Peninsula

"Peninsular" redirects here. For the Spanish caste, see Peninsulars. For other uses, see Peninsula (disambiguation).
The world's largest peninsula, the Arabian Peninsula
Baja California Peninsula, Mexico

A peninsula (Latin: paeninsula from paene "almost" and insula "island") is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland.[1] The surrounding water is usually understood to belong to a single contiguous body,[2][3] but is not always explicitly defined as such.[4] A peninsula can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, or spit.[5] A point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape.[6] In English, the plural of peninsula is peninsulas or, less commonly, peninsulae. A river which courses through a very tight meander is also sometimes said to form a "peninsula" within the (almost closed) loop of water.

Africa

The Horn of Africa also known as the Somali peninsula.

Horn of Africa

Main article: Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa is a peninsula compassing of the countries of Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.

North Africa

Other

Oceania

Australia

A beach on the Mornington Peninsula

Papua New Guinea

New Zealand

NASA satellite photo of Otago Peninsula and Otago Harbour. The city of Dunedin is located at the isthmus at lower left.
In the North Island
In the South Island

Europe

Europe is sometimes considered to be a large peninsula extending off Eurasia.[7] As such, it is one of the largest peninsulas in the world and the only one to have the status as a full continent, largely as a matter of convention rather than science. It is composed of many smaller peninsulas, the four main component peninsulas being the Iberian, Scandinavian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas.

Balkan Peninsula

The Balkans is a peninsula including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the European part of Turkey.

Denmark

France

Iberian Peninsula

Satellite view of the Iberian Peninsula
Main article: Iberian Peninsula

Encompassing continental Spain and Portugal, Andorra, British overseas territory of Gibraltar and a small amount of southern France.

Ireland

Italy

Satellite view of the Italian Peninsula

Malta

Russia

Curonian Spit, a large peninsula in the Baltic Sea

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a peninsula encompassing present-day Sweden, Norway, and part of Finland.

Turkey

Main article: Peninsulas of Turkey

Ukraine

United Kingdom

England

Southwestern England and the English Channel. France's Brittany Peninsula is also shown at the bottom of the picture.

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

Channel Islands

Other peninsulas in Europe

A small peninsula in Croatia
Au peninsula, Lake Zürich, Switzerland

Asia

China

Russia

Turkey

Map of Anatolian Peninsula at the Asian part of Turkey.

Eastern Mediterranean

Indian subcontinent and South Asia

South India (Peninsular India).

The Indostanic Peninsula or Indian subcontinent is itself a peninsula, the only land feature in the world that is widely recognized as a subcontinent in the English language.

Japan

Kyūshū

Honshū

Hokkaido

Kazakhstan

Korea

Main article: Korean Peninsula
Korean Peninsula.

The whole land mass encompassing North and South Korea is a peninsula, surrounded by the Sea of Korea on the east, the East China Sea to the south, and the West Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water.

Taiwan

Persian Gulf

South East Asia

Indonesia

Malaysia

Philippines

Singapore

Vietnam

North America

Canada

Greenland

Mexico

The Yucatán Peninsula

United States

Alaska

California

Florida

The Floridian Peninsula, shown by a NASA satellite image.

Florida is a well-known example of a large peninsula, with its land area divided between the larger Florida peninsula and the smaller Florida panhandle on the north and west. It has several smaller peninsulas within it:

Maryland

Mid-Atlantic shoreline showing, from the upper right, the Cape May Peninsula of New Jersey, Delaware Bay, the Delmarva Peninsula, and Chesapeake Bay. Also visible are the peninsulas of Maryland and Virginia along the Chesapeake's shores.

Massachusetts

Cape Cod, a peninsula of Massachusetts

Michigan

The large Michigan Peninsulas from space, showing both the Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula.

New Jersey

New York

Long Island, New York, with its North and South Forks.

Utah

Virginia

Washington

Other states

Central America

South America

Caribbean

Antarctica

See also

References

  1. ↑ Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries, ed. (2004). Word Histories and Mysteries: From Abracadabra to Zeus. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 216. ISBN 978-0547350271. OCLC 55746553.
  2. ↑ "Definition of peninsula". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved 2013-03-30. External link in |work= (help)
  3. ↑ "Definition of peninsula". Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2013-03-30. External link in |work= (help)
  4. ↑ "Definition of peninsula". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2013-03-30. External link in |work= (help)
  5. ↑ Peninsula. – Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica, Retrieved 2007-07-19.
  6. ↑ http://travelingluck.com/Africa/Sierra%20Leone/Northern/_2409328_Fourah+Point.html#local_map
  7. ↑ National Geographic, ed. (1996). "Peninsula". Retrieved 18 January 2015.

External links

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