Greenland is a massive, sparsely populated frozen wasteland in the North Atlantic Ocean. Bora Bora is a small tropical paradise in the South Pacific Ocean.
These two vastly different places have one thing in common. Both are islands.
An island is a body of land that is surrounded by water. Some islands are found in rivers, lakes, and ponds, but most islands are in oceans. Some islands, such as Madagascar—which is off the east coast of Africa—are nations. Others are made up of two nations. For example, the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Some islands are part of a larger nation. Sumatra is one of many islands that form the nation of Indonesia. Some islands are colonies or territories of other nations. The island of Puerto Rico is associated with the United States, but it is not a state.
