Island

An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been part of a continent. Oceanic islands can be formed from volcanic activity, grow into atolls from coral reefs, and form from sediment along shorelines, creating barrier islands. River islands can also form from sediment and debris in rivers. Artificial islands are those made by humans, including small rocky outcroppings built out of lagoons and large-scale land reclamation projects used for development.

Islands are host to diverse plant and animal life. Oceanic islands have the sea as a natural barrier to the introduction of new species, causing the species that do reach the island to evolve in isolation. Continental islands share animal and plant life with the continent they split from. Depending on how long ago the continental island formed, the life on that island may have diverged greatly from the mainland due to natural selection.

Humans have lived on and traveled between islands for thousands of years at a minimum. Some islands became host to humans due to a land bridge or a continental island splitting from the mainland, or by boat travel. In the far north or south some islands are joined by seasonal or glacial ice. Today, up to 10% of the world's population lives on islands. Islands are popular targets for tourism due to their perceived natural beauty, isolation, and unique cultures.

Islands became the target of colonization by Europeans, resulting in the majority of islands in the Pacific being put under European control. Decolonization has resulted in some but not all island nations becoming self-governing, with lasting effects related to industrialisation, invasive species, nuclear weapons testing, and tourism. Islands and island countries are threatened by climate change. Sea level rise threatens to submerge nations such as Maldives, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu completely. Increases in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones can cause widespread destruction of infrastructure and animal habitats. Species that live exclusively on islands are some of those most threatened by extinction.

An island is an area of land surrounded by water on all sides that is distinct from a continent. There is no standard of size that distinguishes islands and continents. Continents have an accepted geological definition – they are the largest landmass of a particular tectonic plate. Islands can occur in any body of water, including lakes, rivers, seas. Low-tide elevations, areas of land that are not above the surface during a high tide, are generally not considered islands. Islands that have been bridged or otherwise joined to a mainland with land reclamation are sometimes considered "de-islanded", but not in every case.

The word island derives from Middle English iland, from Old English igland (from ig or ieg, similarly meaning 'island' when used independently, and -land carrying its contemporary meaning. Old English ieg is actually a cognate of Swedish ö and German Aue, and more distantly related to Latin aqua (water).

The spelling of the word was modified in the 15th century because of a false etymology caused by an association with the Old French loanword isle, which itself comes from the Latin word insula.

Islands often are found in archipelagos or island chains, which are collections of islands. These chains are thought to form from volcanic hotspots, areas of the lithosphere where the mantle is hotter than the surrounding area. These hotspots would give rise to volcanoes whose lava would form the rock the islands are made of. For some islands, the movement of tectonic plates above stationary hotspots would form islands in a linear chain, with the islands further away from the hotspot being progressively older and more eroded, before disappearing under the sea entirely. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, with the oldest island being 25 million years old, and the youngest, Hawaii, still being an active volcano. However, not all island chains are formed this way. Some may be formed all at once by fractures in the tectonic plates themselves, simultaneously creating multiple islands. One supporting piece of evidence is that of the Line Islands, which are all estimated to be 8 million years old, rather than being different ages.