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. Archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along 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.
"Archipelago" is also the name of a popular videogame from the early 1990's
The Archipelago Exchange is a fully electronic stock exchange that merged with the New York Stock Exchange in April 2005 to form the for-profit NYSE Group.
List of archipelagoes
- Aegean islands
- Aleutian Islands
- Alexander Archipelago
- American Samoa
- Andaman Islands
- Antilles (West Indies)
- Azores
- Bahamas
- Balearic Islands
- Baltic Sea archipelagoes:
- Stockholm archipelago, Sweden
- Ã…land Islands, autonomous (under Finnish sovereignty)
- Turku archipelago, Finland
- Belcher Islands
- Bismarck Archipelago
- British Isles
- Canadian Arctic islands
- Canary Islands
- Cape Verde Islands
- Caroline Islands
- Channel Islands (Europe)
- Channel Islands (North America)
- Chonos Archipelago (Chile)
- Comoro Islands
- Cook Islands
- Cyclades
- Dodecanese
- Falkland Islands
- Faroe Islands
- Fiji Islands
- Florida Keys
- Fox Islands
- French Polynesia
- Austral Islands
- Gambier Islands
- Marquesas
- Society Islands
- ÃŽles du vent (Windward Islands)
- ÃŽles sous le vent (Leeward Islands)
- Tuamotus
- Frisian or Wadden Islands (divided into the West, East, and North Frisian Islands groups)
- Furneaux Group
- Galápagos Islands
- Gothenburg archipelago
- Greater Sunda Islands
- Guayaneco Archipelago
- Hawaiian Islands
- Hebrides
- ÃŽles-de-la-Madeleine
- Japanese Archipelago
- Juan Fernández
- Kerguelen Islands
- Kermadec Islands
- Kornati (Croatia)
- Lakshadweep
- Lesser Sunda Islands
- Line Islands
- Lofoten
- Los Roques
- Madeira Islands
- Malay archipelago (the world's largest)
- Maldives
- Maltese archipelago (Malta, Gozo, Comino, Filfla,St Paul's Island and several smaller islets)
- Maluku Islands
- Mariana Islands
- Marshall Islands
- Melanesia
- Micronesia
- New Hebrides
- New Siberian Islands
- New Zealand
- Nicobar Islands
- Most of New York City and nearby islands: Manhattan-City Island-Long Island-Rikers Island-Roosevelt Island-Staten Island-Block Island-Nantucket-Martha's Vineyard-Liberty Island-Ellis Island - Long Beach Island, and other islands in the vicinity.
- Orkneys
- Philippines
- Pitcairn Islands
- Polynesia
- Pontine Islands
- Puerto Rico
- Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii)
- Samoa
- San Juan Islands
- Isles of Scilly
- Seychelles
- Shetlands
- Solomon Islands
- Solentiname Islands
- South Orkney Islands
- South Shetland Islands
- Spratly Islands
- Svalbard
- Thousand Islands
- Tierra del Fuego
- Tonga
- The World, an archipelago of artificial islands being constructed off Dubai
- Tuscan Archipelago
- Venice
See also
- Island arc
- Geography
- Earth science
- Geomorphology
- List of landforms
- Plate tectonics
Lists of islands:
- List of islands of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
- List of islands in the Arctic Ocean
- List of islands of Asia
- List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean
- List of islands of Australia
- List of islands of Canada
- List of islands in the Caribbean
- List of islands in the Indian Ocean
- List of islands of North America
- List of islands in the Pacific
- List of islands of South America
- List of islands in the United Statesde:Archipel
es:Archipiélago
fr:Archipel
he:ארכיפלג
is:Eyjaklasi
it:Arcipelago
nl:Archipel
ja:列島
pl:Archipelag
pt:Arquipélago
ru:Архипелаг
sv:Skärgård
tl:Kapuluan
zh:群島
Categories: Archipelagoes
