where is the largest island in the world, and what is its name?

Answer 1

What is the world's largest island?
At 840,000 square miles (2,175,590 km2), Greenland is the world's largest island.

Although Australia also meets the definition of an island (a piece of land surrounded by water), it is large enough to be considered its own continent.

The problem is where the line is for what is an island and what is a continent. Thumb of rule is if its surrounded by water and is smaller than Greenland it is a island, and if it is larger than greenland its a continent.

Note: Antarctica is not the largest current island, while an island its size is commonly show distorted on maps due to trying to express what is on a globe into a flat surface.

Answer 2

If you count Australia as a continent, the largest island in the world is Greenland. It belongs to Denmark and is located in the North Atlantic (some georgaphers actually draw the boundary between Atlantic and Arctic oceans through Greenland).

Answer 3

The world's largest island is Greenland, with an area of about 822,700 sq mi / 2,130,800 sq km. Largely covered by an ice-cap several thousand feet / meters thick, Greenland has a population of only about 40,000, about 1/40th of Manhattan's, though Manhattan is 37,000 times smaller.
http://www.worldislandinfo.com/SUPERLATIVESV2.html




Australia is the world's largest island with over 7,000 beaches and approximately 12,000 smaller islands in our waters.
http://www.surfrider.org.au/publications/media/threat.php

Top 5 islands of the world are

Island Location and political affiliation sq. mi. sq. km
Greenland North Atlantic (Danish) 839,999 2,175,597
New Guinea Southwest Pacific (West Papua [Irian Jaya], Indonesia, western part; Papua New Guinea, eastern part) 309,000 800,311
Borneo West mid-Pacific (Indonesian, south part; Brunei and Malaysian, north part) 287,300 744,108
Madagascar Indian Ocean (Malagasy Republic) 227,000 587,931
Baffin North Atlantic (Canadian) 195,926 507,451
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001783.html

Comparison b/w Australia & Greenland

Why should Australia be considered a continent and Greenland an island? The answer is not clear-cut, but there are rational reasons behind it.

The characteristics of continents are these:

Areas of geologically stable continental crust, or cratons, tectonically independent from other continents
Biological distinctiveness, with unique animal and plant life
Cultural uniqueness
Local belief in separate continental status
Obviously, the first two are scientific, and the second two are more subjective.

Compare Australia and Greenland, the largest island:


Australia
Greenland

Tectonic independence from other continents
YES
NO

Unique flora and fauna
YES
NO

Unique cultures
YES
NO

Local opinion
MIXED
ISLAND


To elaborate:

Australia is separated from all other continents by young oceanic crust. Greenland is geologically part of North America.
Australia has highly distinct plants and animals. Greenland's are largely shared with northern North America.
Australia is considerably larger than Greenland. If separation is key, then Antarctica should also be considered an island (making Australia second largest).
Australia has unique, ancient cultures. Greenland's Arctic cultures, while unique, are part of larger North American Arctic culture.
Everyone agrees that everything smaller than Australia is an island. Australians themselves are divided, and often claim that Australia is both the world's largest island and the world's smallest continent.
So, there are good reasons to assert that Australia is a continent and not an island.

However, it has to be conceded that there can be no definitive answer. The questions only grow more complex when you look at the details:

By scientific criteria, Madagascar and several other islands are continents.
Europe is really just a series of peninsulas off western Asia. Only culture, tradition, and a sense of separateness gave it continental status.
Siberia and Alaska are not part of separate continents geologically. The sea barrier between them is just a happenstance of the current high sea levels of this interglacial period.
Africa is solidly joined to southwest Asia, though in the process of rifting away.
The Americas are joined by a substantial but recent land bridge.

Answer 4

Australia is not counted as an island since it is a continent itself. Although it consists of many other island states and countries.

In this regard Greenland is called the largest island of all.

Answer 5

Australia.

Answer 6

Antarctica--but it is humans can't live here because of the cold.
Australia is the next largest and obviously people live here

Answer 7

Pangaea: existed during the Mesozoic Era.

Answer 8

Island or continent ?

Don't mix !

Answer 9

Southern hemisphere, austrailia

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland