Difference between cape and peninsula. What is the difference between an island and a peninsula? Large islands and peninsulas

Probably everyone dreamed of getting to a desert island, and I was no exception. This is a great opportunity to test your strength and find out what you are capable of. In the meantime, I’m in the civilized world, I’ll be happy to tell you what is an island, and what unusual islands there are on our planet.

What is a peninsula and an island?

If you open the dictionary in search of a definition, you can find 2 meanings of the word “island”. First - part of the land that is bordered on all sides by water. The second meaning reads: area with characteristic features compared to the rest of the area. At the same time, the peninsula means a piece of land adjacent to the mainland on one side or an island and washed by water from others. Among the many islands and peninsulas, I would like to note the largest and, accordingly, the smallest. So:

  • Arabian- the largest peninsula;
  • Yamal- the smallest peninsula;
  • Greenland- the largest island;
  • Bishop Rock- the smallest island.

Islands are quite interesting places on our planet, each of which is unique in its own way. Limited space affects literally everything. For example, many birds, when arriving on islands, pass your path of evolution, becoming non-flying. This is how kakapo, dodo, kiwi and thousands of other species appeared. A thorough study of this phenomenon showed that, unlike their mainland counterparts, island birds have less developed muscles and longer legs.

Separated from the rest of the land, the islands seem to be “cut off” from the rest of the world, and time there takes its course. Many islands are inhabited by aborigines, whose culture is unique in its own way.

There is a unique "garbage island", unintentionally created by man. Essentially, this is a huge patch of garbage gathered into a single whole. under the influence of ocean currents. This “island” is located in the Pacific Ocean, and its area is in no way inferior to the size of the United States.


Pheasant Island, in principle, does not stand out among many others, but there is still something special about it. For a long time it was the subject of controversy and even war between Spain and France, which ultimately led to a rather original solution. Half of the year the island is “mastered” by the Spanish municipality, the remaining half of the year the island is in the hands of the French.


Island ship is located in the Atlantic. Of course, this is an ordinary island, but according to the documents it is a ship! The thing is that at the time of its development, the treasury did not have free funds for its maintenance. Then the enterprising islanders renamed it "The ship "Ascension" standing in the roadstead", and they themselves signed up for it as sailors.

    An island is a small part of land located separately from the mainland, which is completely washed (on all sides) by water. Water means any body of water, for example, ocean, sea, lake, river.

    Examples of islands: Greenland, Madagascar, Kalimantan, Sri Lanka, Great Britain.

    A peninsula differs from an island in that it is connected to the mainland. Moreover, its territory protrudes significantly into the ocean, sea, lake, etc.

    Examples of peninsulas: Arabian Peninsula, Taimyr, Kola Peninsula, Labrador, Yucatan.

    From a school geography course we know that an island is a piece of land that is surrounded on all sides by water. The peninsula is connected to the mainland by an isthmus (that is, it is, as it were, attached to the mainland) and is partially washed by water.

    As they told us at school, the peninsula is surrounded by water on all sides; there is no land road to get to it. But the peninsula is adjacent to water only on several sides, and there is a road to the mainland. Everyone knows and loves Crimea - it is a peninsula.

    The island is surrounded on all sides by water.

    The peninsula is connected to the continent on one of its sides. Purely intuitively - no more than a quarter of its perimeter. And at least, even a very narrow isthmus.

    Island - Madagascar, Japanese Islands.

    Peninsula - Crimea, Kamchatka.

    Island is an isolated piece of land, which is surrounded on all sides by water, and at least slightly rises above it. An island is a small continent that can have other geological origin than the nearest continent. Sometimes islands are gigantic in size, for example Greenland, which can even be confused with the mainland.

    Peninsula geologically it is the same continent, in which part of the land is pushed out into the expanses of water. Only one side The peninsula is connected to the mainland, while the rest of the land is washed by water.

    The island is washed away from all sides by water, the peninsula is partially washed.

    An island is a separate piece of land surrounded on all sides by water. There are islands that are more or less stable, and there are those that, being in the zone of activity, can either appear or disappear.

