More than 70% of the planet on which we live is covered by oceans, and we humans live on less than 30% of the land. Less than 30% of the land is composed of two parts, the continent and the island, and there are only 6 continents in the world, but there are tens of thousands of islands.
Among the tens of thousands of islands in the world, there are both uninhabited small islands and large islands inhabited by hundreds of millions of people, such as Java in Southeast Asia, which is inhabited by about 145 million people.
Java Island geographical location
Between these islands, not only is there a huge difference in the population of the residents, but also the difference in their size is also very large. If we compare the world's largest island with the world's second largest island, we can see it.
The world's largest island is Greenland, located in northeastern North America, with an area of about 2.17 million square kilometers. The second largest island in the world is the island of New Guinea in northern Oceania, with an area of about 785,000 square kilometers. Greenland, the world's largest island, is more than 2.76 times the size of New Guinea, the world's second largest island, and the gap is still quite large. Taiwan Island, the largest island in the mainland, has an area of about 35,800 square kilometers, less than 1/60 of the total area of Greenland Island, and this gap is quite large.
Greenland Island geography
Speaking of which, many people have a doubt: the world's second largest island of New Guinea has an area of 785,000 square kilometers, which is already a huge island among many islands. Greenland, on the other hand, is nearly three times as large, at 2.17 million square kilometers. Why isn't such a huge island a continent? After all, among the many islands, it is too abrupt as a behemoth, and the Australian mainland is only more than 7 million square kilometers. With greenland as large an area, it is more like a continent than an island.
To understand why Greenland is an island and not a mainland, we must first find out where the boundaries between the mainland and the islands lie.
Also as land, the boundaries between continents and islands can be described as quite arbitrary, but very clear, and the standard or boundary between them is Greenland. By greenland, the entire land mass larger than Greenland is continental, and the other lands are islands. That is to say, lands that include or are smaller than Greenland are islands. In fact, there are only six continents in the world: Eurasia, Africa, South America, North America, Antarctica and Australia. Except for these six continents, the others are islands.
The world's 6 continents
Now we know what a continent is and what an island is. But in our lives, we will also hear geographical words such as subcontinents and peninsulas. So what is the subcontinent? What is Peninsula? Today I will tell you about it in passing.
If the continent and the island are two different types according to the size of the land, then the subcontinent and the peninsula are two concepts derived from the continent and the land.
First, the subcontinent is a concept derived from the continent, which refers to the continent, separated from the rest of the continent by the geographical boundaries of nature, and its area is smaller than that of the continent, and such a geographical unit is called the subcontinent. The most typical subcontinent is the South Asian subcontinent (or Indian subcontinent). The South Asian subcontinent faces the sea on three sides and the Himalayas on the other side, separated from the other geographical units of the Asian continent.
South Asian subcontinent
Of all the islands, only the largest island, Greenland, is sometimes referred to as the Greenland subcontinent. But the subcontinent is not a continent, neither the South Asian subcontinent nor the Greenland subcontinent. Note that the subcontinent mentioned above refers to geographical concepts and does not include cultural concepts.
Second, the peninsula is a concept derived from land. All lands that are adjacent to the sea or lake on three sides and not on one side can be called peninsulas. More precisely, a peninsula is the part of the land that juts out into the ocean or lake, bordering the water on three sides and connecting to land or islands on the other. It can be part of both a continent and an island. For example, the Arabian Peninsula, the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong and the Hengchun Peninsula in Taiwan. Similarly, a peninsula is not an island, but only a continent or part of an island.
Geographical map of leizhou peninsula
Well, the above is the geographical concept of the continent, island, subcontinent, peninsula, do you know the difference between them now? If you have other different views, please feel free to discuss and exchange them!