What is the world's largest island?

[Masquerouge]

Well according to wiki,

"There is no standard of size which distinguishes islands from islets and continents."

As such, Australia is the biggest island of the two, and africa/Eurasia is the biggest of them all.

 

[Phlegmak]

The largest island in the world is Africa-Europe-Asia.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Well according to wiki,

"There is no standard of size which distinguishes islands from islets and continents."

As such, Australia is the biggest island of the two, and africa/Eurasia is the biggest of them all.

This being CFC OT, where egregious sophistry is considered a virtue, I'm going to declare that the entire surface of Venus (just over three times the total land area of the Earth) constitutes a single continent.

 

[jessiecat]

You are coming to appreciate one of our more favoured right wing ideological antagonists.

And the only one with any sense of humour IMO.

 

[potatokiosk]

This being CFC OT, where egregious sophistry is considered a virtue, I'm going to declare that the entire surface of Venus (just over three times the total land area of the Earth) constitutes a single continent.

Well I say water is too arbitrary a division and the entire Earth is a single continent.

 

[scy12]

Logic : I am going to say Japan is the largest island because in a Japanese Anime the whole world was Japan. Therefore it is bigger than everything else.

 

[JohnRM]

Greenland. Australia is a continent, not an island. If continents counted, then, well...pfft...Greenland pwns!

 

[holy king]

madagascar?

 

[The Last Conformist]

madagascar?

Madagascar is smaller than any of Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo, but geologically more like a continent of any of them (they're just bits of North America, Australia, and Asia, respectively, cut off by epeiric seas, whereas Madagascar has its own continental shelf). An argument for it being the world's largest island would have to be sophistic indeed!

 

[scy12]

Madagascar is smaller than any of Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo, but geologically more like a continent of any of them (they're just bits of North America, Australia, and Asia, respectively, cut off by epeiric seas, whereas Madagascar has its own continental shelf). An argument for it being the world's largest island would have to be sophistic indeed!

What about Japan ?

 

[SharpMango]

There are no islands, only arbitrary definitions
=|

 

[The Last Conformist]

What about Japan ?

Honshu, the largest of the Japanese islands, is less than half the size of Madagascar. Geologically it's a complex place at the intersection of the Eurasian, North American, Pacific, and Philippine plates. IIUC it's a composite of continental crust rifted from Eurasia and oceanic volcanic arc material.

 

[classical_hero]

There are no islands, only arbitrary definitions
=|

Apparently it seems so.

 

[LucyDuke]

Do you have a flag?

Er.

Does it have a plate?

Makes sense to me that the largest landmass on a continental plate is a continent, and the other landmasses are mere islands. There are qualitative differences between oceanic and continental plates, so none of that OMGZ WHAT ABOUT HAWAII nonsense, please. I suppose that continents are islands as well, but that renders the entire discussion even sillier than it already is, so leave that be.

The answer to the question "what is the world's largest island that is not also a continent?" is "Greenland."

 

[Mise]

Consider this. Lets say there was a size above which midgets, say, were no longer considered midgets -- and lets say that this size was 4ft. Thus, I can say with 100% certainty that the largest midget ever to live will be/was exactly 4ft tall.

This is why size is a stupid cutoff when trying to determine the largest of anything.

 

[bhsup]

What are they teaching in schools now? When I went through, we were taught that Australia was both an island and a continent and was the only landmass that had that distinction.

 

[LucyDuke]

What are they teaching in schools now? When I went through, we were taught that Australia was both an island and a continent and was the only landmass that had that distinction.

Dude, they're teaching kids to use Celsius. And that Europe and Asia are the same continent. And they're not whacking 'em when they mouth off. It's scary. You don't want to see it.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Makes sense to me that the largest landmass on a continental plate is a continent, and the other landmasses are mere islands.

It doesn't make much sense to me - what about landmasses that span multiple plates (eg. Eurasia)? What about plates that include both the whole of a smaller landmass and part of a larger one?

 

[LucyDuke]

It doesn't make much sense to me - what about landmasses that span multiple plates (eg. Eurasia)?

Supercontinent!

What about plates that include both the whole of a smaller landmass

Continent! (If it's larger than the other landmass on the plate.)

and part of a larger one?

Part of a continent!

 

[bhsup]

Dude, they're teaching kids to use Celsius. And that Europe and Asia are the same continent. And they're not whacking 'em when they mouth off. It's scary. You don't want to see it.

Upon re-reading my post, I see how you took that! I was actually wondering just what is being taught today, whether they still teach that it is both a continent and island, or just a continent, or just an island.