What is considered an island?
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, such as the Philippines.
Island restoration
The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic species, as well as important breeding grounds for seabirds and some marine mammals. Their ecosystems are also very vulnerable to human disturbance and particularly to introduced species, due to their small size. Island groups such as New Zealand and Hawaii have undergone substantial extinctions and losses of habitat. Since the 1950s several organisations and government agencies around the world have worked to restore islands to their original states; New Zealand has used them to hold natural populations of species that would otherwise be unable to survive in the wild. The principal components of island restoration are the removal of introduced species and the reintroduction of native species.
Lanka
Another theory states that the word "Lanka" simply means any island. It is still widely used by the aborigines of Central and Eastern India to mean an island and especially an islet in a river. The word is considered as belonging to Austro-Asiatic languages. The Veddas, the aborigines of Sri Lanka who might be of Austro-Asiatic origin, might have rendered the name "Lanka" to the island. As it is the biggest island in the South Asian context, "Lanka" probably became an exclusive term for it.
List of islands by population
Due to the complicated nature of determining exactly what constitutes a geographic island, versus an administrative region, please see comments for what is included in figures, as some islands include nearby ones. However, this practice is not advised. Please do not update island data without being specific, as the data is often too coarse.
Island ecology
Island ecology is the study of island organisms and their interactions with each other and the environment. Islands account for nearly 1/6 of earth’s total land area, yet the ecology of island ecosystems is vastly different from that of mainland communities. Their isolation and high availability of empty niches leads to increased speciation. As a result, island ecosystems comprise 30% of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, 50% of marine tropical diversity, and some of the most unusual and rare species. Many species still remain unknown.
River island
The term "towhead" implies a little islet or sandbar within a river (most often the Mississippi River) having a grouping or thicket of trees, and is often used in the Midwestern United States. Many rivers, if wide enough, can house considerably large islands. The term "towhead" was popularised by Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".
Pacific Islands
Many islands located within the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean are not considered part of Oceania. These islands include the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador; the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, United States; Vancouver Island in Canada; the Russian islands of Sakhalin and Kuril Islands; the island nation of Taiwan and other islands of the Republic of China; the Philippines; islands in the South China Sea, which includes the disputed South China Sea Islands; most of the islands of Indonesia; and the island nation of Japan, which comprises the Japanese Archipelago.
Wh-movement
However, there are cases in which this is not possible. Certain kinds of phrases do not seem to allow a gap. The phrases from which a wh-word cannot be extracted are referred to as "extraction islands" or simply "islands". The following subsections briefly consider seven types of islands: 1) adjunct islands, 2) wh-islands, 3) subject islands, 4) left branch islands, 5) coordinate structure islands, 6) complex NP islands, and 7) non-bridge islands. These island types were all originally identified in Ross' seminal dissertation. The islands in the examples that follow are underlined in the a-sentences.
Channel Islands
Under the UK Interpretation Act 1978, the Channel Islands are deemed to be part of the British Islands, not to be confused with the British Isles. For the purposes of the British Nationality Act 1981, the “British Islands” include the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland), the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, taken together, unless the context otherwise requires.
South Walls
The fact that neither the 2001 or 2011 censuses mention South Walls in their lists of inhabited islands suggests that there is some dubiety about its status as an island. (In 2001 the General Register Office for Scotland defined an island as "a mass of land surrounded by water, separate from the Scottish mainland" and although the inclusion of islands linked man-made constructions is not clear from this definition in practice they list several separately that are joined to one another by bridges and causeways). The evidence for its island status includes:
Island Park, New York
Island Park is a small Island in southern Nassau County located between the mainland and the Island of Long Beach. It has been known as Hog Island, Barnum Island and Jekyll Island. In 1926, Island Park became an incorporated village.
Terminology of the British Isles
"Great Britain" is both a geographical and a political entity. Geographically, it is one island, but as a political entity it also includes the smaller offshore islands that are administered as part of its constituent nations – England, Wales and Scotland – such as England's Isle of Wight, Wales' Anglesey and Scotland's Inner Hebrides, Outer Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands.
List of islands of the United States by area
This is a list of islands of the United States, as ordered by area. It includes most islands with an area greater than 20 square miles (approximately 52 km). Mainland areas cut by man-made canals are not considered islands.
List of islands of Scotland
The following is a list of places which were formerly islands, but which are no longer so due to silting up, harbour building etc.Many of Scotland's islands are connected to the mainland and/or other islands by bridge or causeway. Although some people consider them no longer to be islands, they are generally treated as such.
