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Geographical term for the half of Earth which lies west of the prime meridian and east of the antimeridian
The Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is a geographical term[1][2] for the half of Earth which lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. In geopolitical terms, the context in which the term is most often used, the Encyclopedia Britannica defines it as "North and South America and the surrounding waters. Longitudes 20°W and 160°E are often considered its boundaries."[3] It may be used in a cultural or geopolitical sense as a synonym for the "New World".
Toponomy
As an example of totum pro partecode: lat promoted to code: la , the term Western Hemisphere is widely used by some, such as the United States government, to refer to the Americas.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
Geography
The Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland; the westernmost portion of Europe, both mainland and islands; the westernmost portion of Africa, both mainland and islands; the extreme eastern tip of the Siberian mainland and islands (Russian Asia); numerous territories in Oceania; and a large portion of Antarctica.
In an attempt 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.[1] This projection excludes the European and African mainlands and a small portion of northeast Greenland, but includes more of eastern Russia and Oceania.
Sovereign states in both hemispheres
Below is a list of the sovereign states in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres on the IERS Reference Meridian, in order from north to south:
Below is a list of additional sovereign states which are in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres along the 180th meridian, in order from north to south. (France is not listed below due to its inclusion above, though the meridian does pass Wallis and Futuna.) With the exception of the United States (due to Wake Island, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), all of them are located on just one side of the International Date Line, which curves around them.
Russia, passing through Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its portion lying east of the 180th meridian is the only part of the country lying in the Western Hemisphere.
^ abOlson, Judy M (1997), "Projecting the hemisphere", in Robinson, Arthur H; Snyder, John P (eds.), Matching the map projection to the need, Bethesda, MD: Cartography and Geographic Information Society, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. - "Western Hemisphere", Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2001, p. 1294.
^Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd ed.), London, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 2001 - "Western /western%20hemisphere", Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary (based on Collegiate vol., 11th ed.), Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2006