    A peninsula is the same island, partially connected to the mainland. The nearest large peninsula is Crimea.

    Interest Ask. And it’s not as complicated as it seems at first glance

    An island is a piece of land that is washed on all sides by water.

    The peninsula is washed by water on only a few sides. Simply put, a peninsula is part of the mainland

    As you can see, nothing complicated.

    An island is a small part of land (much smaller than the mainland), which is washed on all sides by water, and a peninsula is surrounded by water only on three sides and must be connected to the mainland.

    If there is even a slight connection between the island and the land, then it is no longer an island, but a peninsula.

    For example (in the picture) the Crimean peninsula is connected to the territory of Ukraine by a small strip of land and therefore it is a peninsula.

    And in this picture there is an ISLAND - it is washed by water on all sides.

    If we answer strictly according to the terminology accepted in geography, then the island differs from the peninsula in that it is surrounded by water on all sides. The peninsula always maintains a connection with the mainland or any other larger landmass. Sometimes this connection is clearly visible and the peninsula then appears as a long protrusion of land into the body of water. Sometimes this connection is barely noticeable and then the peninsula can be connected to the mainland by a thin isthmus. but in any case this connection exists. Moreover, the world is full of cases when an isthmus can become an island, for example, during high tide, and after the water recedes it again becomes a peninsula. And one more difference: if there can be more than one peninsula on an island, then there can never be an island on a peninsula.

    An island is a small piece of land compared to continents, surrounded on all sides by water. The island may not belong to any of the continents and may be located at a considerable distance from them. Sizes can vary, from a small island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean to Greenland, whose size approaches the size of a continent. A peninsula usually belongs to some continent and is surrounded by water on several, but not all sides, i.e. has land connections with the continent. The sizes of peninsulas can also be very different.

    An island is a piece of land washed on all sides, that is, a piece of land in the ocean or sea. A peninsula is simply a part of land that strongly protrudes into the ocean or sea, that is, one side of the peninsula is attached to the mainland. The name itself says - PENINSULA

On our planet there are different areas of land surrounded on all sides by water. The largest of these are planetary landforms called continents or continents. Smaller areas of land are called islands.

ISLANDS

The difference between the islands is not only in size, but also in origin. What raised them above the surface of the sea? In some cases, islands are raised parts of the shelf (underwater margin - approx. If they do not reach the surface, shoals and banks appear; rising from the water, they become islands. Scientists have found that due to fluctuations in the level of the World Ocean, many shoals often became islands and vice versa.

The islands of Madagascar and Socotra off the coast of Africa, and the island of Newfoundland off the coast of North America are areas of land with the same geological features as the mainland itself.

The largest island in the world - Greenland - is quite comparable in area to the smallest continent - Australia.

Numerous islands of the central and southwestern parts of the Pacific Ocean are united into an entire island country called Oceania. Groups of islands are combined into archipelagos. Sometimes they consist of 2-3 islands, sometimes of countless small islets, as in Indonesia. In the transition zones between continents and oceans, chains of island arcs often stretch - archipelagos, located along the edge of deep-sea trenches. These are the Aleutian, Kuril, and Japanese islands. Essentially, these are the tops of underwater ridges created by volcanic processes - approx.. In such areas, seismic danger is increased, earthquakes and eruptions are frequent. It’s not for nothing that these island arcs are part of the famous “Pacific Ring of Fire.”

Volcanic islands are the tops of underwater volcanoes that rise above sea level. These are, for example, the islands: Santorini in the Aegean Sea, Hawaiian, Galapagos, Easter, Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean, the Azores, Iceland in the Atlantic. The Canary Islands have continental-type crust at their base, on which volcanic cones are planted. The islands of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sicily: Vulcano, Lipari, Stromboli, and Madeira are also of volcanic origin. There have been cases in history when an underwater volcano, having awakened, created a structure in the form of a cone or rock above the ocean surface, which was immediately destroyed by waves.

PENINSULA

Peninsulas are areas of land surrounded on three sides by water, extending far into the waters of the seas and oceans. They have different shapes. If these areas of land are narrow, with a pointed end, then they are called capes. Lighthouses are often located on capes, warning with their light about nearby land, about possible reefs and shoals.

