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ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 874 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +
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land')
  , in
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physical geography, a
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term generally definable as a piece of
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land surrounded by
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water . Islands may be divided into two main classes,
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continental and oceanic . The former are such as would result from the submergence of a coastal range, or a coastal highland, until the mountain bases were cut off from the mainland while their summits remained above water . The island may have been formed by the sea cutting through the landward end of a peninsula, or by the eating back of a
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bay or estuary until a portion of the mainland is detached and becomes surrounded by water . In all cases where the continental islands occur, they are connected with the mainland by a continental shelf, and their structure is essentially that of the mainland . The islands off the west coast of Scotland and the Isles of Man and Wight have this relation to Britain, while Britain and Ireland have a similar relation to the continent of
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Europe . The north-east coast of
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Australia furnishes similar examples, but in addition to these in that locality there are true oceanic islands near the mainland, formed by the growth of the
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Great Barrier
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coral
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reef . Oceanic islands are due to various causes . It is a question whether the numberless islands of the
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Malay
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Archipelago should be regarded as continental or oceanic, but there is no doubt that the South Sea islands scattered over a portion of the Pacific belong to the oceanic
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group . The ocean floor is by no means a level plain, but rises and falls in mounds, eminences and basins towards the
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surface . When this configuration is emphasized in any particular oceanic
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area, so that a
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peak rises above the surface, an oceanic island is produced . Submarine volcanic activity may also raise material above sea-level, or the buckling of the ocean-bed by earth movements may have a similar result .

Coral islands (see

ATOLL) are oceanic islands, and are frequently clustered upon plateaux where the sea is of no great
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depth, or appear singly as the
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crown of some isolated peak that rises from deep water . Island
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life contains many features of
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peculiar
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interest . The sea forms a barrier to some forms of life but acts as a carrier to other colonizing forms that frequently develop new features in their isolated surroundings where the struggle for existence is greater or less than before . When a sea barrier has existed for a very long time there is a marked difference between the
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fauna and
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flora even of adjacent islands . In
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Bali and
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Borneo, for example, the flora and fauna are
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Asiatic, while in Lombok and
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Celebes they are Australian, though the Bali Straits are very narrow . In
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Java and
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Sumatra, though belonging to the same group, there- are marked developments of
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bird life, the peacock being found in Java and the
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Argus
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pheasant in Sumatra, having become too specialized to migrate . The Cocos, Keeling Islands and Christmas Island in the
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Indian Ocean have been colonized by few animal forms, chiefly sea-birds and
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insects, while they are clothed with abundant vegetation, the seeds of which have been carried by currents and by other means, but the variety of
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plants is by no means so great as on the mainland . Island life, therefore, is a sure indication of the origin of the island, which may be one of the remnants of a shattered er dissected continent, or may have arisen independently from the sea and become afterwards colonized by drift . The word " island " is sometimes used for a piece of land cut off by the tide or surrounded by marsh (e.g . Hayling Island) . 1 The O.E. ieg, ig, still appearing in
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local names, e.g . Anglesey,
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Battersea, is cognate with Norw. by, Icel. ey, and the first
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part of Ger .

Eiland, &c.; it is referred to the

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original
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Tent. ahwia, a place in water, ahwa, water, cf .
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Lat. aqua; the same word is seen in
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English " eyot," " ait," an islet in a
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river . The spelling " island," accepted before 1700, is due to a false connexion with ` isle," Fr. fie, Lat. insula .

End of Article: ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')
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