A floating island is a mass of floating aquatic plants, mud, and peat ranging in thickness from a few inches to several feet. Floating islands are a common natural phenomenon that are found in many parts of the world. They exist less commonly as a man-made phenomenon. Floating islands are generally found on marshlands, lakes, and similar wetland locations, and can be many hectares in size.
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Sometimes referred to as tussocks, floatons, or suds, natural floating islands are composed of vegetation growing on a buoyant mat of plant roots or other organic detritus. Some cenotes in northern Mexico have natural floating islands.
They typically occur when growths of cattails, bulrush, sedge, and reeds extend outward from the shoreline of a wetland area. As the water gets deeper the roots no longer reach the bottom, so they use the oxygen in their root mass for buoyancy, and the surrounding vegetation for support to retain their top-side-up orientation. The area beneath these floating mats is exceptionally rich in aquatic lifeforms. Eventually, storm events tear whole sections free from the shore, and the islands thus formed migrate around a lake with changing winds, eventually either reattaching to a new area of the shore, or breaking up in heavy weather.
Natural floating islands may have been the source of many "disappearing island" legends, such as those surrounding Avalon.
Explosive volcanic eruptions may create pumice rafts, which can float on the ocean for months or even years before becoming fully saturated and sinking. Over time, larger rafts can have grasses and palm trees growing on them.
Floating artificial islands are generally made of bundled reeds, and the best known examples are those of the Uros people of Lake Titicaca, Peru, who build their villages upon what are in effect huge rafts of bundled totora reeds. The Uros originally created their islands to prevent attacks by their more aggressive neighbours, the Incas and Collas. The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was surrounded with chinampas, small artificial islands used for agriculture known as "floating gardens" (though not really floating). Spiral Island was a more modern one-person effort to build an artificial floating island, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico.
The British wartime Project Habakkuk proposed the construction of aircraft carriers made of ice-like Pykrete. Its size and speed made it more of an artificial iceberg or island than a ship.
Commercial development of floating islands has begun taking place. A commercially-produced floating island was installed in the river otter enclosure at Zoo Montana in 2007.[1] In 2009 and the beginning of 2010, a few larger islands were launched to provide nesting habitat for Caspian Tern colonies. The largest of the islands, at a record-setting 44,000 sq ft (4,100 m2), was launched into the water at Sheepy Lake. These islands are a collaboration between the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Oregon State University, and Floating Islands West, a Floating Island International license holder.[2]
A company called Floating Islands International licenses technology for creating floating islands to a variety of organizations.[3]
Floating Island Environmental Solutions, a company based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, creates floating islands constructed from matrix sheets, derived from non-woven 100% recycled PET plastic which mimic naturally occurring wetlands.[4]