What is the world's largest island?

[RedRalph]

I just wanted to say I also agree that Europe is not a continent and I consider it merely a peninsula with lots of smaller peninsulas and gulfs inside it, but I don't want to derail the thread.

I think thaqt's a view thats becomeing more prominent, and I'm leaning more and more towards myself. Its only the culture difference that makes people consider it seperate to Asia, Geographically there is no real seperation.

 

[Mirc]

I was taught that the definition of an island is a land mass that is all one country, so australia is the largest. If say queensland had a war of independance and became a seperate country then it would no longer be an island.

If you belive ausralia to not be an island, can you give a definative defanition of one?

So Cyprus, before the Turkish invasion, was a continent, and now it is an island because it is separated in two entities?

I think thaqt's a view thats becomeing more prominent, and I'm leaning more and more towards myself. Its only the culture difference that makes people consider it seperate to Asia, Geographically there is no real seperation.

Exactly my thoughts.

 

[Mise]

On which side is Africa not surrounded by water?

If there is no such thing as too big to be an island, the world's largest island is Eurasia (and was Afro-Eurasia till they dug the Suez canal).

Suez Canal...

How large does the body of water have to be before considering it sufficient to render the isolated land masses an island? If I were standing in a half-filled bathtub, would I be an island? What if I put some dirt into the bathtub, and that dirt floated - would that be the smallest island on the planet?

I don't consider the Suez Canal large enough.

Considering Australasia or Oceania a continent is bizarrerie on a level with considering Europe one.

I'm satisfied with any level of bizarrerie that considers Europe a continent, for the purposes of this discussion.

 

[Samson]

Does this mean that Märket is a continent?

I never said anything about what makes a continent. I always assumed it was to do with continental plates.

Hang on, so Ireland isnt an island? Nor is Borneo? Or Hispaniola?

That is what I was taught, and seems reasnoble to me.

 

[aluka]

Don't forget Antarctica either. If Australia is the largest island you'll have to argue that Antarctica doesn't count as an island.

Also I agree the definition should be purely based on geography not political divisions.

 

[RedRalph]

That is what I was taught, and seems reasnoble to me.

Well it isnt in the least bit reasonable. by every definition going Ireland is an island. your parent should ask for your schoolfees back.

 

[Mise]

Ireland is too large to be an island.

 

[Tee Kay]

I am not a big fan of America-centric maps, but it'll do.

Greenland seems to be an extension of North America, but Australia is distinctly separate from Asia geographically.

 

[The Last Conformist]

How large does the body of water have to be before considering it sufficient to render the isolated land masses an island? If I were standing in a half-filled bathtub, would I be an island? What if I put some dirt into the bathtub, and that dirt floated - would that be the smallest island on the planet?

There's no generally agreed lower size cutoff for islands. They are, however, ordinarily expected to i) not to be free-floating, but connected to the bottom, and ii) be permanent on timescales of days and years. Modulo your bathing habits, I expect most people would be happy to reject your examples as proper islands.

I don't consider the Suez Canal large enough.

I don't see why not - it's a sea level and wider than various natural channels cutting off various bits of land generally agreed to be islands around the world.

I'm satisfied with any level of bizarrerie that considers Europe a continent, for the purposes of this discussion.

Then I hope you'll agree with me that Cornwall is the world's smallest continent.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I never said anything about what makes a continent. I always assumed it was to do with continental plates.

You'll find there is no generally agreed definition what makes a continent. But if Märket is neither an island or a continent, what is it?

 

[Mise]

There's no generally agreed lower size cutoff for islands. They are, however, ordinarily expected to i) not to be free-floating, but connected to the bottom, and ii) be permanent on timescales of days and years. Modulo your bathing habits, I expect most people would be happy to reject your examples as proper islands.

I don't see why not - it's a sea level and wider than various natural channels cutting off various bits of land generally agreed to be islands around the world.

The size of the body of water may be several orders of magnitude larger than the island, but the island may not be several orders of magnitude larger than the body of water.

Then I hope you'll agree with me that Cornwall is the world's smallest continent.

I said I was satisfied with that level of bizarrerie, not with the reasoning behind the particular brand of bizarrerie that considers Europe a continent. I am, however, satisfied with my reasoning as to why Oceania is a continent, in which Australia is a country.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Geez come on guys, at least read wikipedia if your going to read anything at all.

Rivers, canals don't count.
Political divisons has to be the silliest way I have heard of to define an island.

The common theme is that there is no accepted max and min size. But Australia is generally considered a Continent (albeit this does seem to ignore the fact that the Continental shelf etc of Australia contains a lot more than just the one landmass), whilst Greenland is thought of as an Island.

These of course can be argued in detail, and I'm sure some council of scientists will eventually get together, define an island in a scientific way. And lots of people will complain.

 

[Arwon]

Africa isn't surrounded by water on all sides.

Eurasia isn't surrounded by water on all sides.

The moon isn't surrounded by water.

North America and South America are two distinct land masses, connected by a hairsbreadth.

Australia is one single distinct homogenous land mass.

Oh, and, AUSTRALIA ISN'T A CONTINENT!!!!

The continent is AUSTRALASIA, or alternatively OCEANIA, and encompasses New Zealand as well as many other Pacific islands. Australia is a country.

No, it doesn't. New Zealand is a mostly submerged continent called Zeelandia and the Pacific island are coral reefs or volcanic islands on a totally different continental shelf. Oceania is a geographical abstraction in the order of "the Americas".

Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea form a continent because they share a continental shelf, the rest of the islands don't.

There's Australia the country, Australia the island, or Australia the continent (more correctly Australia-New Guinea but that's cumbersome). It ain't hard.

 

[Cullyn]

Greenland - 2,166,086 km²

Australia - 7,741,220 km² or 3.5 times bigger.

 

[The Last Conformist]

The size of the body of water may be several orders of magnitude larger than the island, but the island may not be several orders of magnitude larger than the body of water.

This seems to me an arbitrary and unnecessary restriction, and, depending on how many orders is "several", problematic in areas like Arctic Canada or the Nordic skerrygarths, where lots of landmasses popularly considered islands are divided by relatively narrow channels.

But it doesn't matter much - if the Suez canal doesn't count as a landmass separator, and there is no upper size limit for islands, then Afro-Eurasia is the world's largest island.

 

[GoodGame]

I'd vote that Greenland is the true island, due to being part of an archipelago, which is a set of islands by definition. Otherwise this is a totally relative discussion unless there is an actual numeric standard for square miles of area that distinquishes an island from a continent.

 

[The Last Conformist]

No, it doesn't. New Zealand is a mostly submerged continent called Zeelandia and the Pacific island are coral reefs or volcanic islands on a totally different continental shelf.

The islands of Micronesia and Polynesia are not located on any continental shelf at all.

 

[Arwon]

Well, there you go then. That works too.

 

[Mise]

This seems to me an arbitrary and unnecessary restriction, and, depending on how many orders is "several", problematic in areas like Arctic Canada or the Nordic skerrygarths, where lots of landmasses popularly considered islands are divided by relatively narrow channels.

But it doesn't matter much - if the Suez canal doesn't count as a landmass separator, and there is no upper size limit for islands, then Afro-Eurasia is the world's largest island.

Africa and Eurasia are two distinct land masses, akin to North and South America. Australia, OTOH, is one distinct land mass, and thus qualifies as an island in the island gospel according to Mise.

 

[bhsup]

Australia.

Australia is an island and a continent and a country. It wins the triple crown. Sorry to say, but if you disagree with me, you're simply wrong.