. This is exactly the point the book repeats in Before we move
on …: the Northern Hemisphere has more land than the Southern Hemisphere.

Q3 What do you think could be the approximate proportion of water to land in the
Northern Hemisphere? And in the Southern Hemisphere? Discuss in groups.

This question asks for a sensible estimate from the map, not an exact figure. A good group
answer is:

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

HEMISPHERE WATER LAND ROUGHLY

Northern Hemisphere about 3/5 (60%) about 2/5 (40%) A little more water than land

Southern Hemisphere about 4/5 (80%) about 1/5 (20%) Overwhelmingly water

The whole Earth about 3/4 (71%) about 1/4 (29%) The figure given on page 28

Northern Hemisphere

water ≈ 60% land ≈ 40%

Southern Hemisphere

water ≈ 80% land ≈ 20%

Both halves have more water than land — but the south has far
more.

An estimate you can defend from Fig. 2.2. Your group's numbers may differ a little; the pattern must
be the same.

How to estimate it in class: place a sheet of tracing paper over each map, draw a
square grid on it, and count how many squares fall mostly on blue and how many
mostly on brown. Then write the two counts as a fraction. Different groups will get
slightly different numbers — that is exactly what an approximate proportion means.

Q4 Are all the oceans connected with one another, or are there separations between
them?

All five oceans are connected. There is really only one continuous body of seawater wrapped
around the planet. The lines drawn between the oceans in Fig. 2.3 are conventions —
agreements between people — not walls, and “the natural world does not follow such
boundaries”.
You can trace the joins yourself on a globe:

Page 7 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Southern Ocean circles Antarctica and touches the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian
Ocean, joining all three.
The Atlantic and the Pacific also meet round the southern tip of South America, through the
Drake Passage.
The Arctic Ocean opens into the Atlantic beside Greenland and Norway, and into the Pacific
through the narrow Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.
The Indian Ocean reaches the Pacific through the seas of Indonesia and the Strait of
Malacca.

Why this matters: because the water is joined, it keeps flowing from one ocean into
another. That is how the same species of whale, turtle or seaweed can be found in
more than one ocean — and, sadly, how plastic thrown into the sea off one country
reaches the beaches of another.

Did you know? Two of the world's busiest sea links are not natural at all. The Suez
Canal (Egypt) joins the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and so to the Indian Ocean,
and the Panama Canal joins the Atlantic to the Pacific. Both were dug by people to
save ships weeks of sailing.

THINK ABOUT IT — Page 31
Salt water, freshwater and water scarcity

THINK ABOUT IT

Q1 If there is such abundance of water on the planet, why is there so much talk of
‘water scarcity’ or a ‘water crisis’?

Because almost none of that water is water we can actually use. There is plenty of water, but
very little usable freshwater.

Page 8 of 34

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents
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All the water on the Earth = 100 parts
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 What ways of saving water are you aware of? Which ones have you seen practised
at home, at your school, and in your village, town or city?

Water is saved in three ways: use less, use it twice, and catch and store the rain.

WHERE WHAT CAN BE DONE

At home Close the tap while brushing teeth or soaping; a bucket bath instead of a shower; repair leaking taps and
flush tanks at once; reuse the water in which rice or vegetables were washed for the plants; reuse RO
reject water for mopping; wash clothes in a full load, not a half-empty one.

At school Push-taps or half-turn taps at the washing area; a rooftop rainwater harvesting pipe leading to a storage
tank or a recharge pit; a kitchen garden watered with waste water from the hand-wash basin; a monitor
who reports dripping taps.

In a Rebuilding village tanks and ponds — the talab, johad, bawdi, kere and eri; check dams and contour
village bunds to slow the run-off; drip and sprinkler irrigation instead of flooding the field; growing millets,
which need far less water than paddy or sugarcane.

In a town Compulsory rainwater harvesting in new buildings; repairing leaking supply pipes; treating and
or city reusing wastewater for parks and construction; reviving city lakes; metering so that water is not
wasted.

Sample answer: “At home we keep a bucket under the tap while the water warms
up and use it for the plants. In our school there is a rainwater pipe from the roof to a
tank behind the office. In our village the panchayat repaired the old pond last year,
and now the wells nearby do not dry up in May.”

