*This post may contain affiliate links. This means we may make a commission if you purchase an item using one of our links*
Europe is the second smallest continent on Earth, whilst Europa is the sixth largest moon in our solar system. Still, there’s no comparison regarding which one is bigger as the former is a flat land mass with a surface area of 10.53 million square kilometers and a volume of 420 million cubic kilometers while Europa is a spherical body with a surface area of 30.9 million kilometers and a volume of 15.9 billion cubic kilometers.
For a more detailed look at what makes Europe and Europe as big as they are, continue reading as it will be covered in more detail below.
How Big Is Europe?
Europe is technically considered the second smallest continent in the world, only beaten by Australia. Europe comprises the far west projecting peninsula of Eurasia, a landmass it shares with Asia, and the small continent makes up 2% of the earth’s surface.
Europe’s territory can be tricky to pinpoint. But we will do our best to explain it for you; the Artic ocean borders its to its North and the Atlantic Ocean lies to its West. To the South lies the Mediterranean and Black seas, the Kuma Manych Depression, the Caspian sea, the Ural mountains, and the Zhem River divide it from Asia.
From north to south, Europe covers an area of 3,341 kilometers and spreads approximately 2,154 from east to west. However, because it is an irregular shape, these measurements, when totaling the circumference to find out the land mass, you end up with a greater number; Europe covers a total landmass of 10.53 million square km.
Europe’s coastline is full of seas, fjords, and bays and runs for approximately 38,000 km. It has several islands, including Iceland, Ireland, the British Isles, Sardinia, Malta, Crete, and Cyprus.
As Europe is a continent, it comprises various countries, each with its borders. Some of the largest countries in Europe and their landmasses include France, with 547,030 square kilometers; Sweden, with 449,964 square kilometers, Ukraine, with 603,700 square kilometers; and Poland, with 312,685 square kilometers.
As a result it overall volume if say the average crust across all of the countries present within in it were to 40km, would be 420 million cubic kilometers.
How Big Is Europa?
Europa is a moon that orbits Jupiter and is the smallest of four Galilean moons to do so. It’s the sixth closest to Jupiter out of an astonishing 80 known moons and is the sixth largest moon in our solar system.
Europa was first discovered by the renowned Galileo Galilei back in 1610 and was named Europa in honor of the Phonecian mother of a mythological king of Crete named Minos. Europa was also supposedly the lover of Zeus, who himself was the Greek equivalent of the Roman deity Jupiter.
While Europa is only around 90% the size of earth’s moon, that still makes it a whopping 30, 900,000 kilometers squared. Europa has a diameter of 3,121.6 kilometers, and the majority of the planet is covered in a thick ice sheet that is up to 25 kilometers thick in place.
The total volume of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, is around 15.9 billion square cubic kilometers, and while this may sound like a huge number, it’s only around 0.015% of Earth’s volume, which comes in at approximately 1 Trillion cubic kilometers.
While Europa is but a fraction of the size of earth, it has been suggested by scientists that it could have twice as much water. Various researchers have even suggested that the vast and rich oceans of Europa may be the most promising place in our solar system to look for life.
Summary?
Despite the fact Europe is a whole continent and is the second smallest continent at that, besides diameter it is much smaller that Europa.
In regards to surface area it is just under 3 times smaller and in regards to volume, Europa is roughly 38 times bigger, mostly due to the fact this moon is spherical while Europe is a mostly flat land mass.