List of municipalities on Long Island
A village is an incorporated area which is usually, but not always, within a single town. A village is a clearly defined municipality that provides the services closest to the residents, such as garbage collection, street and highway maintenance, street lighting and building codes. Some villages provide their own police and other optional services. A hamlet is a populated area within a town that is not part of a village. The term "hamlet" is not defined under New York law (unlike cities, towns and villages), but is often used in the state's statutes to refer to well-known populated sections of towns that are not incorporated as villages.
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and over six thousand smaller isles. They have a total area of about 315,159 km and a combined population of just under 70 million, and include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland (which covers roughly five-sixths of Ireland) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The islands of Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey and Sark, and their neighbouring smaller islands, are sometimes also taken to be part of the British Isles, even though, as islands off the coast of France, they do not form part of the archipelago.
List of islands of Maine
The Code column refers to Maine Island Registry status. All islands coded as "R" are registered and privately owned. Those listed as "U" are unregistered and held in trust by the State of Maine (some of these may be privately owned but the owners did not register the islands). Islands listed as "E" are exempt from the registry requirements because they are either owned by the state or federal government or have four or more structures on them and were presumed to be privately owned. Islands listed as "T" are held in trust by the state and management transferred to a particular state agency or organization, such as the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife ("ME IF&W").
Crown dependencies
The Crown dependencies (, ) are three island territories off the coast of Great Britain that are self-governing possessions of the Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Isle of Man. They do not form part of either the United Kingdom or the British Overseas Territories. Internationally, the dependencies are considered "territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible", rather than sovereign states. As a result, they are not member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. However, they do have relationships with the Commonwealth, the European Union, and other international organisations, and are members of the British–Irish Council. They have their own teams in the Commonwealth Games. They are not part of the European Union (EU), although they are within the EU's customs area. The Isle of Man (along with the United Kingdom) is within the EU's VAT area.
Islario
An islario is a Spanish term for a map showing the islands of an ocean, continent or nation.
Lists of islands
This is a list of lists of islands in the world grouped by oceans, by continents, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the other lists of islands below.
Insular area
An insular area of the United States is a U.S. territory that is neither a part of one of the 50 states nor of a Federal district. of the United States Constitution grants to United States Congress the responsibility of overseeing these territories, of which there are currently 14—three in the Caribbean Sea and 11 in the Pacific Ocean. These territories are classified by whether they are incorporated (by Congress extending the full body of the Constitution to the territory as it applies to the several states), and whether they have an organized territorial government established by the U.S. Congress through an Organic Act. All territories but one are unincorporated, and all but four are considered to be unorganized. Five U.S. territories have a permanent, nonmilitary population. Each of them has a civilian government, a constitution, and enjoys some degree of local political autonomy.
List of islands of the Isle of Man
This is a list of islands of the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man () is a Crown dependency in the centre of the Irish Sea. It is not part of the United Kingdom or European Union or a member of the United Nations.
Boundaries between the continents of Earth
The geographical notion of a continent stands in opposition to islands and archipelagos.
Nevertheless, there are some islands that are considered part of Europe in a political sense.
This most notably includes the British Isles (part of the European continental shelf and during the Ice Age of the continent itself), besides the islands of the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean which are part of the territory of a country situated on the European mainland, and usually also the island states of Iceland and Malta.
Territories of the United States
Territories have always been a part of the United States. According to federal law, the term "United States", when used in a geographical sense, means "the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands". Since political union with the Northern Mariana Islands in 1986, they too are treated as a part of the U.S. An executive order adopted in 2007 includes American Samoa in the U.S. "geographical extent" as reflected in U.S. Department of State documents.
Administrative divisions of the Maldives
The administrative definition of an "island" differs from the actual meaning of the word 'island'. While naturally, an "island" refers to a land-mass surrounded by water, an "island" in the administrative sense, refers to a specified inhabited area within an administrative atoll, which is governed over by an "island council". While the majority of "island" class constituencies are indeed natural islands, there are 8 constituencies at "island" class, that are not naturally islands. (The 8 wards of Fuvahmulah Island are administratively considered "islands")
There are 189 such islands, each with its own island council. (Except for Felivaru, Lhaviyani Atoll)
Ireland
Ireland (; ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.
Lake island
A lake island is any landmass within a lake. It is a type of inland island. Lake islands may form a lake archipelago.
Island
Greenland is the world's largest island, with an area of over 2.1 million km, while Australia, the world's smallest continent, has an area of 7.6 million km, but there is no standard of size that distinguishes islands from continents, or from islets.
Island (disambiguation)
An island is a land mass entirely surrounded by water.
