Island
hideAn island (pronounced /ˈaɪlənd/) or isle (/ˈaɪl/) is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, /ˈaɪ.ət/. There are two main types of islands: continental islands and oceanic islands. There are also artificial islands. A grouping of geographically and/or geologically related islands is called an archipelago.
The word island comes from Old English ī(e)gland (literally, "watery land"). However, the spelling of the word was modified in the 15th century by association with the etymologically unrelated Old French loanword isle.
There is no standard of size which distinguishes islands from islets and continents.
When defining islands as pieces of land that are surrounded by water, narrow bodies of water like rivers and canals are often, but not always, left out of consideration[citation needed]. For instance, in France the Canal du Midi connects the Garonne river to the Mediterranean Sea, thereby completing a continuous water connection from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. So technically, the land mass that includes the Iberian Peninsula and the part of France that is south of the Garonne River and the Canal du Midi is surrounded by water. For a completely natural example, the Orinoco River splits into two branches near Tamatama, in Amazonas state, Venezuela. The southern branch flows south and joins the Rio Negro, and then the Amazon. Thus, all of the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana) and substantial parts of Brazil and Venezuela are surrounded by (river or ocean) water. These instances are not generally considered islands. However, small pieces of land bordered by rivers are considered islands.
This also helps explain why Africa-Eurasia can be seen as one continuous landmass (and thus technically the biggest island): generally the Suez Canal is not seen as something that divides the land mass in two. The mainland of Australia is often considered the largest island because it is covered on all sides by water while not being connected to another body of land.
On the other hand, an island may still be described as such despite the presence of a land bridge, e.g., Singapore and its causeway or the various Dutch delta Islands, such as IJsselmonde. Some places may even retain "island" in their names after being connected to a larger landmass by a wide land bridge, such as Coney Island. The retaining of the island description may therefore be to some degree simply due to historical reasons - though the land bridges are often of a different geological nature (for example sand instead of stone), and thus the islands remain islands in a more scientific sense as well.
For more information about Island, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with islands
Darwin's mockingbirds DNA research may help species recovery
Nov 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- New research could help protect the future of a rare bird in the Galapagos Islands that was an inspiration for Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, scientists report in a paper ...
Russia gains new land after quake, lava flows: scientist
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 13, 2009 |
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Russia, the world's largest country, has grown even larger recently thanks to an earthquake and a volcanic eruption in its seismically active far eastern regions, a scientist said on Friday.
Bridge opens China's 'last virgin island' for development
Nov 01, 2009 |
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China on Saturday opens a new bridge over the Yangtze that will pave the way for rapid development of the country's "last virgin island," Chongming -- now just an hour's drive from booming Shanghai.
Fortuitous research provides first detailed documentation of tsunami erosion
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 27, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, a group of scientists working in the Kuril Islands off the east coast of Russia has documented the scope of tsunami-caused erosion and found that a wave can carry away ...
NASA satellite still sees heavy rainfall in Tropical Storm Neki
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 24, 2009 |
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Tropical Storm Neki continues moving north and over the weekend it will be in open waters in the Central Atlantic. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Neki early on October ...
Satellites see Typhoon Lupit now bringing more rains to soggy Philippines
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 22, 2009 |
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Typhoon Lupit (called Ramil in the Philippines) is already raining over the northern Luzon today, October 22. The storm has unfortunately slowed to 8 mph as it creeps westward, and that's bad news for flood-weary ...
The first men and women from the Canary Islands were Berbers
Oct 21, 2009 |
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A team of Spanish and Portuguese researchers has carried out molecular genetic analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted only by males) of the aboriginal population of the Canary Islands to determine their ...
Migratory route of Eleonora's falcon revealed for first time
Oct 16, 2009 |
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Satellite tracking has allowed a research team to uncover the mysteries of the migration of Eleanora's falcon for the first time. In total, the bird flies more than 9,500 kilometres across the African continent ...
Giant impact near India -- not Mexico -- may have doomed dinosaurs
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (41) |
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A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 ...
Feds give sea otters habitat protection in Alaska
Oct 08, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Four years after being placed on the Endangered Species List, the dwindling sea otters of southwest Alaska on Wednesday were given an important recovery tool.
Scientists track green turtle’s 900km migration
Oct 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Exeter scientists are part of the first team to monitor a sea turtle's journey from the Turks and Caicos Islands. The adult female green turtle, named ‘Suzie’ by local fishermen, ...
Black rat does not bother Mediterranean seabirds
Oct 02, 2009 |
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Human activities have meant invasive species have been able to populate parts of the world to which they are not native and alter biodiversity there over thousands of years. Now, an international team of scientists ...
Major quakes can weaken seismic faults far away, scientists say
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- U.S. seismologists have found evidence that the massive 2004 earthquake that triggered killer tsunamis throughout the Indian Ocean weakened at least a portion of California's famed San Andreas ...
Research team saves turtle species on the brink (w/ Video)
Sep 22, 2009 |
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University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers exploring strategies for conserving the Diamondback Terrapin along Alabama's Dauphin Island coastline are working to keep the once-celebrated turtle off ...
Could salt crusts be key ingredient in cooking up prebiotic molecules?
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 18, 2009 |
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German scientists investigating the complex chemical mixture thought to be present in the early Earth’s oceans have found that amino acids can be 'cooked' into many other important chemical building blocks ...
