An archipelago is a landform which consists of a chain or cluster of islands. Archipelagoes usually occur in the open sea; less commonly, a large land mass may neighbour them. Archipelagoes are often volcanic, forming along mid-ocean ridges or hotspots, but there are many other processes involved in their construction, including erosion and deposition.
The word comes from the Aegean Sea (Greek αρχιπέλαγος, Italian Arcipelago), which literally means "chief sea", from Greek arkhi (leader) and pelagos (sea). The Aegean Sea is located between Greece in the west and Turkey in the east. In the Aegean, the Venetian Dukes of the Archipelago ruled from Naxos, 1210–1566.
The Archipelago Exchange is a fully electronic stock exchange that agreed to merge with the New York Stock Exchange in April 2005 to form the for-profit NYSE Group.
List of archipelagoes
- ABC islands
- Aegean islands
- Aleutian Islands
- Alexander Archipelago
- Andaman Islands
- Antilles (West Indies)
- Azores
- Bahama Islands
- Balearic Islands
- Baltic Sea archipelagoes
- Bight of Bonny islands
- British Isles
- Canadian Arctic islands
- Chagos Archipelago
- Channel Islands of California
- Chausey
- Chonos Archipelago
- Comoro Islands
- Diego Ramírez Islands
- Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
- Faroe Islands
- Florida Keys
- Fox Islands
- Franz Josef Land
- Frisian Islands (or Wadden Islands)
- Furneaux Group
- Galápagos Islands (Colón)
- Gothenburg archipelago
- Guayaneco Archipelago
- Japanese Archipelago
- Juan Fernández Islands
- Kerguelen Islands
- Kermadec Islands
- Kornati
- Lakshadweep (Laccadives)
- Lofoten
- Los Roques
- Macaronesia
- Magdalen Islands
- Malay archipelago (the world's largest)
- Maldives
- Maltese islands
- Mascarene Islands
- Melanesia
- Mergui Archipelago
- Micronesia
- New Siberian Islands
- Nicobar Islands
- New England and New York islands (Manhattan, City Island, Long Island, Rikers Island, Roosevelt Island, Staten Island, Block Island, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Liberty Island, Ellis Island, Governors Island, Long Beach Island, Elizabeth Islands)
- Novaya Zemlya islands
- Polynesia
- Pontine Islands
- Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii)
- Saint Helena islands
- San Juan Islands
- Severnaya Zemlya
- Solentiname Islands
- South China Sea Islands
- South Orkney Islands
- South Sandwich Islands
- South Shetland Islands
- Svalbard
- Thousand Islands
- Tierra del Fuego
- "The World", an archipelago of artificial islands being constructed off Dubai
- Tuscan Archipelago
- Venice islands
- Virgin Islands
See also
Lists of islands:
