page_title: Island
section_title: Tropical islands
hierarchical_section_title: Island / Types of islands / Tropical islands
caption_attribution_description: Indian Airlines Airbus A320 landing runway 18 at Male International Airport.
context_page_description: An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. Sedimentary islands in the Ganges delta are called chars. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands, such as the Philippines, is referred to as an archipelago.
  An island may be described as such, despite the presence of an artificial land bridge; examples are Singapore and its causeway, and the various Dutch delta islands, such as IJsselmonde. Some places may even retain "island" in their names for historical reasons after being connected to a larger landmass by a land bridge or landfill, such as Coney Island and Coronado Island, though these are, strictly speaking, tied islands.
context_section_description: Approximately 45,000 tropical islands with an area of at least 5 hectares (12 acres) exist. Examples formed from coral reefs include Maldives, Tonga, Samoa, Nauru, and Polynesia. Granite islands include Seychelles and Tioman and volcanic islands such as Saint Helena.
  The socio-economic diversity of tropical islands ranges from the Stone Age societies in the interior of North Sentinel, Madagascar, Borneo, and Papua New Guinea to the high-tech lifestyles of the city-islands of Singapore and Hong Kong.
  International tourism is a significant factor in the economy of many tropical islands including Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Mauritius,  Réunion, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Maldives.
caption: Plane landing on an airport island, Velana International Airport, Hulhulé Island, Maldives
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