MODES OF ORIGIN 15Examples of islands corresponding to the three types identified by Wallace, from different oceans of the world
Ocean Continental Continental Oceanic
islands fragments islands
Arctic Svalbard Iceland
Novaya Zemlya Jan Mayen
Baffin
Ellesmere
North Atlantic Britain Azores
Ireland Madeira
Newfoundland Canaries
Cape Verde
Mediterranean Elba Balearic Archipelago Santorini
Rhodos Corsica–Sardinia Eolie
Djerba Sicily
Crete
Cyprus
Caribbean Trinidad Cuba Martinique
Tobago Jamaica Guadeloupe
Hispaniola Montserrat
Puerto Rico Antigua
South Atlantic Falkland South Georgia Ascension
Tierra del Fuego St Helena
Tristan da Cunha
South Sandwich
Indian Zanzibar Madagascar Réunion
Sri Lanka Seychelles Mauritius
Sumatra Kerguelen Saint Paul
Java Socotra Diego García
North Pacific Vancouver Aleutian
Queen Charlotte Kuril
St Lawrence Hawaii
Sakhalin Marianas
Central and South Pacific Borneo New Zealand Galápagos
New Guinea New Caledonia Society Islands
Tasmania Marquesas
Chiloé Pitcairn
NB: Japan and the Philippines are good examples of islands with a mixed (continental–oceanic) origin
connection with plate boundaries, and in certain
circumstances, within a tectonic plate, leading to
different volcanic island types. There may today be
some 1 million submarine volcanoes, from which
only several thousands have been able to reach the
sea level to form volcanic islands (Carracedo 2003).
Volcanic islands typically are short-lived and even
substantial ones may only exist for a few million
years before subsiding and eroding back into the
ocean. Where sea temperature is adequate oceanic
islands may persist despite subsidence and erosion,
through the formation of coralline rings, or atolls.