Portal:Islands
The Islands Portal
An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely 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. Sedimentary islands in the Ganges Delta are called chars. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands, such as the Philippines, is referred to as an archipelago.
There are two main types of islands in the sea: continental islands and oceanic islands. There are also artificial islands (man-made islands).
There are about 900,000 official islands in the world. This number consists of all the officially-reported islands of each country. The total number of islands in the world is unknown. There may be hundreds of thousands of tiny islands that are unknown and uncounted. The number of sea islands in the world is estimated to be more than 200,000. The total area of the world's sea islands is approx. 9,963,000 km2, which is similar to the area of Canada and accounts for roughly 1/15 (or 6.7%) of the total land area of Earth. (Full article...)
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Mackinac Island (/ˈmækənɔː/ MAK-ə-naw, locally /ˈmækənə/ MAK-ə-nə; French: Île Mackinac; Ojibwe: Mishimikinaak ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ; Ottawa: Michilimackinac) is an island and resort area, covering 4.35 square miles (11.3 km2) in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac and "Mitchimakinak" in Ojibwemowin, meaning "Great Turtle". It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was long home to an Odawa settlement and previous indigenous cultures before European colonization began in the 17th century. It was a strategic center of the fur trade around the Great Lakes. Based on a former trading post, Fort Mackinac was constructed on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the site of two battles during the War of 1812 before the northern border was settled and the US gained this island in its territory.
In the late 19th century, Mackinac Island became a popular tourist attraction and summer colony. Many of the structures on the island have undergone extensive historical preservation and restoration. Because of its historic significance, the entire island is listed as a National Historic Landmark. It is well known for numerous cultural events; a wide variety of architectural styles, including the Victorian Grand Hotel; and its ban on almost all motor vehicles, with exceptions only for city emergency vehicles (ambulance, police cars and fire trucks), city service vehicles and snowmobiles in winter. More than 80 percent of the island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park. (Full article...)
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- List of islands by highest point
- List of islands by name
- List of islands by population
- List of islands by population density
- List of archipelagos
- List of archipelagos by number of islands
- List of artificial islands
- List of divided islands
- List of fictional islands
- List of island countries
- List of islands in lakes
- List of islands named after people
- List of islands of the European Union
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Did you know –
- ... that Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility is listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
- ... that while some lichen species in the genus Piccolia have ranges which span multiple continents, others are restricted to single islands?
- ... that Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi swam seven miles (11 km) with her child strapped to her back, from Kapiti Island to the New Zealand mainland, to raise the alarm about an impending invasion?
- ... that Monet decorated his house at Giverny with Kuniyoshi's In the Snow at Tsukahara, Sado Island, one of about 231 Japanese prints in Monet's personal collection?
- ... that after decades of being a central hub for river dredging operations, Stony Island's population was reduced to a caretaker and his two dogs?
- ... that Saint John's Island was the site of one of the British Empire's largest quarantine centres and held one of the first experimental drug rehabilitation centres?
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- Listing of islands from the United Nations Island Directory