Uninhabited island

An uninhabited island is a land mass that protrudes above sea level and is completely enclosed by water, even when the tide is in high water. It has either never been inhabited by humans or has not been permanently inhabited for a long time. Worldwide, most of the islands in the seas and inland waters are uninhabited.

General

There are numerous reasons why an island or even an entire archipelago is not or no longer inhabited: Some islands have no sources of drinking water whatsoever , others are in inhospitable areas with extreme temperature fluctuations ( Arctic or Antarctic ), and still others served in the past as terrain for Nuclear weapons tests and are thus radioactively contaminated for thousands of years, i.e. uninhabitable. Other islands are simply too small to be permanently settled or are too close to larger, attractive settlements on the mainland . There are also islands whose sole state ( e.g. Alcatraz ) or military use ( e.g. Johnston Atoll ) has ceased to exist .

The two islands of Devon Island (55,247 km²) and Melville Island (42,149 km²) in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are the largest uninhabited islands in the western Arctic. There are six other uninhabited islands, each larger than 10,000 km², as well as countless smaller ones. In the eastern Arctic lies the uninhabited north island of Novaya Zemlya (47,300 km²) and also six more over 10,000 km² in the Siberian Arctic Ocean (to Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian islands ). Their Antarctic “counterparts” are the Alexander I Island with 49,070 km² and the Berkner Island 43,873 km², both of which are connected to the mainland all year round by the ice shelf.

The largest uninhabited island outside the polar regions is the approximately 460 km² Auckland Island south of New Zealand.

Demarcation issues

An island that only has a lighthouse or similar facility is considered uninhabited even if some people are there from time to time - for the purpose of maintaining the systems, for example. However, it is disputed whether a lighthouse that is manned all year round or a research station that is always manned turns an uninhabited island into an inhabited island.

Literature and film

Uninhabited islands have always played an important role in adventure stories in world literature (e.g. Robinson Crusoe or Treasure Island ) but also in movies ( e.g. Cast Away ). The untouched nature of uninhabited islands offers space for all kinds of fictions , such as the fact that dinosaurs could have survived on such islands until today. The motif of the uninhabited island is also often taken up in cartoons and jokes, usually in the form that an individual takes actions or statements that are inappropriate to his hopeless situation, which can be traced back to habits in his previous life in civilization .

The Italian poets Pietro Metastasio and Carlo Goldoni addressed uninhabited islands in their libretti L'isola disabitata , which were set to music many times .

Use and conservation

The general fascination of people for lonely or deserted islands has persisted to this day. A number of once uninhabited islets or atolls , mainly located in the South Pacific or the Caribbean , have been acquired by wealthy private individuals for property in view of this. The areas around uninhabited, tropical islands are often visited by scuba divers because of the lush underwater world and coral reefs .

Some uninhabited islands remain permanently inaccessible to permanent human settlement. In many cases, they represent important nature reserves to protect endangered animal and plant species (e.g. for the Agrimi goats on the uninhabited island of Dia ).

Curiosities

The Guano Islands Act is a US law dating from 1856, which US citizens u. a. allows the United States to take possession of an uninhabited island if there are bird droppings ( guano ) there. The law is still in force today and is one of the reasons why the uninhabited island of Navassa is controversial between the US and Haiti .

See also

• Island
• List of uninhabited islands and archipelagos (Atlantic Ocean)
• List of uninhabited islands and archipelagos (Arctic Ocean)
• List of uninhabited islands and archipelagos (inland island)
• List of uninhabited islands and archipelagos (Indian Ocean)
• List of uninhabited islands and archipelagos (Pacific Ocean)
• List of uninhabited islands and archipelagos (Southern Ocean)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jules Blais et al .: Science (vol. 309, p. 445)
2. ↑ Profile of the UN , accessed on February 25, 2015
3. ↑ [1] , largest.org, accessed January 20, 2020.