What is an island?

I think the most famous example would have to be Mont St Michel in Normandy, France. It used to be separated from the mainland at low tide, but now the bay is silting up.
And then there’s the English copy across the channel. St Michaels Mount is pretty similar, although smaller.

Long Island, east of NYC, with the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, the Long Island Sound between it and Connecticut, and the East River (itself not a river but a tidal estuary) between it and Manhattan, was deemed by the Supreme Court several years ago to be a peninsula!

I forget the reason why it got to the Supremes, but it did.

So, regardless of all the bridges connecting us to Manhattan and the Bronx, it’s Long Peninsula I live on.

Paul Simon is an island.

RE:

“Is there any place which is at times, definitely an island, and at times, definitely not an island, because of the tides? I mean, a place big enough to have a name, like Sometimes Island.”

There is an (alleged) island that appears from time-to-time off the South-East coast of Massachusetts. Its “existence” depends on occasional variations in the ocean level. While tide plays a role, it is the average ocean depth that makes it fully appear or fully not appear for whole days at a time.

This does not involve any sporadically-appearing land bridge. At no time is this ever bridged to any other body of land.

This shows up in the news occasionally because its part of a dispute as to the location of the Massachusetts border. I think MA claims it really is an island in MA and marks the SE border, while others claim it isn’t and that the MA border is much further NW.

If memory serves right, the last time any officals went looking for it they couldn’t find it.

I know it has a name, but for now I will call it “Agruable Island”.

Well if you think about it this way the entire earth is an island in a vast ocean of space. the only way Islands are really determind is if the Beauacracy wants it to be and island and if people have enough money to make it an Island… after all everything has a price doesn’t it?

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Hawaii or puget sound in washington yet. Puget Sounds has tons of Islands.:smiley:

WOW!, now I will never have to go through life wondering whether an island in a lake on an island in a lake at the bottom of a river on an island in a lake is really an island in a lake on an island in a lake at the bottom of a river on an island in a lake, and why it may be possible that it isn’t an island in a lake on an island in a lake at the bottom of a river on an island in a lake, which could be a volcano.:eek: COOL!:rolleyes:

but really, it wasn’t that bad of a question…

Side note: The Saint Lawrence Seaway (Voie maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of canals, locks, and other civil engineering works, located upstream of Montreal. I think you mean the Saint Lawrence River (fleuve Saint-Laurent).

I thought he was a rock!

:smiley: