World Book Trivia Challenge Advanced--3/12-islands

A broad expanse of sea with a large number of islands is called an archipelago.

Falkland Islands make up an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. The islands lie in the South Atlantic Ocean about 320 miles (515 kilometers) east of the southern coast of Argentina. They form the southernmost British overseas territory outside the British Antarctic Territory. Argentina also claims ownership of the Falkland Islands. Argentina calls the islands the Islas Malvinas.

The Pacific Islands are often divided into three main areas: (1) Melanesia, to the southwest; (2) Micronesia, to the northwest; and (3) Polynesia, to the east.

Tonga is a country made up of about 150 islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The islands lie about 1,950 miles (3,140 kilometers) east of Australia. The British explorer Captain James Cook, who first visited the islands in 1773, called them the Friendly Islands.

Fraser Island, also called Great Sandy Island, is the largest sand island in the world. It lies across Hervey Bay on the southeastern coast of Queensland, Australia, and shelters the entrance to the port of Maryborough.

Madeira, «muh DEER uh», Islands are a group of islands that belong to Portugal. The islands, of volcanic origin, lie in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa.

Greenland is the largest island in the world. It covers 836,331 square miles (2,166,086 square kilometers). Some islands cover a smaller area than a city block. A small island is called an islet. The distinction between a continent and an island is based on size. Australia is more than three times as large as Greenland. Because of its size, geographers class it as a continent.

The Galapagos are also called the Archipielago de Colón. There are 13 major islands, 6 smaller ones, and dozens of islets and rocks. They have Spanish and English names. The largest are Isabela (Albemarle), Santa Cruz (Indefatigable), San Cristobal (Chatham), Fernandina (Narborough), San Salvador (James), and Santa Maria or Floreana (Charles).

Compsognathus, «komp SOG nuh thuhs», was one of the smallest known dinosaurs. It grew to about the size of a chicken or turkey, measuring around 21/2 feet (0.8 meter) long and weighing approximately 6 to 7 pounds (2.7 to 3.2 kilograms). The animal lived from 155 million to 145 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic Period.

Continental islands are areas of land that were once connected to a continent. For example, the islands of Great Britain and Ireland were connected to the mainland of Europe more than 10,000 years ago, when glaciers covered parts of the Northern Hemisphere. As the glaciers began to melt, they made the sea level rise.

Other continental islands resulted from the erosion of a former link with the mainland. Streams, rivers, and ocean waves may, over thousands of years, wear away land that had connected an island to a continent.