United States Minor Outlying Islands
ISO introduced the term "United States Minor Outlying Islands" in 1986. From 1974 until 1986, five of the islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef) were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands, with ISO 3166 code . The code of Midway Atoll was , the code of Johnston Atoll was , and the code of Wake Island was . Prior to 1986, Navassa Island, along with several small islands in the Caribbean Sea—that are no longer under U.S. sovereignty—were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Caribbean Islands, with FIPS country code .
Barrier island
Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen. They are subject to change during storms and other action, but absorb energy and protect the coastlines and create areas of protected waters where wetlands may flourish. A barrier chain may extend uninterrupted for over a hundred kilometers, excepting the tidal inlets that separate the islands, the longest and widest being Padre Island of Texas. The length and width of barriers and overall morphology of barrier coasts are related to parameters including tidal range, wave energy, sediment supply, sea-level trends, and basement controls. The amount of vegetation on the barrier has a large impact on the height and evolution of the island.
Autonomous administrative division
An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has a degree of self-governance, or autonomy, from an external authority. Typically, it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the country or populated by a national minority. Decentralization of self-governing powers and functions to such divisions is a way for a national government to try to increase democratic participation or administrative efficiency or to defuse internal conflicts. Countries that include autonomous areas may be federacies, federations, or confederations. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, and local autonomies.Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man are self-governing Crown dependencies which are not part of the United Kingdom; however, the UK is responsible for their defence and international affairs. Gibraltar is a self-governing overseas territory of the UK. Most of the other 13 British Overseas Territories also have autonomy in internal affairs through local legislatures.New Zealand maintains nominal sovereignty over three Pacific Island nations. The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing countries in free association with New Zealand that maintain some international relationships in their own name. Tokelau remains an autonomous dependency of New Zealand. The Chatham Islands—despite having the designation of "Territory"—is an integral part of the country, situated within the New Zealand archipelago. The territory's council is not autonomous and has broadly the same powers as other local councils, although notably it can also charge levies on goods entering or leaving the islands.Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, each with their own parliament. In addition they enjoy autonomy in taxation matters as well as having their own currencies.The French constitution recognises three autonomous jurisdictions. Corsica, a region of France, enjoys a greater degree of autonomy on matters such as tax and education compared to mainland regions. New Caledonia, a "sui generis" collectivity, and French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity, are highly autonomous territories with their own government, legislature, currency and constitution. They do not, however, have legislative powers for policy areas relating to law and order, defense, border control or university education. Other smaller overseas collectivities have a lesser degree of autonomy through local legislatures. The five overseas regions, French Guiana, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion, are generally governed the same as mainland regions; however, they enjoy some additional powers, including certain legislative powers for devolved areas.
Balearic Islands
The islands can be further grouped, with Majorca, Menorca, and Cabrera as the Gymnesian Islands ("Illes Gimnèsies"), and Ibiza and Formentera as the Pityusic Islands ("Illes Pitiüses" officially in Catalan), also referred to as the Pityuses (or sometimes informally in English as the Pine Islands). Many minor islands or islets are close to the biggest islands, such as Es Conills, Es Vedrà, Sa Conillera, Dragonera, S'Espalmador, S'Espardell, Ses Bledes, Santa Eulària, Plana, Foradada, Tagomago, Na Redona, Colom, L'Aire, etc.
Orkney
The other islands in the group are classified as north or south of the Mainland. Exceptions are the remote islets of Sule Skerry and Sule Stack, which lie west of the archipelago, but form part of Orkney for local government purposes. In island names, the suffix "a" or "ay" represents the Norse "ey", meaning "island". Those described as "holms" are very small.
List of island countries
This is a list of island countries. An island is a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water. Many island countries are spread over an archipelago, as is the case with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Indonesia (both of which consist of thousands of islands). Others consist of a single island, such as Nauru, or part of an island, such as Haiti. Although Australia is designated as a continent, it is often referred to as an island, as it has no land borders. Some declared island countries are not universally recognized as politically independent, such as Northern Cyprus. Some states, such as Taiwan, officially claim to hold continental territories but are "de facto" limited to control over islands.
Islet
An islet is a very small island.
Low island
This distinction is important to understand, as there are some low islands, such as Makatea, Nauru, Niue and Banaba, which rise several hundred feet above sea level, while a number of "High Islands" (those of volcanic origin) can rise no more than a few feet above sea level, often classified as "rocks". Low islands are the kind of islands which ring the lagoons of atolls.
List of islands of the United Kingdom
This is a list of islands of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has thousands of islands within its territory and several external territories. This is a list of selected British islands grouped by constituent country or overseas territory. The largest British island is Great Britain, which forms a substantial majority of the United Kingdom and is the ninth-largest island in the world.
List of islands of Scotland
"Eilean" is Gaelic for "island". However, Inistrynich, Eilean na Maodail, Eilean Dubh and Liever Island are all promontories on Loch Awe as opposed to islands, despite their names. Likewise Eilean Aoidhe on Loch Fyne. The Black Isle is also "An t-Eilean Dubh" in Gaelic, while Eilean Glas is part of Scalpay.
Districts and sub-districts of the United States Virgin Islands
Each island is treated as a county-equivalent.
Windward and leeward
"Leeward" and "windward" refer respectively to what a game stalker would call downwind and upwind. The terms are used by seamen in relation to their ships but also in reference to islands in an archipelago and to the different sides of a single island. In the latter case, the windward side is that side of an island subject to the prevailing wind, and is thus the wetter side (see orographic precipitation). The leeward side is the side protected by the elevation of the island from the prevailing wind, and is typically the drier side of an island. Thus, leeward or windward siting is an important weather and climate factor on oceanic islands.
Island Commander
An Island Commander is an official who is put in charge of an island, or an insular entity called after an island or an archipelago called Islands.
Windermere
The other islands or "holmes" are considerably smaller. The word "holme" or "holm" means small island or islet and comes from Old Norse "holmr". The island of Lady Holme is named after the chantry that formerly stood there and in former centuries was sometimes called St Mary Holme or just Mary Holme. The remaining islands are Bee Holme (the insular status of which depends on the water level), Blake Holme, Crow Holme, Birk or Birch Holme (called Fir Holme on Ordnance Survey maps), Grass Holme, Lilies of the Valley (East, and West), Ling Holme (a rocky hump with a few trees and a growth of ling), Hawes Holme, Hen Holme (also rocky and sometimes known as Chair and Table Island from some old flags or slabs of stone that were formerly found there), Maiden Holme (the smallest island, with just one tree), Ramp Holme (variously called Roger Holme and Berkshire Island at different times in its history), Rough Holme, Snake Holme, Thompson Holme (the second largest), Silver Holme.
Guano Islands Act
This is the beginning of the concept of insular areas in U.S. territories. Up to this time, any territory acquired by the U.S. was considered to have become an integral part of the country unless changed by treaty and eventually to have the opportunity to become a state of the Union. With insular areas, land could be held by the federal government without the prospect of its ever becoming a state in the Union.
List of islands of Scotland
This is a list of islands of Scotland, the mainland of which is part of the island of Great Britain. Also included are various other related tables and lists. The definition of an offshore island used in this list is "land that is surrounded by seawater on a daily basis, but not necessarily at all stages of the tide, excluding human devices such as bridges and causeways".
List of Outer Hebrides
The definition of an island used in this list is that it is "land that is surrounded by seawater on a daily basis, but not necessarily at all stages of the tide, excluding human devices such as bridges and causeways".
Suffolk County, New York
In New York State, a town is the major subdivision of each county. Towns provide or arrange for most municipal services for residents of hamlets and selected services for residents of villages. All residents of New York who do not live in a city or on an Indian reservation live in a town. A village is an incorporated area which is usually, but not always, within a single town. A village is a clearly defined municipality that provides the services closest to the residents, such as garbage collection, street and highway maintenance, street lighting and building codes. Some villages provide their own police and other optional services. A hamlet is an informally-defined populated area within a town that is not part of a village.Gardiners Island is an island off eastern Suffolk County in the U.S. state of New York.
Tapere
A Tapere or Sub-District is a low level of traditional land subdivision on five of the Lower Cook Islands (Rarotonga, Mangaia, Aitutaki, Atiu, and Mauke), comparable to the ahupua'a of the main Hawaiian Islands. Among the populated raised islands, only Mitiaro is not subdivided into tapere. The remaining southern Cook Islands, Manuae, Palmerston and Takutea are atolls and/or uninhabited, and therefore not subject to this type of traditional subdivision. The atolls of the northern Cook Islands are subdivided into "motu" (populated atoll islets), instead.
Island
An island may be described as such, despite the presence of an artificial land bridge; examples are Singapore and its causeway, and the various Dutch delta islands, such as IJsselmonde. Some places may even retain "island" in their names for historical reasons after being connected to a larger landmass by a land bridge or landfill, such as Coney Island and Coronado Island, though these are, strictly speaking, tied islands. Conversely, when a piece of land is separated from the mainland by a man-made canal, for example the Peloponnese by the Corinth Canal or Marble Hill in northern Manhattan during the time between the building of the United States Ship Canal and the filling-in of the Harlem River which surrounded the area, it is generally not considered an island.
