Question

What is an archipelago?
A) A group of mounting.
B) A type of cloud.
C) Large group of islands.
D) Large group of lakes.

Answer 1

Hint: It is a geographical term. Archipelagos are found isolated in huge amounts of water or neighbouring huge landmass. They are mostly found in the oceans. They are formed in different circumstances depending on the geographical changes. They are formed because of volcanic eruptions, erosion, Tectonic movements, melting of glaciers and from the end of the ice age.

Complete answer:
An archipelago is a large group of islands. It is often referred to as a group of islands or island chains. It is a collection of islands and sometimes a sea holding a few numbers of distributed islands. These are even scattered in lakes, rivers or the ocean. These islands are made in different circumstances.

Following are the different circumstances:
1. From volcanic eruptions: Most of the archipelagos are made when volcanoes erupt under the ocean. They are formed following the series of several volcanic eruptions. These oceanic islands are known as island arcs.
2. From soil erosion: They also formed because of erosion, sedimentary deposits, increase in sea level and other geographical processes.
3. Tectonic movements: Continental landmass has separated due to Earth’s tectonic movements. They scattered into continental fragments.
4. Ending of the ice age: The valleys beside the coastlines between the mountain ranges when the ice age ended, became flooded and ice melts away. A series of islands just off the coast appeared.
5. Melting of glaciers: The piece of land crushed under the weight of huge glaciers. As time passed, they expanded and reinstated their shapes when glaciers melted.

Note: The archipelago which is located on the outer lines of the sea are smaller and uninhabited. While others located on the inner surface of the sea are more inhabited and developed. The biggest countries which are mainly archipelagos are Japan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and Indonesia. Artificial archipelagos are created in several countries for other purposes. Palm Island and the world island are examples of artificial archipelagos.