In the north of Russia, long elongated peninsulas received the characteristic name “nose”, for example, the Kanin Nos Peninsula.

Sometimes peninsulas are washed by the waters of several seas, for example, the Scandinavian Peninsula is washed by the waters of the Baltic, North, Norwegian, and Barents seas, and the famous Capes of Horn and Good Hope are separated by great oceans.

Each peninsula is unique in its shape, such as the Apennine peninsula, which looks like a boot, or the Somali peninsula, nicknamed the “Horn of Africa”.

When the sea floods depressions on land or river mouths, bays are formed. This is the origin of the estuary - a funnel-shaped bay at the mouth of a large river. The most famous estuaries are the Gironde on the Garonne River in France, La Plata - the estuary of the Parana and Uruguay rivers in South America.

Sometimes the sea waves themselves, moving huge masses of pebbles and sand, create islands and peninsulas - spits, embankments that separate secluded bays and estuaries from the land. Some of these peninsulas change their shape several times a day under the influence of sea tides.

REEFS AND ATOLLS

The picturesque atoll islands are composed of corals. Coral reefs, as a rule, form in tropical shallow (from 50 m to the first hundreds of meters - approx..

An atoll is a coral island in the form of a continuous or broken ring bordering a shallow pool - a lagoon. Coral islands are especially numerous in the Pacific Ocean. In the Indian Ocean, almost all islands are atolls. The snow-white sand of the beaches of such islands is destroyed coral material. Although the island is composed of coralline limestone on the surface, its base may be volcanic. Corals begin to settle on the remains of destroyed underwater volcanic calderas, which are located near the surface of the ocean.

The largest coral structure is the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia.


On planet Earth, landscapes are vast and picturesque. Meadows and fields, rivers and seas, mountains and plains create a unique relief on it. It would be nice for a traveler to have with him not only a high-quality camera, but also a map of the area. And in order to navigate on the map, you need to remember at least the basic concepts from school geography.

For example, how do you differentiate between an island and a peninsula? Of course, the plane pilot and bus driver know where the tourists were brought. But will tourists be able to understand where they are? After all, behind the concepts there are not only dry formulations, but also a whole series of differences.

Defining the island

The island is washed by waters on all sides, while towering above them. The largest island in the world is . It is located in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and belongs to the state of Denmark. Island Madagascar, washed by the waters of the Indian Ocean, is smaller in size than Greenland, and contains the entire country of Madagascar with its capital Antananarivo. There are many large islands on which two states are located. For example, the islands of Cyprus, Haiti, Kalimantan and Timor are divided between neighboring countries.

What types of islands are there?

Islands are born from continents, volcanoes and coral reefs. Thus, the British Isles once separated from Eurasia, and Canadian Arctic Archipelago- from North America. Islands of continental origin are composed of the same rocks as the mainland that gave birth to them. Outwardly, even their relief is similar.

Islands of volcanic origin are found only in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. They arise from the part of the volcano that rises above the water. Sometimes such islands are formed by the spreading of lava that erupted from a vent.

(locally known as Rapa Nui) is a famous island of volcanic origin, washed by the waters of the Pacific Ocean. It is the farthest inhabited island from land. All the soil on it is formed from the collapsing slopes of a volcano, so practically nothing grows there. Most tourists have heard about moai idols, for which they visit the island. So these statues were created by residents from volcanic ash, compressed by natural processes in the vents. Even local lakes are formed in the craters of volcanoes, and there are no rivers here at all.

Sometimes the volcano that gave birth to the island itself destroys it. For example, this is what happened to the island that rose off the coast of Iceland on November 19, 1963 after the eruption of an underwater volcano. By the end of October 1965, the island was lost. Iceland itself is also an island of volcanic origin, and the largest in the world.

The coral island, or atoll, is a narrow ridge in the shape of a ring. They form around warm lagoons of coral skeletons. The process of compacting coral remains with new polyps takes a long time and leads to the formation of picturesque coral reefs. Atolls are more common in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Previously, when there was no special navigation technology, such reefs posed a serious danger to sailors.

The most famous atoll islands are those on which the state of the Maldives is located. The chain of twenty atolls is slightly elevated above the water, so this state is the lowest located above sea level. The Maldives lagoons are filled with the purest azure water.

Islands located in rivers are formed from sediments that water brought to the mouth of the river or the lower reaches of its mouth. But there are also floodplain islands that arose when a new channel was formed in the floodplain of the river.

The most famous river islands in Russia are located in St. Petersburg. Hare Island has an area of ​​28 hectares, is located in the bed of the Neva, separated from Petrovsky Island by the Kronverk Strait. The largest island in the Neva delta - Vasilievsky. Petrovsky, Kamenny, Aptekarsky and Elagin islands are also located in the Neva delta. Each of them contains magnificent architectural monuments of the city.

Differences of the peninsula

A peninsula on one side is attached to a continent or island, and its other three sides are located in the waters of the sea, lake or river. The world's largest peninsula - Arabian, whose area exceeds 3 million km². The Arabian Peninsula is located in Southwest Asia and contains seven countries. Almost all of it is covered with sand, but it is rich in oil, which is the source of prosperity for the Arabian states.

Types of peninsulas

Peninsulas are divided into attached, detached and accumulative.

The annexed peninsula does not have a common origin with the mainland to which it is annexed. For example, a peninsula Hindustan is a piece of the Indian platform that joined the Eurasian continent.

The separated peninsula is geologically similar to its mainland. The Crimean Peninsula is the southern part of Russia, and the Kola Peninsula is the eastern part of the Baltic Shield.

Accumulative islands are located in the waters of rivers and lakes. They are formed when sediment accumulates on the bridge between the island and the mainland. The largest accumulative peninsula is the Veslovsky Peninsula on Kunashir Island, part of the Kuril Nature Reserve.

How to designate a small piece of land at the very end of an island, peninsula or coast? This protrusion is called a cape.

Now it’s easy to understand why you can get from the peninsula to the mainland by land, but not from the island. After all, the island is separated by water.

Noun, number of synonyms: 47 Alaska (5) Absheron (1) Arabia (1) ... Synonym dictionary

PENINSULA, peninsulas, many. and husband. A piece of land adjacent to the mainland on one side and surrounded by the sea on all other sides. Balkan Peninsula. Peninsula of Hindustan. Crimean peninsula. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

- (Peninsula) a part of land that juts out into the sea, lake, or river so that at least 3/4 of it is surrounded by water. By origin and geological structure, some of the seas represent a continuation of the continent and arose either as a result of rising sea levels, or... ... Marine Dictionary

PENINSULA, a piece of land extending far into the sea, lake or river and surrounded on three sides by water. The largest peninsulas are Arabian, Hindustan, Indochina... Modern encyclopedia

A piece of land jutting into the sea, lake or river and surrounded on three sides by water... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

PENINSULA, a, plural. a, ov, husband. A piece of land adjacent to a mainland or island, washed on three sides by water. Balkansky village | adj. peninsular, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Peninsula. This is the name given to a part of land that juts out into the sea and is surrounded by it on 3 sides. The word is obviously of book and not folk origin, the literal translation is German. Halbinsel. Two types of P. can be distinguished: 1) Associated with the mass of the continent by isthmuses; To… … Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

peninsula- A piece of land that protrudes sharply and far from the edge of a continent or island into the sea or lake... Dictionary of Geography

Peninsula- PENINSULA, a piece of land extending far into the sea, lake or river and surrounded on three sides by water. The largest peninsulas are Arabian, Hindustan, Indochina. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

  • Peninsula, A. Valentinov. Lieutenant Colonel Sorokin's detachment repels Bolshevik attacks in the snowy Taurian steppe... The broken stone steps of an abandoned sanctuary in Chersonesus lead into darkness, and every step brings you closer to...
  • Crimean peninsula. In cities and towns. Practical guide, Andrey Sapunov. This publication is a practical guide to Crimea, written taking into account the great changes that took place on the peninsula in 2014. The book is primarily intended for the category of tourists…