Desert island

An uninhabited island is one even at high tide on the sea protruding, completely surrounded by water land mass that was either never been inhabited by humans or is no longer permanently inhabited for a long time. On Earth, the majority of located in a sea or in inland water islands is uninhabited.

Generally

There are numerous reasons why an island or even a whole group of islands is no longer inhabited or: Some islands have no drinking water sources, while others are in inhospitable areas with extreme temperature fluctuations ( Arctic or Antarctic), and others in the past served as grounds for nuclear weapons tests and are therefore contaminated with radioactivity for thousands of years, so uninhabitable. Other islands are simply too small to be permanently settled or are too close to larger, more attractive settlements on the mainland. There are also islands, the only state ( for example, Alcatraz ) or military use (eg, Johnston Atoll ) is omitted.

Demarcation issues

An island, on which a lighthouse or a similar device is present only then is true even as uninhabited when from there and some people - such as for maintenance of equipment - stop. At issue is whether as a year-round manned lighthouse or a constantly research station from an uninhabited island does an inhabited island.

Literature and Film

Uninhabited islands play always in adventure stories in world literature ( for example, Robinson Crusoe or Treasure Island ), but also in movies (about Castaway ) an important role. The pristine nature of uninhabited islands has room for fiction of all kinds, such as the that on such islands dinosaurs' could have survived until today, what even quite match some of the uninhabited Galápagos Islands. Even in cartoons and jokes frequently is the subject of the uninhabited island taken up, mostly in the form that an individual of his hopeless situation inappropriate actions or utterances makes, which are due to habits in his previous life in civilization.

Use and nature conservation

The general fascination of the people for lonely or deserted islands has been preserved until today. Some, located primarily in the South Pacific or the Caribbean, once uninhabited islands or atolls, were acquired in view of the wealthy private individuals to property. In many cases the areas around uninhabited tropical islands, because of the lush underwater world and coral reefs, scuba divers will be investigated.

Some islets remain permanently inaccessible for permanent human habitation. Make many important nature reserves is to protect endangered animal and plant species ( eg for Agrimi - goats on the uninhabited island of Dia ).

Curiosities

The Guano Islands Act is a U.S. law of 1856, which, inter alia, allows U.S. citizens to take an uninhabited island for the United States in possession, if there bird droppings ( guano ) are present. The law is still valid and is for example a -reason why the uninhabited island of Navassa between the U.S. and Haiti is controversial.

791607
de