Greenland is a massive, sparsely populated frozen wasteland in the North Atlantic Ocean. Bora Bora is a small, warm, tropical paradise in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean.
These two places are vastly different, but they have one important thing in common—both are islands.
An island is a body of land that is surrounded by water. Some islands are located in rivers, lakes, and ponds, but most are found in oceans. Some islands, like 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 home to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Some islands are part of a bigger nation, like Sumatra, which 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, for example, is associated with the United States, but it is not one of the 50 states.