List of peninsulas
A peninsula ( from "paene" "almost" and "insula" "island") is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. The surrounding water is usually understood to be continuous, though not necessarily named as such. A peninsula can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point,
or spit. A point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape. In English, the plural of peninsula is "peninsulas" or, less commonly, "peninsulae". A river which courses through a very tight meander is also sometimes said to form a "peninsula" within the (almost closed) loop of water.
Snake Island (Black Sea)
The status of Snake Island was important for delimitation of continental shelf and exclusive economic zones between the two countries. If Snake Island were recognized as an island, then continental shelf around it should be considered as Ukrainian water. If Snake Island were not an island, but a rock, then in accordance with international law the maritime boundary between Romania and Ukraine should be drawn without taking into consideration the isle location.
Parishes of Grenada
The Caribbean island country of Grenada is divided into regions known as parishes.
A parish defines a territorial unit or region that, historically, was usually an area under the pastoral care served by a local church as an ecclesiastical administrative unit (see Parish) and later used by map-makers to set boundaries to an area of land. Traditionally a settlement or village would centre on a church and later grow to become a town and then even a city. Therefore, a parish has now come to mean an administrative division and is used so by several countries as the smallest unit (or lowest tier) of local government.
Traffic island
A traffic island is a solid or painted object in a road that channels traffic. It can also be a narrow strip of island between roads that intersect at an acute angle. If the island uses road markings only, without raised kerbs or other physical obstructions, it is called a painted island or (especially in the UK) ghost island. Traffic islands can be used to reduce the speed of cars driving through, or to provide a central refuge to pedestrians crossing the road.
Archipelagic state
Archipelagic states are states that are composed of groups of islands forming a state as a single unit, with the islands and the waters within the baselines as internal waters. Under this concept ("archipelagic doctrine"), an archipelago shall be regarded as a single unit, so that the waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the state, and are subject to its exclusive sovereignty.
Archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Estate (land)
More generally and usually in modern times, an estate is any large packet of land in single ownership: seeIn the United States: Long Island, Westchester County, Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, and other affluent East Coast enclaves; the San Francisco Bay Area, early Beverly Hills, California, Montecito, California and other affluent West Coast enclaves are estates; all had strong traditions of large agricultural, grazing, and productive estates modeled on those in Europe. However, by the late 1940s and early 1950s, many had been demolished and subdivided, in some cases resulting in suburban villages named for the former owners, as in Baxter Estates, New York.
List of islands of Ireland
This is a list of islands of Ireland. Ireland is itself an island, lying west of the island of Great Britain and northwest of mainland Europe. Islands are listed clockwise around the coast, starting from the north-east.
Mail pouch
Domestic mail that would be carried in a mail pouch is mail that would be ultimately delivered to United States territories and possessions ("e.g.", Army Post Offices (APOs), fleet Post Offices (FPOs), and the United Nations, NY). The United States Postal Service defines "territories and possessions" in its Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) as being American Samoa, Manua Island, Swains Island, Tutuila Island, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of the Rota Island, Saipan Island, Tinian Island, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Croix Island, St. John Island, St. Thomas Island, Wake Atoll, and Wake Island. Mail originating in the United States and going to or coming from the Freely Associated States is treated as domestic mail. These are the Marshall Islands, Ebeye Island, Kwajalein Island, Micronesia, Kosrae Island, Pohnpei Island, Yap Island, Palau, and Koror Island.
List of Shetland islands
The definition of an island used in this list is that it is land that is surrounded by seawater on a daily basis, but not necessarily at all stages of the tide, excluding human devices such as bridges and causeways. There are four islands joined to the Shetland Mainland by bridges, East Burra, West Burra, Trondra, and Muckle Roe. There is also a bridge from Housay to Bruray. Nowhere in Shetland is more than three miles (5 km) from the sea. Mavis Grind (Old Norse for "gate of the narrow isthmus") is a narrow neck of land little more than 100 metres (328 feet) wide separating St. Magnus Bay and the Atlantic in the west from Sullom Voe and the North Sea in the east.
Continent
From this perspective, the edge of the continental shelf is the true edge of the continent, as shorelines vary with changes in sea level. In this sense the islands of Great Britain and Ireland are part of Europe, while Australia and the island of New Guinea together form a continent.
Insular area
The following islands, or island groups, are considered insular areas of the United States:
Okinotorishima
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is "a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide". It states that "rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone." Japan signed the Convention in 1983; the Convention came into force in 1994–1996 for Japan.
