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It looks like one...

2007-07-28 16:05:52 · 19 answers · asked by sharifjunaid 3 in Science & Mathematics Geography

19 answers

It is an island. Whoever told you it wasn't was wrong.

Cool Fact: Australia is the largest island, but the smallest continent.

2007-07-28 16:14:02 · answer #1 · answered by Fåñ╬@$¥ Š¶☼®╬$ Gû®ù 6 · 5 0

From http://www.worldislandinfo.com/CONTISLAND.html

Australia is separated from all other continents by young oceanic crust. Greenland is geologically part of North America ....... Some people claim that Australia is both the world's largest island and the world's smallest continent .....
There are good reasons to assert that Australia is a continent and not an island.


From http://fandom.net/Src/continent.html

In geology, Australia (also called Australia-New Guinea, Sahul, Meganesia, Greater Australia or Australinea) is a continent comprising (in order of size) the Australian mainland, New Guinea, Tasmania, and intervening islands, all of which sit on the same continental shelf.

New Zealand is not on the same continental shelf and so is not part of the continent of Australia

From http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11075

The island continent of Australia was once three continents which collided 1.64 billion years ago, a new study has found.
Northern, western and central Australia all belonged to different continents. The huge forces involved in this collision produced volcanoes which actually helped create the crust of central Australia

2007-07-29 18:38:28 · answer #2 · answered by bluebell 7 · 0 0

Because it's too big - it's a continent.
Come on..think about it...it the only requirement for an island was that is was a land mass surrounded by water - then the Americas would be an island, Africa would be an island, and Eurasia would be an island.

2007-08-02 18:35:23 · answer #3 · answered by Wayne B 4 · 0 0

It all depends on who you ask and what your definition of island is.
Most consider an island is a piece of land surrounded water on all sides.

So technically, every piece of land (Europe, Africa, the Americas) are all islands, since they are all surrounded by water.

But humans like to categorize things, and Australia would the be the largest island in the world (if we didn't count what we call the "continents"), but for a number of political and scientific reasons Australia is usually called a continent. It is significantly larger than the other "islands", but it doesn't really fit into either category.

2007-07-28 23:11:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2 1

In fact, Australia is an island and it's the world's largest single island-country. Interestingly, it is surrounded by 3 oceans, which are the Indian, Pacific and Southern Ocean.

2007-07-29 03:13:49 · answer #5 · answered by travel 4 · 0 0

Australia is the world's largest island that the smallest continent. Hope that helps!

2007-07-30 01:20:31 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Australia IS in fact an island, however, it is considered a continent as well, because it lies on its own continental shelf, the Australian Plate. No other landform lies on this plate, including new zealand, the solomon islands, malaysia or indonesia.

2007-07-29 12:21:55 · answer #7 · answered by tim j 3 · 0 0

It's a matter of definition. When discussing the largest island (Greenland), Australia is often excluded because it is a continental land mass. In modern technology, that means that it is composed of crustal plates, and contains a discrete continental craton. Personally, I wouldn't argue with anyone who claimed Australia was an island, which could mean that the European/Asian continental land mass the worlds largest island.

2007-07-29 09:38:06 · answer #8 · answered by AndrewG 7 · 1 1

Australia IS - the Worlds LARGEST ISLAND ---OR the worlds smallest continent

2007-08-05 21:04:25 · answer #9 · answered by onlypaulmatthews 1 · 0 0

Australia is too big to be considered an island.
Technically, it's a CONTINENT.

2007-07-28 23:10:11 · answer #10 · answered by Superfudge 3 · 1 0

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