From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
Mōkōlea Rock in Kailua Bay,
O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, 2.2 km off North Beach, MCBH
An islet is a small island.
A rock, sometimes a synonym for a type of "islet", is a landform composed of rock, lying offshore, having no or minimal vegetation, and uninhabited (see Mōkōlea Rock at right).
An exposed sandbar would be another type of islet. A more technical application is to small land features, isolated by water, lying off the shore of a larger island. And in related fashion, any emergent land on an atoll (a type of island) would also be called an islet.
As with many of these terms, the actual size limits of islets are subjective, and vary from area to area, and person to person.
- Islets are often called cays or keys in the Caribbean and West Atlantic. Rum Cay in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys off Florida are examples of islets.
- In Scotland and Ireland, they are often called inches, from the Gaelic innis, which originally meant island, but has been supplanted to refer to smaller islands. In Ireland they are often termed skerries.
- In the Channel Islands, they are often identified by the suffix -hou from the Norse -holmr. Holm is a common suffix too in Nordic and northern European lands.
- In North Frisia, islets are called Hallige (North Frisian: Halie or Hålie). These islets lack dikes and frequently owerflow. Nevertheless most of them are permanently inhabited.
