Encyclopedia > Archipelago

Article Content

Archipelago

Archipelago, a geographic term, describes a cluster of islands.

The word comes from the Aegean Sea (Italian Arcipelago), which literally means "chief sea", from Greek arkhi (leader) and pelagos (sea).

Archipelagoes usually occur in the open sea; less commonly a large land mass may neighbour them.

Examples of archipelagos include:

Aegean islands[?] (the original use of the term)
Aleutian Islands
Arctic islands (Canada)
British Isles
French Polynesia
Galapagos Islands
Hawaiian islands
Insulinde[?] (Indonesia)
Japan
Juan Fernandez
Kerguelen Islands
New Zealand
Philippines
Stockholm

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!

Featured Article

Jordanes

... of Gothic kings in Italy. At the time of Justinian, he was a Christian and possibly bishop of Croton. In approximately 580, he wrote "De origine actibusque Getarum[?]" (The ...