Isla Aves
Isla de Aves (Spanish for "Island of Birds" or "Birds Island"), or Aves Island, is a Caribbean dependency of Venezuela. It has been the subject of numerous territorial disputes between the neighboring independent islands, such as Dominica, and European mother countries of surrounding dependent islands, such as the Netherlands. It is part of the Aves Ridge and lies to the west of the Windward Islands chain at . It is in length and never more than in width, and rises above the sea on a calm day. Under a particular interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea it could be classified as a rock, which would only give Venezuela a twelve nautical mile economic zone. However, Venezuela claims it is an island, which grants it a exclusive economic zone. Mostly sand, a small portion has some scrubby vegetation. It is sometimes completely submerged during hurricanes. It is southwest of the closest land, Montserrat, west of Dominica and north of the Venezuelan mainland.
For some time the island has been in danger of eroding altogether, and Venezuelan authorities are considering ways to protect it, along with the territorial claims to the Caribbean Sea which radiate from Isla Aves. The impact of Hurricane Allen in the 1980 Atlantic hurricane season divided it into two parts, but accretions of coral have subsequently reunited it. On August 17, 2007, the force of Hurricane Dean severely eroded the island.
The island is a resting and breeding place for seabirds and the green sea turtle ("Chelonia mydas"). Its low profile makes it a hazard to navigation, and many ships have been wrecked here.
Aves Island is a particularly rare amateur radio "entity", under the ITU prefix YV0. A 2006 expedition by operators to the island required 14 years of planning. Though one member suffered a fatal heart attack, over 42,000 contacts were made during their week-long stay.
List of islands of Denmark
Another common criterion is that an "island" needs to be surrounded by free-flowing, natural water and not just an artificial, narrow canal. According to this criterion, places such as Christianshavn and Holmen in Copenhagen, although sometimes referred to as artificial islands, are actually parts of the island of Amager.
Britain (place name)
The term "Britain" is widely used as a common name for the sovereign state of the "United Kingdom", or UK for short. The United Kingdom includes three countries on the largest island, which can be called "the island of Britain" or "Great Britain": these are England, Scotland and Wales. However the United Kingdom also includes Northern Ireland on the neighbouring island of Ireland, the remainder of which is not part of the United Kingdom. "England" is not synonymous with "Britain", "Great Britain", or "United Kingdom".
Gat (landform)
According to Whittow a gat is either an inshore channel or strait dividing offshore islands from the mainland e.g. the Frisian Islands, or it is an opening in a line of sea cliffs allowing access to the coast from inland. It is similar, but not identical, to a gut, which is a narrow river channel or strait prior to joining an open ocean or estuary. Leser restricts its use to deep, but relatively narrow inlets in the Wadden Sea that are scoured out by currents, giving the example of the gap between the Frisian islands of Juist and Nordeney.
Ocean
An ocean () is a body of saline water that composes much of a planet's hydrosphere. On Earth, an ocean is one of the major conventional divisions of the World Ocean. These are, in descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern (Antarctic), and Arctic Oceans. The word "ocean" is often used interchangeably with "sea" in American English. Strictly speaking, a "sea" is a body of saline water (generally a division of the world ocean) partly or fully enclosed by land, though "the sea" refers also to the oceans.
Continental Europe
"The Continent" may sometimes refer to the continental part of [Italy (excluding Sardinia, Sicily, etc.), the continental part of [Spain (excluding the Balearic islands, the Canary Islands, Alboran, etc.), the continental part of France (excluding Corsica, etc.), the continental part of Portugal (excluding the Madeira and Azores islands), or the continental part of Greece (excluding the Ionian Islands, the Aegean Islands, and Crete). The term is used from the perspective of the island residents of each country to describe the continental portion of their country or the continent (or mainland) as a whole.
International Island Games Association
Current members of the IIGA are:Gibraltar is the only member of the IIGA that is not an island or group of islands as it is a peninsula of Iberia, sharing a land border with Spain. Ynys Môn (Anglesey), Frøya and Hitra have bridge or tunnel connections to their mainland. Greenland is by far the largest island, and is bigger than all the rest combined, but is very sparsely populated. Former members of the IIGA include the countries Iceland and Malta and the province Prince Edward Island.
Territories of the United States
The territories do not have counties as administrative divisions. The U.S. Census Bureau counts the following as county-equivalents: the 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico, the 3 main islands of the U.S. Virgin Islands, all of Guam, the 4 municipalities of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the 3 districts and 2 atolls of American Samoa. The U.S. Census Bureau also counts each of the islands in the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands as county-equivalents.
