Portal:Islands

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A view of some of the Thousand Islands, photographed in 2015 from atop the 1000 Islands Tower, facing northwest. The Thousand Islands are a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the St. Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.
A view of some of the Thousand Islands, photographed in 2015 from atop the 1000 Islands Tower, facing northwest. The Thousand Islands are a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the St. Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.

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 sq km, 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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Ford Island, located within
Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii

Ford Island (Hawaiian: Poka ʻAilana) is an islet in the center of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It has been known as Rabbit Island, Marín's Island, and Little Goats Island, and its native Hawaiian name is Mokuʻumeʻume. The island had an area of 334 acres (135 ha) when it was surveyed in 1825, which was increased during the 1930s to 441 acres (178 ha) with fill dredged out of Pearl Harbor by the United States Navy to accommodate battleships.

It was the site of an ancient Hawaiian fertility ritual, which was stopped by Christian missionaries during the 1830s. The island was given by Kamehameha I to Spanish deserter Francisco de Paula Marín, and later returned to the monarchy. After the island was bought at auction by James Isaac Dowsett and sold to Caroline Jackson, it became the property of Dr. Seth Porter Ford by marriage and was renamed Ford Island. After Ford's death, his son sold the island to the John Papa ʻĪʻī estate and it was converted into a sugarcane plantation. (Full article...)

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A traditional Corsican meal with (from left to right): brocciu, pulenda and figatellu
The cuisine of Corsica is the traditional cuisine of the island of Corsica. It is mainly based on the products of the island, and due to historical and geographical reasons, has much in common with Italian cuisine, and marginally with those of Nice and Provence. (Full article...)

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