Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the death toll was a relatively low 70. But tens of millions of fish, birds, and animals were also des-
troyed.
1982, March—Mexico El Chichon, a dormant volcano in Chiapas, Mexico, suddenly came to life
in a series of explosive eruptions.
1985, November 13-16—Colombia In one of the most deadly eruptions of all time, Nevado del
Ruiz caused mud slides that buried most of the town of Armero and devastated the Chinchina River
valley, leaving 25,000 dead.
1991, June 10—Philippines Quiet since 1380, Mount Pinatubo on the island of Luzon erupted,
covering thousands of miles in ash, dust, and mud slides. There were political ramifications in-
volved, as the United States was forced to evacuate and close Clark Air Force Base.
2010 April—Iceland The ash from the volcano Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced EYE-a-fyat-la-jo-kut-
l) shut down European air travel for days, although there were no casualties.
What's the Difference Between an Island, an Islet, and an Isle?
Some people like to pretend that size doesn't make a difference. Well, it does when it comes to islands.
This minor piece of geographic confusion is fairly simple to resolve. Islands are bodies of land completely
surrounded by water. Islets and isles are basically small islands with no real objective criteria to set them
apart.
But wait a minute. If the ocean really surrounds all the land, doesn't that make all the land in question
an island? Again, geography isn't an exact science. So it's safe to call any land smaller than a continent,
that is surrounded by water, an island. That still leaves Australia with an identity crisis, but Australia can
go both ways. So now we have seen lakes called seas, seas called gulfs, and islands called continents. No
wonder a lot of people get confused about geography.
Islands come in two main varieties. There are continental islands , which were formerly pieces of a con-
tinent that have somehow been separated from the mainland. Great Britain is an example, as are the isle of
Manhattan and nearby Long Island. (Four of New York City's five boroughs are on islands unconnected
to the mainland of the United States; the Bronx is the exception. This confirms the widely held popular
notion that New York City isn't really part of America.)
Then there are oceanic islands , or islands formed in the ocean independent of the mainland. Many of
the Pacific islands, such as the Hawaiian chain, are volcanic, thrown up from the ocean floor. And the Pa-
cific's Ring of Fire is an example of how a seemingly destructive natural force like a volcano is actually
part of the earth's creative cycle. The process can take centuries in the case of a constant, steady flow of
lava, or may be sudden and dramatic, as with Surtsey, a small island formed off the coast of Iceland in a
burst of lava from beneath the Atlantic.
Besides volcanic islands, the second type of oceanic island is a coral island , formed out of—you
guessed it—coral.
NAMES: If Greenland Is All Glacier, Why Isn't It Called Iceland?
 
 
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