The oceans are punctuated with many islands, from the greatest: Greenland (2,200,000 square km), New Guinea (831,000 square km), and Borneo (Kalimantan, 734,000 square km) to
just tiny rocks.
The largest archipelago is Indonesia, comprising 5 big islands (Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, New Guinea) and about 30 miniarchipelagos, summing 13,677 islands.
Altogether, the Earth's islands sum up 10.5 million square km, quite as much as Europe.
_ The most isolated island on Earth is the Bouvet Island, in southern Atlantic. It is situated at 54 degrees 26'S; 3 degrees 24'E and has 49 square km, 93 % covered by glaciers. The closest land is the uninhabited Queen Maud Land shore, in Antarctica.
_The most isolated unhabited island is Tristan da Cunha, in Southern Atlantic.
_The closest land is South Africa, at 2816 km (1750 miles).
_ Manitoulin Island is the largest island located in a lake. It measures 2,766 square km and it's situated in the Canadian part of the Lake Huron. The island itself has 108 lakes, some of which have their own islands!
_The largest atoll (ring-shaped corral-made islands which harbor in the center a lagoon) is Kwajalein (Marshall Islands, Central Pacific). The island measures 283 square km, encircling a 2,850 square km.
The Great Chagos Bank (near Maldives, Indian Ocean) forms a sole atoll structure that encircles a 13,000 square km, but its islands barely measure 4.5 square km.
_Marajo Island is the biggest island located in a river, at the mouth of Amazon River in Brazil. The island has 40,100 square km and is completely surrounded by fresh water.
_ A small sand island located 150 miles (240 km) off New Scotland is constantly …moving. The currents wash permanently its west side, which disappears under the waves, while on its eastern side the waves deposit sand.
The average speed towards the east is about 230 meters per year. In the last two centuries, the island moved 42 km (30 miles).
_ In Tonga archipelago (Central Pacific), submarine volcanoes are constantly producing new islands. The last one emerged in August, 2006, but by now it may have already disappeared under the waves.
|
No user comments yet.
Be the first to express your opinion using the form below!
