16-526: The Indians are an uninhabited small archipelago of islets in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean . They are west of the small British Pelican Island and east of the small US Flanagan Island . They are located south of larger British Tortola Island and east of the large US Saint John Island . They were so named because from a distance they were thought to resemble
32-862: A Native American's head dress . The waters around the Indians contain much marine life, and are also the second most popular dive site in the British Virgin Islands after the wreck of the RMS Rhone . The shallower areas of the Indians are also a popular snorkelling site and the area has several mooring balls for day use. This British Virgin Islands location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Archipelago An archipelago ( / ˌ ɑːr k ə ˈ p ɛ l ə ɡ oʊ / AR -kə- PEL -ə-goh ), sometimes called an island group or island chain ,
48-572: A decades-long dispute. The archipelago extends some 2,400 km (1,500 mi) longitudinally and 1,900 km (1,200 mi) from the mainland to Cape Columbia , the northernmost point on Ellesmere Island. It is bounded on the west by the Beaufort Sea ; on the northwest by the Arctic Ocean ; on the east by Greenland, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait ; and on the south by Hudson Bay and
64-428: A total area of 1,400,000 km (540,000 sq mi). The islands of the archipelago over 10,000 km (3,900 sq mi), in order of descending area, are: NT = Northwest Territories , NU = Nunavut After Greenland, the archipelago is the world's largest high-Arctic land area. The climate of the islands is Arctic , and the terrain consists of tundra except in mountainous regions. Most of
80-576: Is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands , or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Archipelagos are sometimes defined by political boundaries. For example, while they are geopolitically divided, the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands geologically form part of a larger Gulf Archipelago. The word archipelago is derived from the Ancient Greek ἄρχι-( arkhi- , "chief") and πέλαγος ( pélagos , "sea") through
96-537: The Northwest Passage as Canadian Internal Waters ; however, most maritime countries view these as international waters . Disagreement over the passages' status has raised Canadian concerns about environmental enforcement, national security, and general sovereignty. East of Ellesmere Island , in the Nares Strait , lies Hans Island , ownership of which is now shared between Canada and Denmark, after
112-717: The rise in sea levels by 2100. Around 2500 BCE, the first humans, the Paleo-Eskimos , arrived in the archipelago from the Canadian mainland. Between 1000 and 1500 CE, they were replaced by the Thule people , who are the ancestors of today's Inuit . British claims on the islands, the British Arctic Territories , were based on the explorations in the 1570s by Martin Frobisher . Canadian sovereignty
128-694: The Canadian mainland. The various islands are separated from each other and the continental mainland by a series of waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passage . Two large peninsulas, Boothia and Melville , extend northward from the mainland. The northernmost cluster of islands, including Ellesmere Island , is known as the Queen Elizabeth Islands and was formerly the Parry Islands. The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than 130 km (50 sq mi), and cover
144-775: The Italian arcipelago . In antiquity , "Archipelago" (from Medieval Greek * ἀρχιπέλαγος and Latin archipelagus ) was the proper name for the Aegean Sea . Later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands (since the sea has a large number of islands). Archipelagos may be found isolated in large amounts of water or neighbouring a large land mass. For example, Scotland has more than 700 islands surrounding its mainland, which form an archipelago. Archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along island arcs generated by subduction zones or hotspots , but may also be
160-524: The islands are uninhabited; human settlement is extremely thin and scattered, being mainly coastal Inuit settlements on the southern islands. Of the more than 36,000 islands, only 11 are populated. Baffin Island, the largest, also has the largest population of 13,309. The population accounts for 67.37 per cent of the 19,355 people in the Qikiqtaaluk Region , 56.51 per cent of the population of
176-503: The northern extremity of North America and covering about 1,424,500 km (550,000 sq mi), this group of 36,563 islands, surrounded by the Arctic Ocean , comprises much of Northern Canada , predominately Nunavut and the Northwest Territories . The archipelago is showing some effects of climate change , with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute 3.5 cm (1.4 in) to
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#1732772275975192-465: The result of erosion , deposition , and land elevation . Depending on their geological origin, islands forming archipelagos can be referred to as oceanic islands , continental fragments , or continental islands . Oceanic islands are mainly of volcanic origin, and widely separated from any adjacent continent. The Hawaiian Islands and Galapagos Islands in the Pacific , and Mascarene Islands in
208-670: The shelf. The islands of the Inside Passage off the coast of British Columbia and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are examples. Artificial archipelagos have been created in various countries for different purposes. Palm Islands and The World Islands off Dubai were or are being created for leisure and tourism purposes. Marker Wadden in the Netherlands is being built as a conservation area for birds and other wildlife. The largest archipelago in
224-432: The south Indian Ocean are examples. Continental fragments correspond to land masses that have separated from a continental mass due to tectonic displacement. The Farallon Islands off the coast of California are an example. Sets of islands formed close to the coast of a continent are considered continental archipelagos when they form part of the same continental shelf, when those islands are above-water extensions of
240-655: The world by number of islands is the Archipelago Sea , which is part of Finland . There are approximately 40,000 islands, mostly uninhabited. The largest archipelagic state in the world by area, and by population, is Indonesia . Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago , also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago , is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark ) and Iceland (an independent country). Situated in
256-412: Was originally (1870–80) only over island portions that drained into Foxe Basin , Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait . Canadian sovereignty over the islands was established by 1880 when Britain transferred them to Canada. The District of Franklin – established in 1895 – comprised almost all of the archipelago. The district was dissolved upon the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Canada claims all the waterways of
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