Lake island
Artificial or man-made islands are islands constructed by human activity rather than formed by natural means. They may be totally created by humans, enlarged from existing islands or reefs, formed by joining small existing islands, or cut from a mainland (for example, by cutting through the isthmus of a peninsula). Artificial islands have a long history, dating back to the crannogs of prehistoric Britain and Ireland, and the traditional floating Uru islands of Lake Titicaca in South America. Notable early artificial islands include the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, at the site of modern Mexico City. Though technically caused by human activity, islands formed from hilltops by the deliberate flooding of valleys (such as in the creation of hydroelectricity projects and reservoirs) are not normally regarded as artificial islands.
List of Ultras of North America
This article defines greater North America as the portion of the continental landmass of the Americas extending westward and northward from the Isthmus of Panama plus the islands surrounding that landmass. This article defines the islands of North America to include the coastal islands of North America, the islands of the Caribbean Sea, the Lucayan Archipelago, the Bermuda Islands, the Islands of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), the islands of Northern Canada, the islands of Alaska, and the islands of the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian Islands are not included because they are considered part of Oceania.
Islet
As suggested by its origin as "islette", an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability.
Whether an islet is considered a rock or not can have significant economic consequences under Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which stipulates that "Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf." One long-term dispute over the status of such an islet was that of Snake Island (Black Sea).
Earthsea
The world of Earthsea is one of sea and islands: a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands surrounded by mostly uncharted ocean. Earthsea contains no large continents, with the archipelago resembling Indonesia or the Philippines. The largest island, Havnor, at approximately 380 miles across, is about the size of Great Britain. The cultures of Earthsea are not direct analogues of those of our world, but are literate non-industrial civilizations. Technologically, Earthsea is an early Iron Age society, with bronze used in places where iron is scarce. Weapons also include the use of wood and other hard but easily crafted metals. The overall climate of Earthsea is temperate, comparable to the mid-latitudes (over a distance of about 1800 miles) of the Northern hemisphere. There is a yearly transition from warm summers to cold and snowy winters, especially in northern islands like Gont and Osskil. In the southern regions of Earthsea it can be much warmer.
Island range
An island range is a mountain range that exists in total or almost total isolation from a larger chain of ranges and sub-ranges. From a distance on the plains, these ranges appear as "islands" of higher ground. They are often described as islands of mountainous land because they exist in the "sea" of lower elevation and flatter prairie country; many examples are found in the northern Rocky Mountains of the United States. Island ranges include the Big Snowy Mountains of east-central Montana, the Crazy Mountains of south-central Montana, or the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma. Island ranges, due to their isolation, often have animal and/or plant species or subspecies found nowhere else.
Private island
A Private Island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a single private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and sometimes local governments.
Terminology of the British Isles
Under the Interpretation Act 1978 of the United Kingdom, the legal term British Islands (as opposed to the geographical term "British Isles") refers to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, together with the Crown dependencies: the Bailiwicks of Jersey and of Guernsey (which in turn includes the smaller islands of Alderney, Herm and Sark) in the Channel Islands; and the Isle of Man.
Continental Europe
The most common definition of continental Europe excludes continental islands, encompassing the Greek Islands, Cyprus, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Great Britain and Ireland and surrounding islands, Novaya Zemlya and the Danish archipelago, as well as nearby oceanic islands, including the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Svalbard.
List of islands by population
This is a list of islands in the world ordered by population. It includes all islands with population greater than 100,000. For comparison, continental landmasses are also shown, in italics. The population of the world's islands is over 730 million, approximately 11% of the world's total population. Of those, only Java and Honshu are home to over 1% of the planet's people.
Inland island
An inland island is an island in a lake (lake island) or an island in a river (river island).
Examples are listed in the following two lists:
United States Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands (USVI; also called the American Virgin Islands), officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, is a group of islands in the Caribbean and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.
Island country
An island country is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. As of 2011, 46 (approximately 24%) of the 193 UN member states are island countries.
Island
There are two main types of islands in the sea: continental and oceanic. There are also artificial islands.
Wāḳwāḳ
Wāḳwāḳ (Wāḳ Wāḳ, Wāḳ al-Wāḳ, al-Wāḳwāḳ; Arabic: "") is the name of an island, or possibly more than one island, in medieval Arabic geographical and imaginative literature.
Language island
A language island is an exclave of a language that is surrounded by one or more different languages.
Sand island
A sand island is an island that is largely or completely made of sand. The largest sand island in the world is Fraser Island. Other examples of large sand islands are Moreton, North Stradbroke and Bribie, Islands which lie south of Fraser Island off the east coast of Australia.
Indianapolis Island
The idea of an island appeals to me as representation of many of the values that we strive for in our 21st-century culture: individualism, independence, autonomy, and self-sufficiency. Yet at the same time, these are the same desires that isolate us and lessen collective social and political power. I am fascinated at how the things that set us free are also the same things that oppress us; you could say that the concept of the deserted island is both our greatest fantasy and our greatest fear.
