Anuninhabited island,desert island, ordeserted island, is anisland,islet oratoll which lacks permanent human population. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories aboutshipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes for the idea of "paradise". Some uninhabited islands are protected asnature reserves, and some are privately owned.Devon Island in Canada's far north is the largest uninhabited island in the world.[1][2]
Small coralatolls or islands usually have no source offresh water, but occasionally a freshwaterlens can be reached with a well.
Uninhabited islands are sometimes also called "deserted islands" or "desert islands". In the latter, the adjectivedesert connotes notdesert climate conditions, but rather "desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied". The worddesert has been "formerly applied more widely to any wild, uninhabited region, including forest-land", and it is this archaic meaning that appears in the phrase "desert island".[3]
The term "desert island" is also commonly used figuratively to refer to objects or behavior in conditions of social isolation and limited material means. Behavior on a desert island is a commonthought experiment, for example, "desert island morality".[3]
Desert islands are partly sheltered from humans, making them havens for a number of fragile wildlife species such assea turtles and ground-nestingseabirds. Many species of seabirds use them as stopovers on their way or especially for nesting, taking advantage of the (supposed) absence of terrestrial predators such ascats orrats.
However, tons of waste from far away countries accumulate on their beaches from the sea, and the absence of surveillance also makes them desirable spots forpoachers of protected species.[4]
| Rank | Area Rank | Island | Area (km2) | Area (sq mi) | Country/Countries | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | Devon Island (Tallurutit) | 55,247 | 21,331 | Canada (Nunavut) | 75°08′N 87°51′W |
| 2 | 28 | Alexander Island (Isla Alejandro I) | 49,070 | 18,950 | None (Antarctic territorial claims byArgentina,Chile, and theUnited Kingdom) | 71°00′S 70°00′W |
| 3 | 30 | Severny Island (Severnyy Ostrov) | 48,904 | 18,882 | Russia (Arkhangelsk Oblast) | 75°30′N 60°00′E |
| 4 | 31 | Berkner Island (Isla Berkner) | 44,000 | 17,000 | None (Antarctic territorial claims by Argentina and the United Kingdom) | 79°30′S 47°30′W |
| 5 | 32 | Axel Heiberg Island (Umingmat Nunaat) | 43,178 | 16,671 | Canada (Nunavut) | 79°26′N 90°46′W |
| 6 | 33 | Melville Island (Ilulliq) | 42,149 | 16,274 | Canada (Northwest Territories and Nunavut) | 75°30′N 111°30′W |
| 7 | 40 | Prince of Wales Island (Kinngailak) | 33,339 | 12,872 | Canada (Nunavut) | 72°40′N 99°00′W |
| 8 | 46 | Somerset Island (Kuuganajuk) | 24,786 | 9,570 | Canada (Nunavut) | 73°15′N 93°30′W |
| 9 | 47 | Kotelny Island (Olgujdaah Aryy) | 24,000 | 9,300 | Russia (Sakha Republic) | 75°20′N 141°00′E |
| 10 | 54 | Bathurst Island | 16,042 | 6,194 | Canada (Nunavut) | 75°46′N 99°47′W |
| 11 | 55 | Prince Patrick Island | 15,848 | 6,119 | Canada (Northwest Territories) | 76°45′N 119°30′W |
| 12 | 56 | Thurston Island | 15,700 | 6,100 | None | 72°6′S 99°0′W |
| 13 | 57 | Nordaustlandet | 14,467 | 5,586 | Norway (Svalbard) | 79°48′N 22°24′E |
| 14 | 59 | October Revolution Island | 14,170 | 5,470 | Russia (Krasnoyarsk Krai) | 79°30′N 97°00′E |
| 15 | 68 | Ellef Ringnes Island | 11,295 | 4,361 | Canada (Nunavut) | 78°30′N 102°15′W |
| 16 | 69 | Bolshevik Island | 11,270 | 4,350 | Russia (Krasnoyarsk Krai) | 78°63'N 102.48°E |
| 17 | 71 | Bylot Island | 11,067 | 4,273 | Canada (Nunavut) | 73°16′N 78°30′W |
| 18 | 77 | Prince Charles Island | 9,521 | 3,676 | Canada (Nunavut) | 67°47′N 76°12′W |
| 19 | 82 | Komsomolets Island | 9,006 | 3,477 | Russia (Krasnoyarsk Krai) | 80°29′N 94°59′E |
| 20 | 85 | Carney Island | 8,500 | 3,300 | None | 73°57′S 121°00′W |
| 21 | 107 | Coats Island | 5,498 | 2,123 | Canada (Nunavut) | 62°35′N 82°45′W' |
| 22 | 111 | Amund Ringnes Island | 5,255 | 2,029 | Canada (Nunavut) | 78°20′N 96°25′W |
Most of the largest uninhabited islands are many kilometers/miles inside theArctic orAntarctic circles, indicating that the reason for their desertedness is the freezing climate.
