An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of
islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the
Indonesian Archipelago, the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the
Lakshadweep Islands, the
Galápagos Islands, the
Japanese archipelago
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...
, the
Philippine Archipelago, the
Maldives, the
Balearic Islands,
The Bahamas, the
Aegean Islands, the
Hawaiian Islands, the
Canary Islands,
Malta, the
Azores, the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark).
Situated in the northern extremity of ...
, the
British Isles, the islands of the
Archipelago Sea, and
Shetland. They are sometimes defined by political boundaries. For example, the Gulf archipelago off the northeastern Pacific coast forms part of a larger archipelago that geographically includes Washington state's
San Juan Islands; while the Gulf archipelago and San Juan Islands are geographically related, they are not technically included in the same archipelago due to manmade geopolitical borders.
Etymology
The word ''archipelago'' is derived from the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
ἄρχι-(''arkhi-'', "chief") and πέλαγος (''pélagos'', "sea") through the Italian ''arcipelago''. In
antiquity, "Archipelago" (from
Medieval Greek *ἀρχιπέλαγος and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
) was the proper name for the
Aegean Sea. Later, usage shifted to refer to the
Aegean Islands (since the sea has a large number of islands).
Geographic types
Archipelagos may be found isolated in large amounts of water or neighbouring a large land mass. For example,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
has more than 700 islands surrounding its mainland, which form an archipelago.
Archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along
island arc
Island arcs are long chains of active volcanoes with intense seismic activity found along convergent tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have resulted from the descent of the lithosphere into the mantle alon ...
s generated by
subduction zones or
hotspots, but may also be the result of
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...
,
deposition, and
land elevation
Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound a ...
. Depending on their geological origin, islands forming archipelagos can be referred to as ''oceanic islands'', ''continental fragments'', and ''continental islands''.
Oceanic islands
Oceanic islands are mainly of volcanic origin, and widely separated from any adjacent continent. The
Hawaiian Islands and
Galapagos Islands in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
, and
Mascarene Islands in the south
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
are examples.
Continental fragments
Continental fragments correspond to land masses that have separated from a continental mass due to
tectonic displacement. The
Farallon Islands off the coast of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
are an example.
Continental archipelagos
Sets of islands formed close to the coast of a continent are considered continental archipelagos when they form part of the same continental shelf, when those islands are above-water extensions of the shelf. The islands of the
Inside Passage
The Inside Passage (french: Passage Intérieur) is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeaste ...
off the coast of
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
and the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark).
Situated in the northern extremity of ...
are examples.
Artificial archipelagos
Artificial archipelagos have been created in various countries for different purposes.
Palm Islands
The Palm Islands are three artificial islands, Palm Jumeirah, Deira Island and Palm Jebel Ali, on the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Palm Islands were conceived around the same time as The World, another artificial island project i ...
and
The World Islands
The World Islands (Arabic: جزر العالم; ''Juzur al-Ālam'') are an archipelago of small artificial islands constructed in the shape of a world map, located in the waters of the Persian Gulf, off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirate ...
off Dubai were or are being created for leisure and tourism purposes.
Marker Wadden
The Marker Wadden is an artificial archipelago under development in the Markermeer, a lake in the Netherlands. The first island was inaugurated on 24 September 2016.
Project
The project was proposed in 2012 by the Vereniging Natuurmonumente ...
in the Netherlands is being built as a conservation area for birds and other wildlife.
Further examples
The largest archipelagic state in the world by area, and by population, is
Indonesia.
See also
*
Island arc
Island arcs are long chains of active volcanoes with intense seismic activity found along convergent tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have resulted from the descent of the lithosphere into the mantle alon ...
*
List of landforms
Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as their creating process, shape, elevation, slope, orientation, rock exposure, and soil type.
Landforms by process
Landforms organized by the processes that create them.
Aeoli ...
*
List of archipelagos by number of islands
List of archipelagos by number of islands, islets, reefs, coral reefs and cays:
See also
* List of archipelagos
* List of countries by number of islands
* Archipelagic state
An archipelagic state is an island country that consists of ...
*
List of archipelagos
*
Archipelagic state
*
List of islands
*
Aquapelago
References
External links
*
30 Most Incredible Island Archipelagos
{{Authority control
Coastal and oceanic landforms
Oceanographical terminology