Anislet (/ˈaɪlət/EYE-lət)[1] is generally a smallisland. Definitions vary and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or novegetation unable to supporthuman habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/orhard coral; may be permanent or tidal (i.e. surfacedreef orseamount); and may exist in thesea,lakes,rivers or any other sizeablebodies of water.
As suggested by its originislette, anOld Frenchdiminutive of "isle",[2] use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability.
The World Landforms website says, "An islet landform is generally considered to be a rock or small island that has little vegetation and cannot sustain human habitation", and further that size may vary from a few square feet to several square miles, with no specific rule pertaining to size.[3]
A Tahitian motu off the island ofRaiatea at sunset
Ait (/eɪt/, like eight) or eyot (/aɪ(ə)t, eɪt/), a small island. It is especially used to refer to river islands found on theRiver Thames and its tributaries in England.[4][5][6]
Cay or key, an islet formed by the accumulation of fine sand deposits atop areef, especially in theCaribbean and West Atlantic.Rum Cay in theBahamas and theFlorida Keys offFlorida are examples of islets.
Rock, in the sense of a type of islet, is an uninhabited landform composed of exposedrocks, lying offshore, and having at most minimal vegetation, such asAlbino Rock in thePalm Island group offQueensland, Australia.
Sea stack, a thin, vertical landform jutting out of a body of water.
Skerry, a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation, especially inIreland.
Subsidiary islets, a more technical application, is applied to small land features isolated by water, lying off the shore of a larger island. Similarly, any emergent land in an atoll is also called an islet.[9]
Tidal island, small islands (not always islets) which lie closely off the coast of amainland or a much larger island, being connected to it (and thus becomes apeninsula/promontory) in low tide and isolated by achannel in high tide.
Whether an islet is considered a rock or not, it can have significant economic consequences under Article 121 of theUN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which stipulates that "rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have noexclusive economic zone orcontinental shelf". One long-term dispute over the status of such an islet was that ofSnake Island.[10][11][12]
TheInternational Court of Justice jurisprudence however sometimes ignores islets, regardless of inhabitation status, in deciding territorial disputes; it did so in 2009 in adjudicating theRomania–Ukraine dispute, and previously in the dispute between Libya and Malta involving the islet ofFilfla.[10][13]
There are thousands of islets on Earth: approximately 24,000 islands and islets in theStockholm archipelago alone. The following is a list of example islets from around the world.
Clive Schofield (2012). "Islands or Rocks, Is that the Real Question? The Treatment of Islands in the Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries". In Myron H. Nordquist; John Norton Moore; Alfred H.A. Soons; Hak-So Kim (eds.).The Law of the Sea Convention: US Accession and Globalization.Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 322–340.ISBN978-90-04-20136-1.
