Feb 08 2009
Australia Island : The Great Debate
“Australia is the largest island and the smallest continent in the world.
Sound familiar? You may have heard it in geography class growing up. But what does it really mean to be the largest island?
What is an Island?
- any piece of land that is surrounded by water in two dimensions, above high tide, and isolated from other significant landmasses - wikipedia.org
Continent or Island?
As devil’s advocate I could argue that North & South America combined or Europe,Africa & Asia would be the largest significant landmass because they meet the criteria above. But let’s indulge a little common sense and only consider things our gut tells us are islands, Greenland, Antarctica? and … Australia??
PubQuizHelp.com helps us out with a list of the top 20 largest islands of the world.
Australia and Antarctica both have a claim to be in this island list however, for geological, political and cultural reasons they are described as continental land masses and so are not included in the list.
Why distinguish between an island an a continental land mass? Is a continent just an island all grown up? Joshua Calder offers the following in a continent vs. island discussion.
- Australia is separated from all other continents by young oceanic crust. Greenland is geologically part of North America.
- Australia is considerably larger than Greenland. If separation is key, then Antarctica should also be considered an island (making Australia second largest).
- Everyone agrees that everything smaller than Australia is an island. Australians themselves are divided, and often claim that Australia is both the world’s largest island and the world’s smallest continent.
So, there are good reasons to assert that Australia is a continent and not an island.
I consider this enough of a challenge to Australia’s claim that it is the world’s smallest island that it should be taught as theory and not fact. The Australian people deserve to know the truth!
The plot thickens when Calder then challenges Australia’s other claim to fame that it is the smallest continent.
However, it has to be conceded that there can be no definitive answer. The questions only grow more complex when you look at the details: By scientific criteria, Madagascar and several other islands are continents.
I look forward to the day when geographers of the world can unite and solve this once and for all. Until then, there is the comments thread… Let’s hear what you think.
