Ten questions on islands and archipelagos, each linking the place to how it formed.
An island\'s origin explains most of what is interesting about it, from its shape to the animals found there and nowhere else. This quiz covers volcanic, continental and coral islands, the largest and most isolated examples, and the archipelago nations spread across thousands of separate landmasses. The explanations name the formation process each time, which turns a list of places into a set of related cases.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: D. Greenland
Why: Greenland covers about 2.16 million square kilometres. Australia is larger but is classed as a continent rather than an island.
Answer: D. About 17,000
Why: Indonesia comprises roughly 17,000 islands, of which several thousand are inhabited. It sits along a highly active volcanic zone.
Answer: D. Africa
Why: It sits in the Indian Ocean east of Mozambique. Long isolation means a very high share of its wildlife exists nowhere else.
Answer: A. Hispaniola
Why: The two countries divide the single island of Hispaniola. It was the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas.
Answer: C. Volcanoes building up from the seafloor
Why: Repeated eruptions build a cone until it breaks the surface. Hawaii and Iceland both formed this way.
Answer: B. A ring-shaped coral reef enclosing a lagoon
Why: Coral grows around a volcanic island which then subsides, leaving a ring. Charles Darwin proposed this explanation and it has held up well.
Answer: D. Ecuador
Why: They lie roughly 900 kilometres off Ecuador in the Pacific. Darwin's observations there fed directly into his theory of natural selection.
Answer: D. A continent
Why: It is conventionally counted as a continent rather than an island, which is why Greenland takes the largest-island title. The distinction is a convention rather than a strict rule.
Answer: D. Sicily
Why: Sicily is the largest, with Sardinia second. It holds Mount Etna, among the most active volcanoes in the world.
Answer: C. Reykjavik
Why: Reykjavik is the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is why it is so volcanically active.
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