The first knownnovels to be set on a desert island wereHayy ibn Yaqdhan written byIbn Tufail (1105–1185), followed byTheologus Autodidactus written byIbn al-Nafis (1213–1288). Theprotagonists in both (Hayy inHayy ibn Yaqdhan and Kamil inTheologus Autodidactus) areferal children living in seclusion on a deserted island, until they eventually come in contact withcastaways from the outside world who are stranded on the island. The story ofTheologus Autodidactus, however, extends beyond the deserted island setting when the castaways take Kamil back tocivilization with them.[8]
William Shakespeare's 1610–11 play,The Tempest, uses the idea of being stranded on a desert island as a pretext for the action of the play.Prospero and his daughterMiranda are set adrift by Prospero's treacherous brother Antonio, seeking to becomeDuke of Milan, and Prospero in turn shipwrecks his brother and other men of sin onto the island.
ALatin translation of Ibn Tufail'sHayy ibn Yaqdhan appeared in 1671, prepared byEdward Pococke the Younger,[9][10] followed by anEnglish translation bySimon Ockley in 1708,[11] as well asGerman andDutch translations.[12] In the late 17th century,Hayy ibn Yaqdhan inspiredRobert Boyle, an acquaintance of Pococke, to write his own philosophical novel set on a deserted island,The Aspiring Naturalist.[13] Ibn al-Nafis'Theologus Autodidactus was also eventually translated into English in the early 20th century.
Published in 1719,Daniel Defoe's novelRobinson Crusoe, about a castaway on a desert island, has spawned so many imitations in film, television and radio that its name was used to define a genre,Robinsonade.[14][15] The novel featuresMan Friday, Crusoe's personal assistant. It is likely that Defoe took inspiration for Crusoe from aScottish sailor namedAlexander Selkirk, who was rescued in 1709 after four years on the otherwise uninhabitedJuan Fernández Islands; Defoe usually made use of current events for his plots. It is also likely that he was inspired by the Latin or English translations of Ibn Tufail'sHayy ibn Yaqdhan.[9][12][16][17]
Noel Paul Stookey wrote a song about living on a desert island called "On a Desert Island (With You in My Dreams)" onPeter, Paul & Mary's 1965 album: "See What Tomorrow Brings".
Tom Neale was a New Zealander who voluntarily spent 16 years in three sessions in the 1950s and 1960s living alone on the island ofSuwarrow in theNorthern Cook Islands group. His time there is documented in his autobiography,An Island To Oneself.[18]
In the popular conception, such islands are often located in thePacific,tropical, uninhabited and usually uncharted.[19] They are remote locales that offer escape and force people marooned or stranded ascastaways to become self-sufficient and essentially create a new society. This society can either beutopian, based on an ingenious re-creation of society's comforts (as inSwiss Family Robinson and, in a humorous form,Gilligan's Island) or a regression into savagery (the major theme of bothLord of the Flies andThe Beach).
Desert island jokes are also a hugely popular image forgag cartoons, the island being conventionally depicted as just a few yards across with a single palm tree (probably due to the visual constraints of the medium). 17 such cartoons appeared inThe New Yorker in 1957 alone.[20]
A special variation of the desert island theme appears in H.G.Wells'sThe War in the Air. As part of the cataclysmic global war depicted, the bridges linkingGoat Island in the middle of theNiagara Falls to the mainland are cut, and with civilization fast breaking down a few survivors stranded on the island cannot expect rescue and must rely on their own resources - embarking on a grim life-and-death struggle.
The top "dream vacation" for heterosexual men surveyed byPsychology Today was "marooned on a tropical island with several members of the opposite sex".[21]
In 1820, the crew of the BritishwhalerEssex spent time on uninhabited BritishHenderson Island. There they gorged on birds, fish, and vegetation and found a small freshwater spring. After one week, they had depleted the island's resources and most of the crew left on threewhaleboats, while three of the men decided to remain on the island and survived there for four months until their rescue.[22]
Survivors of the BritishStrathmore survived for 7 months at a small island of the FrenchCrozet Islands from 1875 to 1876. They survived from eating eggs and flesh of geese, albatrosses and other seabirds. The also ate root vegetables and fish.[23] The survival was the input for among others the bookSurvival on the Crozet Islands: The Wreck of the Strathmore in 1875.[24]