Why saving beats searching: a leaking tap dripping once a second wastes roughly
15–20 litres a day — over 5,000 litres a year from one tap. Fixing it costs almost
nothing; finding 5,000 litres of new water costs a great deal.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 32

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Oceans — the world map in Fig. 2.3

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Locate the five oceans and, in the table below, mark the hemisphere or
hemispheres they belong to.

Arctic Ocean

North Europe
America Asia

Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific Pacific
Ocean Africa Ocean

South
America
Australia
Indian Ocean

Southern Ocean

Antarctica

Fig. 2.3, page 32 — a world map showing the five oceans, their conventional boundaries,
and the continents. Redrawn; not to scale.

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

Pacific Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Indian Ocean

Southern Ocean

Arctic Ocean

Find the Equator on Fig. 2.3 — it is the dashed line running across the middle of the map.
Everything above it is the Northern Hemisphere, everything below it the Southern Hemisphere.
Now read off each ocean:

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

OCEAN NORTHERN SOUTHERN WHY
HEMISPHERE HEMISPHERE

Pacific ✓ ✓ It stretches from the Bering Strait in the far north
Ocean right down to the Southern Ocean, so the Equator
cuts straight through it.

Atlantic ✓ ✓ The same — it runs from Greenland in the north
Ocean to Antarctica in the south.

Indian ✓ ✓ Most of it lies south of the Equator, but its
Ocean northern arms — the Arabian Sea and the Bay of
Bengal, on either side of India — are in the
Northern Hemisphere.

Southern — ✓ It is the ring of water around Antarctica, entirely
Ocean in the far south.

Arctic ✓ — It surrounds the North Pole, entirely in the far
Ocean north.

In both hemispheres: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian

Northern Hemisphere only: Arctic

Southern Hemisphere only: Southern (Antarctic)

Size order, from the same map: Pacific (largest) → Atlantic → Indian → Southern →
Arctic (smallest). An easy way to remember it: P–A–I–S–A.

Why three oceans lie in both halves: the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans all run
north–south, so the Equator has to cross them. The Arctic and Southern Oceans run
around a pole, east–west, so they never come near the Equator at all.

In-text Questions — Page 33

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Oceans and disasters

Q1 Returning to the picture of the Earth at the start of this chapter, you may have
noticed white shapes across the globe. Did you guess what they are?

Fig. 2.1, page 28 — the Earth seen from space, centred on the Indian Ocean, with Africa
to the left, India and most of Asia at the top, Australia to the right and Antarctica at the
bottom. Redrawn sketch; see the textbook for the photograph.

They are large masses of clouds.
Those clouds are the link between the ocean and the land:

Page 13 of 34

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents
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Sun heats the sea → water evaporates
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Water vapour rises and cools → clouds form
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Winds carry the clouds over the continents → rain
aRain feeds rivers, wells and fields → rivers return the water to the sea

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the warm Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea and reach Kerala around the first week of June, then

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spread across the country. Without it, our agriculture and all life would suffer.

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One more white patch: the broad white expanse at the bottom of Fig. 2.1 is not
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cloud. It is Antarctica, which is mostly ice.

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In-text Questions — Page 34
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Continents

Q1 Continents are visible on the map (Fig. 2.3). How many can you count? (The answer
is not so simple, as they can be counted in several ways.)

Arctic Ocean

North Europe
America Asia

Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific Pacific
Ocean Africa Ocean

South
America
Australia
Indian Ocean

Southern Ocean

Antarctica

Fig. 2.3, page 32 — a world map showing the five oceans, their conventional boundaries,
and the continents. Redrawn; not to scale.

Anything from four to seven — and every one of those counts is defensible. It depends on how
strictly you insist that a continent must be one separate piece of land.

COUNT THE CONTINENTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)

Four Africa-Eurasia, America, Antarctica, Australia

Five Africa, America, Antarctica, Australia, Eurasia

Six Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Eurasia, North America, South America

Seven Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America — the count used in Fig.
2.3, and the one most widely adopted

Why the counts differ:

Page 15 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

North and South America are usually counted as two, but they are joined by the narrow
neck of Central America — so they can be seen as one landmass, ‘America’.
Europe and Asia are clearly a single landmass on the map. They are counted separately for
historical and cultural reasons, because Europe's history took a very different course from
Asia's. Geologists usually treat them as one continent, Eurasia.
Africa and Eurasia are normally two, but they touch at Egypt's Sinai, so they are sometimes
counted as one, ‘Africa-Eurasia’.

Did you know? The five Olympic rings were chosen to stand for the five inhabited
continents — Africa, America, Asia, Australia and Europe. Antarctica has no
permanent population, so it is not among them.

The lesson hidden in this question: a “fact” in geography can depend on a human
decision. Where a continent ends is partly nature and partly agreement — just like
the boundaries between the oceans on page 31.

LET'S EXPLORE — Page 36
The diagram of the relative sizes of the seven continents

LET'S EXPLORE

Q1 Counting the numbers of squares, name the largest continent and the smallest.

Count the squares of each colour block in the diagram on page 36. Remember that the diagram
does not show the real shapes of the continents, only their relative sizes.

Page 16 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CONTINENT SQUARES REAL AREA (APPROX.)

Asia 51 — the largest 4.4 crore sq km

Africa 30 3.0 crore sq km

North America 21 2.5 crore sq km

South America 18 1.8 crore sq km

Antarctica 13 1.4 crore sq km

Europe 11 1.0 crore sq km

Australia 8 — the smallest 0.86 crore sq km

Total 152 about 14.9 crore sq km of land

Largest continent = Asia (51 squares)

Smallest continent = Australia (8 squares)

Squares counted in the diagram on page 36

Asia 51

Africa 30

North America 21

South America 18

Antarctica 13

Europe 11

Australia 8

The same information as a bar chart. Asia alone is nearly a third of all the land on the Earth.

Page 17 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip while counting: go row by row, not shape by shape, and mark each row's total
in pencil at its edge. The blocks are deliberately awkward — Asia has a two-square
cap on top and a step at the bottom right, and Australia has a notch in its bottom
row.

Q2 Which one is larger — North America or South America? Africa or North America?
Antarctica or Australia?

Use the square counts from the diagram:

THE PAIR SQUARES LARGER

North America or South America? 21 vs 18 North America

Africa or North America? 30 vs 21 Africa

Antarctica or Australia? 13 vs 8 Antarctica

Why the book bothers to ask: on an ordinary world map these three pairs are the
easiest to get wrong. Most flat maps stretch the areas near the poles, which makes
Antarctica look like an endless white band and Greenland look bigger than Africa.
This squares diagram removes the stretching, so the true comparison shows.

Check it on a globe: a globe, unlike a flat map, keeps the sizes honest. Look for
Africa and North America on one — Africa is clearly the bigger of the two, though a
wall map may suggest otherwise.

Page 18 of 34

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents
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Re-colour the diagram by having a single colour for Europe and Asia and rename
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the result as ‘Eurasia’. Compare its size with South America's.

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show the real shapes of the continents, only their relative sizes. Redrawn.
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Colour the Europe block and the Asia block in one colour — say green — and write EURASIA

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Europe = 11 squares

Asia = 51 squares

Eurasia = 11 + 51 = 62 squares
South America = 18 squares

62 ÷ 18 ≈ 3.4

So Eurasia is about three and a half times the size of South America. Put the other way
round, South America is a little less than one-third of Eurasia.

BLOCK SQUARES SHARE OF ALL LAND

Eurasia (Europe + Asia) 62 about 41% — more than two-fifths of all the land on Earth

South America 18 about 12%

Why geologists prefer ‘Eurasia’: there is no sea between Europe and Asia. The
usual dividing line — the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus — is a line people agreed
on, not a coastline. Seen as rock and soil, it is one gigantic continent, and this
exercise lets you feel just how gigantic.

Q4 Write down the list of continents from the smallest to the largest.

From the square counts of the page-36 diagram:

Australia (8) → Europe (11) → Antarctica (13) → South America (18) → North

America (21) → Africa (30) → Asia (51)

Page 20 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

RANK (SMALLEST FIRST) CONTINENT SQUARES

1 Australia 8

2 Europe 11

3 Antarctica 13

4 South America 18

5 North America 21

6 Africa 30

7 Asia 51

Turn it around: largest to smallest reads Asia, Africa, North America, South
America, Antarctica, Europe, Australia. Many students remember it as “A A N S A E
A” — the first letters in order.

A useful check: Asia (51) is bigger than Europe, Australia and Antarctica put
together (11 + 8 + 13 = 32) — and still bigger than Africa (30). One continent holds
about a third of all the land on the planet, and about three-fifths of all the people.

Before we move on … — Pages 38–39
The chapter in three points

BEFORE WE MOVE ON …

Q1 The Earth's surface has vast water bodies called ‘oceans’ and large landmasses
called ‘continents’. Oceans are interconnected. Continents may be counted in
various ways; the most common count is seven.

What this recap means, expanded:

Oceans are the great water bodies — five of them, covering nearly three-fourths of the
surface. Their smaller arms have their own names: sea (the Arabian Sea), bay (the Bay of
Bengal), gulf (the Gulf of Mannar).
Continents are the large continuous stretches of land, covering a little over one-fourth.

Page 21 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

‘Interconnected’ is the key word for the oceans. Water flows freely from one to another
around Antarctica, through the Drake Passage, past Greenland and through the Bering
Strait. The lines on the map are conventions, not barriers.
‘Counted in various ways’ is the key phrase for the continents — four, five, six or seven,
depending on whether you split America, Eurasia and Africa-Eurasia. Seven is the count in
Fig. 2.3 and the one used almost everywhere.

Why one is fixed and the other is not: the oceans are physically one, so dividing
them is a human choice. The continents are physically several, so joining them is a
human choice. Both counts are agreements — which is why geography asks you to
know the reason, not just the number.

Q2 The Northern Hemisphere has more land than the Southern Hemisphere.

Unpacking the statement:

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

Continents wholly or Europe, Asia, North America, most Antarctica, Australia, South America, the
mostly here of Africa southern part of Africa

Land and water About 2/5 land, 3/5 water About 1/5 land, 4/5 water

Ocean found only here Arctic Ocean Southern (Antarctic) Ocean

Where most people live About 9 out of every 10 people About 1 in 10
on Earth

You can see it directly in Fig. 2.2 on page 29: the North Pole map is a small ocean ringed by land,
while the South Pole map is one continent adrift in a huge ocean.

Where India stands: the whole of India lies in the Northern Hemisphere, roughly
between 8°N and 37°N, and in the Eastern Hemisphere. The Tropic of Cancer (about
23½°N) runs right across the middle of the country.

Page 22 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 Oceans support all kinds of marine life and play a critical role in the world climate.
They are now seriously affected by human activity and need our collective
protection.

All three parts of this sentence, one by one:

Marine life. The ocean's flora is algae and seaweeds; its fauna runs from tiny fish to sharks,
dolphins, sperm whales, sea turtles, emperor penguins and the countless creatures of the
deep. Coral reefs, such as those of the Gulf of Mannar and Lakshadweep, are among the
richest habitats on Earth. Every layer, from the sunlit surface to the dark depths, has its own
life forms.
World climate. Oceans supply the rain, store heat and release it slowly, and make more than
half of the world's oxygen. Without them there would be no rainfall and the Earth would be a
desert.
Human damage. Several million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the sea every
year, choking marine life; there are many other kinds of pollution as well; and overfishing is
emptying the sea of the very species we depend on.

Why ‘collective’ protection: the ocean is one connected body of water, so plastic
dropped on a beach in one country washes up on another's, and fish stocks swim
across every boundary. No single country can clean or protect the sea alone. That is
why the United Nations marks 8 June as World Oceans Day, and why countries
share an Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System.

Three things a Class 6 student can actually do: refuse single-use plastic bags and
bottles; never leave litter on a beach or throw it into a river (rivers deliver it to the
sea); and take part in a clean-up drive — India's beach clean-ups have collected
thousands of tonnes of waste.

Questions, activities and projects — Pages 39–40
End-of-chapter exercise

Q1 Explain the following terms: (a) Continent (b) Ocean (c) Island

(a) Continent

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents
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A continent is a large continuous expanse of land — a landmass so big that it is not counted
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 Let us draw – Without looking at the maps in this chapter, draw the continents free
hand on a sheet of paper and colour them. Then compare your drawing with the
map of oceans and continents in the chapter.

Arctic Ocean

North Europe
America Asia

Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific Pacific
Ocean Africa Ocean

South
America
Australia
Indian Ocean

Southern Ocean

Antarctica

Fig. 2.3, page 32 — the chapter’s map of oceans and continents, to compare with after
you have finished your own drawing. Redrawn; not to scale.

This is a memory-and-observation activity, so no one can do it for you. What matters is how you
do it and what you check afterwards.
How to draw it:

1. Close the book. Take a full A4 sheet in landscape.
2. Draw a big oval for the whole world, then a light horizontal line across the middle — that is
the Equator. This one line will save you from most mistakes.
3. Block in the shapes roughly, largest first: Asia in the top right, Africa below and to its left
with the Equator crossing its middle, Europe as a small piece above Africa and left of Asia,
North America in the top left, South America below it and mostly south of the Equator,
Australia to the lower right, and Antarctica as a band along the bottom.
4. Colour the land and leave the water blue. Write the names of the seven continents and the
five oceans.

Then compare with Fig. 2.3 and check these five things:

Page 25 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CHECK WHAT PEOPLE USUALLY GET WRONG

Sizes Asia should be by far the biggest; Europe should be small — smaller than Antarctica.

The Equator It crosses South America, Africa and the islands of Indonesia. It must not cross India, Australia or
Europe.

Joins North and South America are joined by a narrow neck; Europe and Asia are one landmass with no
sea between them.

Position of Entirely south of the Equator, south-east of Asia — not next to Africa.
Australia

Oceans named Pacific on both edges of the map, Atlantic in the middle-left, Indian below Asia, Southern
round Antarctica, Arctic at the top.

Tip: keep your first attempt. Draw it again a week later without looking, and put the
two side by side — the second one is always startlingly better, and that is the real
point of the exercise.

Page 26 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 Let us do – On the outline map of the world given below, label all the continents and
oceans.

The outline map of the world printed with this question on page 39. The three dashed
lines are the Tropic of Cancer, the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Twelve labels go on the map — seven continents and five oceans. Work from the dashed lines
already printed on the outline: the middle one is the Equator. Here is where each label belongs.

Page 27 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

LABEL WHERE TO WRITE IT ON THE OUTLINE MAP

North America The big landmass at the top left, above the Equator

South America Below it, joined by a narrow neck; the Equator crosses its northern part

Europe The small landmass in the upper middle, north of the Mediterranean and west of Asia

Africa The large block in the middle of the map; the Equator runs across its centre

Asia The huge landmass on the right of Europe, occupying most of the top right

Australia The island continent to the south-east, below Asia and south of the Equator

Antarctica The long white band right along the bottom of the map

Pacific Ocean Twice — once on the far left edge and once on the far right edge (the map cuts it in two)

Atlantic Ocean Between the Americas on one side and Europe and Africa on the other

Indian Ocean South of Asia, between Africa and Australia

Southern Ocean The strip of water all around Antarctica

Arctic Ocean At the very top, above North America, Europe and Asia

How to do it neatly:

1. Write ocean names in blue and continent names in black or brown, so the two groups can
be told apart at a glance.
2. Print the letters in capitals, spread across the shape, not squeezed into a corner.
3. Label the biggest features first — you will then have room for the small ones.
4. Finally, mark the Equator itself and write ‘0°’ at its left end.

Self-check before you hand it in: Is Asia your largest label and Australia your
smallest? Does the Equator pass through South America, Africa and Indonesia only?
Is the Pacific written twice? Is the Southern Ocean below the Indian and Atlantic, not
beside them? If all four are right, the map is right.

Page 28 of 34

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents
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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

1 2
O X Y G E N

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The completed crossword. The red numbers are the clue numbers printed in your book.

Page 30 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLUE LETTERS ANSWER WHERE THE CHAPTER SAYS IT

1 Across — Abundantly 6 OXYGEN Page 38: more than half the world's
produced by the oceans oxygen comes from the oceans' flora

3 Across — A large expanse of 9 CONTINENT Page 28: “a large continuous expanse of
landmass land is called a continent”

6 Across — A large continent of 7 EURASIA Page 35: geologists regard Europe and
which India is a part Asia as one continent, Eurasia — and
India is part of it

8 Across — A major source of 7 PLASTIC Page 38: several million tonnes of
pollution of the oceans plastic waste are thrown into the oceans
every year

10 Across — The coldest 10 ANTARCTICA Page 37: “a continent with a very cold
continent climate and harsh environment”

2 Down — The largest island on 9 GREENLAND Page 37: you would have to add the ten
Earth largest States of India to reach its size

