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Islands

Islands vary tremendously when it comes to shapes, sizes and climates. Some are tropical and lush, while others are jagged and arid. They also support thousands of unique and unparalleled types of animals, such as the giant tortoises of Galapagos, Madagascar's lemurs, and the humongous Komodo dragons, the largest lizards in the world. Oceanic and continental are two broad categories of islands, regardless of the islands' shape, size or the type of animals that dwell on their surfaces.

Oceanic islands were created from the lava of giant underwater volcanoes. An example of this would be the Hawaiian Islands. Normally these islands are located far from major land masses. Continental islands once were part of a larger land mass and in recent geologic history, have become separated from the mainland because of rising sea levels after massive glaciers melted thousands of years ago or by earthquakes which seperated them from the original land mass. An example of a continental island would be California's Channel Islands. These types of islands have an older and more complicated geological history than the oceanic islands.

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