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My geography teacher used to say: “On small islands you won’t find rivers. There is a mnemotechnic verse to remember that: ‘On small islands you won’t find rive
by leipert 4y ago
My geography teacher used to say: “On small islands you won’t find rivers. There is a mnemotechnic verse to remember that: ‘On small islands you won’t find rivers’”
Don’t know if it is even true. Stuck with me to this day, if I ever meet him again, I will ask about whether small islands can have lakes or not.
- yreg 4y agoMakes sense, right, as you need to have a sufficient area to capture rainwater. Depends on the interpretation of `small` and `river`.
- quickthrower2 4y agoAn island is defined as small if it is strictly smaller than the smallest island with rivers.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago> Depends on the interpretation of `small` and `river`. I think it's the other way around. If there are rivers, it's not a small island.
- arketyp 4y agoI interpreted the joke being that a mnemotechnic is like a river, poetry flowing, so you won't find one for knowledge that is already concisely formulated, like a small island.
- quickthrower2 4y agoThats XKCD hover comment level of clever
- eesmith 4y agoSo far the smallest island I've found with something people describe as a "river" is Suðuroy, in the Faroe Islands, at 163.7 km2 (63.2 sq mi). "the great cirques of upland central Suðuroy where the hilltops reach an altitude of 574 m, but overlook and to a degree shelter the summer grazings of Hovsdalur (altitude about 200 m). The whole is drained by the Hovsá, a salmon and trout river. Freshwater is ample here as everywhere in the Faroe Islands, with rivers, count-less streams and an average annual precipitation of 1334 mm (Søgaard, 1996)." - https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10745-005-4746-0.pdf https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10745-005-474... It also has a hydropower plant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnur_power_plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnur_power_plant . Is Suðuroy a "small island"? Perhaps! I found a larger island which Wikipedia describes as small. "Rinca, also known as Rincah, Rindja, Rintja and Pintja, is a small island near Komodo and Flores island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, within the West Manggarai Regency", at 198 km2 (76 sq mi), says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinca . Anyone know of a smaller island with a river?
- ricardobayes 4y agoThis is stretching it but this island (Poro Island - 96.6 km2) seems to have a "stream" and a waterfall into what looks like a pond. I wouldn't really call it a river by any means though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poro_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poro_Island
- eesmith 4y agoI don't find any publications referring to a river on Poro Island, and from your description I agree it's not a river. Also, if it were then Rarotonga at 67.39 km2 has a waterfall ending up in a pond. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/wigmores-papua-waterfall-rarotonga-cook-islands-royalty-free-image/157404909 https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/wigmores-papua-wate... . Video after a heavy rainfall at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgM7b8WjCPw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgM7b8WjCPw .
- FabHK 4y agoHong Kong Island (with 78 km^2) has Staunton Creek Nullah, which is a nullah, so presumably not a river? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staunton_Creek_Nullah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staunton_Creek_Nullah
- eesmith 4y agoHmm. It appears to be artificial. The Wikipedia entry says "an artificial open channel" and 'Visit To Places Of Historic Interest In The Aberdeen Area Of Hong Kong Island' from 1967 (at https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23890119.pdf https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23890119.pdf) says: "It was up this valley that Sir George Staunton, the eminent sinologue and Third Commissioner in the Amherst Embassy to Peking in 1816，strolled from the Aberdeen anchorage the following year to visit the village 一 in so doing to give his name to Staunton Creek now, 150 years later, being reclaimed from the sea." I would not call that a river. On the other hand, while researching the above I found that Lantau Island, Hong Kong at 147.16 km2 (56.82 sq mi) has the Tung Chung River. Lantau Island - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantau_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantau_Island Tung Chung River - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tung_Chung_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tung_Chung_River That's smaller than Suðuroy, and smaller than the "small island" of Rinca, making it seemingly a small island with a river.
- theandrewbailey 4y agoNot sure why one would need to make a distinction between small islands and not-small islands. Islands can have rivers, e.g. Thames in Britain.
- wlonkly 4y agoWell, that's not a small island.