4 Down — A huge destructive 7 TSUNAMI Page 33: caused by a strong undersea
wave from the ocean earthquake or a volcanic eruption

5 Down — The smallest 9 AUSTRALIA Page 36: only 8 squares in the size
continent diagram

7 Down — The largest body of 7 PACIFIC Page 32: “the Pacific Ocean is the
water on the Earth largest of all”

9 Down — A landmass (but not a 6 ISLAND Pages 36–37: the definition of an island
continent) surrounded by the sea
or ocean

How the crossings prove the answers: the G of OXYGEN starts GREENLAND; the T
of CONTINENT starts TSUNAMI, and its E is the third letter of GREENLAND; EURASIA
is fixed by the U of AUSTRALIA, the A of TSUNAMI and the A of GREENLAND;
PLASTIC crosses AUSTRALIA at its A; and ANTARCTICA takes its first A from
AUSTRALIA, its I from PACIFIC and its last A from ISLAND.

Why 6 Across is EURASIA and not ASIA: the row has seven squares, and the
crossing letters give _ U _ A _ _ A. ASIA has only four letters and would not fit. The
chapter itself introduces ‘Eurasia’ on page 35 as the geologists' name for the single
Europe-and-Asia landmass, of which India is a part.

Page 31 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Chapter at a glance
About three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water and a little over one-fourth is land. That
is why the Earth looks blue from space and early astronauts called it the ‘blue planet’.
The largest water bodies are the oceans — five of them: the Pacific (largest), the Atlantic,
the Indian, the Southern (or Antarctic) and the Arctic (smallest). Their smaller extensions
are called seas, bays and gulfs.
The dividing lines between oceans are only conventions. In reality all the oceans are joined
into one continuous body of water, and seawater — with its marine flora and fauna — flows
freely from one to another.
A large continuous expanse of land is a continent. Continents can be counted in several
ways, from four to seven; the count of seven is the most widely used — Asia, Africa, North
America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, Australia (largest to smallest).
Land and water are not shared equally between the hemispheres: the Northern
Hemisphere has more land, the Southern Hemisphere has more water. Smaller pieces
of land surrounded by water on all sides are islands — Greenland is the largest, and India
has more than 1,300 of them.
Oceans give the continents their rain (India's monsoon is born over the ocean), produce
more than half the world's oxygen, and feed, carry and shape human cultures. They also
bring cyclones and tsunamis, and are today threatened by plastic pollution and
overfishing.

Page 32 of 34

Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Quick revision

TERM WHAT IT MEANS WHERE IT APPEARS EXAMPLE
IN THE CHAPTER

Ocean The largest kind of water body on Pages 28, 31–32, Fig. The Pacific Ocean, the
the Earth 2.3 largest of the five

Continent A large continuous expanse of land Pages 28, 34–35 Asia, of which India is a part

Landmass A large body of land Page 28 Europe and Asia form one
single landmass

Island A piece of land, smaller than a Pages 36–37 Greenland; the Andaman
continent, surrounded by water on and Nicobar Islands
all sides

Sea, bay, gulf Smaller extensions of an ocean Page 29 The Arabian Sea, the Bay of
Bengal, the Gulf of Mannar

Hemisphere One half of the Earth, north or Pages 29, 32, Fig. 2.2 The Northern Hemisphere
south of the Equator has more land

Marine Related to, or found in, the oceans Margin note, page 31 Marine life, marine pollution
and seas

Flora The plant life of a particular region Margin note, page 31 Algae and seaweeds — the
or period of time ocean's flora

Fauna The animal life of a particular Margin note, page 31 Fish, dolphins, whales, sea
region or period of time turtles

Freshwater Water that is not salty and can be Page 31 Glaciers, rivers, lakes,
used by people, plants and land groundwater
animals

Cyclone A violent storm from the ocean Page 33 Cyclones striking the Odisha
with extreme rain or very strong and Andhra coasts
winds

Tsunami A huge, powerful wave caused by Pages 33–34 The Indian Ocean tsunami
an undersea earthquake or volcanic of 26 December 2004
eruption

Eurasia Europe and Asia treated as one Page 35 Geologists usually prefer
single continent this name

Disaster Handling events that cause loss of Page 34 India's National Disaster
management life and property Management Authority

Page 33 of 34

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Class 6 Social Science Chapter 2 Oceans and Continents
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