Archipelago

An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of

island

s, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.

Indonesian Archipelago,

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

, the Galápagos Islands, Japanese Archipelago, the Philippine Archipelago,

Maldives

, the Balearic Isles, the Bahamas, the Aegean Islands, Hawaiian Islands, the Canary Islands,

Malta

, the

Azores

, Canadian Arctic Archipelago,

British Isles

,

Archipelago Sea

(Finland) and the Shetland Islands are all examples of well-known archipelagos. They are sometimes defined by political boundaries. The Gulf archipelago off the north-eastern 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 ἄρχι-(''arkhi-'', "chief") and πέλαγος (''pélagos'', "sea") through the Italian ''arcipelago''. In antiquity, "Archipelago" (from medieval Greek *ἀρχιπέλαγος and Latin ) was the proper name for the

Aegean Sea

. Later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands (since the sea is remarkable for its 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

has more than 700 islands surrounding its mainland which form an archipelago.

Archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along island arcs generated by subduction zones or hotspots, but may also be the result of

erosion

, deposition, and land elevation. 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

Easter Island

in the

Pacific

, and Île Amsterdam in the south

Indian Ocean

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

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

off the coast of

British Columbia

and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are examples.

Artificial archipelagos

Artificial archipelagos have been created in various countries for different purposes. Palm Islands and the World Islands off Dubai were or are being created for leisure and tourism purposes. Marker Wadden 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

* List of landforms
* List of archipelagos by number of islands
* List of archipelagos
* Archipelagic state
* List of islands

References

External links

*

30 Most Incredible Island Archipelagos

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Coastal and oceanic landforms
Oceanographical terminology