Realm
More broadly, a "realm" may encompass territories that are subject to a monarch, yet are not a physical part of his or her "kingdom"; for example, the Cook Islands and Niue are considered parts of the Realm of New Zealand, although they are not part of New Zealand proper.
List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean
This is a list of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the largest of which is Great Britain. Note that the IHO definition of the ocean excludes the seas, gulfs, bays, etc., bordering the ocean itself. Thus, for instance, not all of the islands of the United Kingdom are actually "in" or "bordering on" the Atlantic. For reference, islands in gulfs and seas are included in a separate section. Oceanic islands are formed by seamounts rising from the ocean floor with peaks above the surface of the ocean, and are not parts of continental tectonic plates.
Within the Caribbean Sea:
Within the Gulf of Guinea:
Within the Greenland Sea:
Within the Norwegian Sea:
Island
Continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. Examples are Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Sakhalin, Taiwan and Hainan off Asia; New Guinea, Tasmania, and Kangaroo Island off Australia; Great Britain, Ireland, and Sicily off Europe; Greenland, Newfoundland, Long Island, and Sable Island off North America; and Barbados, the Falkland Islands, and Trinidad off South America.
Continent
As a cultural construct, the concept of a continent may go beyond the continental shelf to include oceanic islands and continental fragments. In this way, Iceland is considered part of Europe and Madagascar part of Africa. Extrapolating the concept to its extreme, some geographers group the Australian continental plate with other islands in the Pacific into one continent called Oceania. This divides the entire land surface of Earth into continents or quasi-continents.
List of islands of Scotland
Rockall is a small rocky islet in the North Atlantic which was declared part of Scotland by the Island of Rockall Act 1972. However, despite no possession by any other state and other precedents, the legality of the claim is disputed by the Republic of Ireland, Denmark and Iceland and some say, it may be unenforceable in international law.
Outer Lands
Long Island is often informally considered a part of the "New York islands", together with Staten Island and Manhattan. These islands are geographically contiguous with the broader region. (The insular Massachusetts sections were actually part of the Province of New York for most of the late 17th century.)
Artificial island
An artificial island or man-made island is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means. Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure, to those that support entire communities and cities. Early artificial islands included floating structures in still waters, or wooden or megalithic structures erected in shallow waters (e.g. crannógs and Nan Madol discussed below).
Witch Island
Witch Island (also known as Davis Island) is an wildlife sanctuary in South Bristol, Maine.
The island contains a beach large enough to host a kayak or canoe trip and thus the island is frequented by summer visitors looking for a day trip. Since the island is a sanctuary, it remains uninhabited. Currently, many of the hikers use the twigs and bark found on the islands' trails to create miniature "witch houses" (the houses, although fewer in number, are similar to those found on Monhegan Island). The island is also named Davis Island, but the name Witch Island has been used as the accepted name both on maps and in conversation.
Terminology of the British Isles
The dictionary definition of British Isles is that it is a geographical term that refers to the whole of Ireland and Great Britain as well as the surrounding islands. It is sometimes incorrectly used as if identical to the UK; or to refer to Great Britain and the surrounding islands, excluding the island of Ireland entirely. The BBC and "The Times" have style guides that mandate the dictionary definition but occasional misuse can be found on their web sites.
Tidal island
A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands many of them have been sites of religious worship, such as Mont Saint-Michel with its Benedictine Abbey. Tidal islands are also commonly the sites of fortresses because of their natural fortifications.
Geography of Long Island
In United States v. Maine (1985) the U.S. Supreme Court treated the island as a peninsula for the purposes of a boundary decision. Despite the legal decision the United States Board on Geographic Names considers Long Island an island, because it is surrounded by water.
Wake Island
Although Wake is officially called an island in the singular form, it is actually an atoll composed of three islets and a reef surrounding a central lagoon:
Easter Island
Easter Island is considered part of Insular Chile.
Archipelago Sea
The archipelago has a very large number of islands. The exact number depends on the definition of the term "island", as the size of the patches of dry land in the area varies from small rocks peeking out of the water to large islands with several villages or even small towns. The number of the larger islands of over 1 km within the Archipelago Sea (in provinces of Åland Isles and Southwest Finland) is 257, whilst the number of smaller isles of over 0.5 ha is about 17,700. If the number of smallest uninhabitable rocks and skerries is accounted, 50,000 is probably a good estimate. In comparison, the number of islands in Canadian Arctic Archipelago is 36,563. Indonesia has 17,508 islands, according to the Indonesian Naval Hydro-Oceanographic Office. The Philippines have 7,107 islands.