island

island, any area of land smaller than a continent and entirely surrounded by water. Islands may occur in oceans, seas, lakes, or rivers. A group of islands is called an archipelago.

Islands may be classified as either continental or oceanic. Oceanic islands are those that rise to the surface from the floors of the ocean basins. Continental islands are simply unsubmerged parts of the continental shelf that are entirely surrounded by water. Many of the larger islands of the world are of the continental type. Greenland (840,000 square miles [2,175,000 square km]), the largest island, is composed of the same materials as the adjacent North American continent, from which it is separated by a shallow and narrow sea. Likewise the world’s second largest island, New Guinea (309,000 square miles [800,000 square km]), is part of the Australian continental platform and is separated from it only by the very shallow and narrow Torres Strait. A slight warping of the sea bottom in the vicinity of Torres Strait would be sufficient to join New Guinea to Australia; conversely, a slight rise in sea level may submerge a hilly coast and leave the hilltops remaining as small islands just off shore (such are those off the coast near Boston, Mass., and the islands off the Maine coast).

The islands that rise from the floors of the ocean basins are volcanic. Lava accumulates to enormous thickness until it finally protrudes above the ocean surface. The piles of lava that form Hawaii rise as high as 32,000 feet (9,700 m) above the ocean floor.

Island life exhibits features of special interest. The sea is a barrier to some forms of life but acts as a carrier of others, which, once established in their new home, frequently develop new features in their isolated surroundings. A long-established sea barrier results in marked differences between the animal life and vegetation even of adjacent islands, and from these differences may be deduced the origin of an island. Further, any detailed map of the biological regions of the globe illustrates the importance of islands in the determination of the boundaries of animal-life and vegetational types. For example, to the west of a line (Wallace’s Line) running between Bali and Lombok and between Borneo and Celebes, the islands are biologically Asian, but to the east of the line, notwithstanding the narrowness of the Lombok Strait, the vegetation and animal life are Australian. Oceanic islands are usually colonized by only a few animal forms, chiefly seabirds and insects. They are often covered with abundant vegetation, the seeds of which have been carried there, for example, by air and water currents or by birds; but the plant variety is relatively limited.

A list of the world’s largest islands is provided in the table.

Largest islands of the world
			area*
	name	location	sq mi	sq km
	Greenland	North Atlantic Ocean	822,700	2,130,800
	New Guinea	Papua New Guinea–Indonesia	309,000	800,000
	Borneo	Indonesia–Malaysia–Brunei	283,400	734,000
	Madagascar	Indian Ocean	226,658	587,041
	Baffin Island	Northwest Territories, Can.	195,928	507,451
	Sumatra	Indonesia	167,600	434,000
	Honshu	Japan	87,805	227,414
	Victoria Island	Northwest Territories, Can.	83,897	217,291
	Great Britain	United Kingdom	83,698	216,777
	Ellesmere Island	Northwest Territories, Can.	75,767	196,236
	Celebes	Indonesia	69,100	179,000
	South Island	New Zealand	58,676	151,971
	Java	Indonesia	49,000	126,900
	North Island	New Zealand	44,204	114,489
	Newfoundland	Canada	42,031	108,860
	Cuba	Caribbean Sea	40,519	104,945
	Luzon	Philippines	40,420	104,688
	Iceland	North Atlantic Ocean	39,699	102,819
	Mindanao	Philippines	36,537	94,630
	Ireland	Ireland–U.K.	32,589	84,406
	Hokkaido	Japan	30,144	78,073
*Area given may include small adjoining islands. Conversions for rounded figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.

Aspects of the topic island are discussed in the following places at Britannica.

Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

island - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)

An island is an area of land that is surrounded by water. Islands can be found in all bodies of water, from streams and rivers to lakes, seas, and oceans. The two main types of islands are oceanic islands and continental islands.

island - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Any land area surrounded entirely by water is considered an island. The exception to this definition is a land area of continental size, such as Australia, which is considered a nation-continent. But Iceland, also a nation, is much smaller and is considered an island. Islands are found in oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. A string of islands is called an archipelago, an island chain, or an island arc.