Uros island

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. Image File history File links Uros island. ... Image File history File links Uros island. ... Uros island Uros refers to a group of about 40 floating islets located in Lake Titicaca off Puno, Peru as well as to the pre-Inca people who fashioned them. ... This article is about marsh, a type of wetland. ... A man-made lake in Keukenhof, Netherlands A lake is a body of water or other liquid of considerable size surrounded by land. ... A hectare (symbol ha) is a unit of area, equal to 10,000 square metres, commonly used for measuring land area. ...

When they occur naturally they are sometimes referred to as tussocks, floatons, or sudds. Natural floating islands are composed of vegetation growing on a buoyant mat consisting of plant roots or other organic detritus.

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. Species See text. ... The term bulrush (or sometimes as bullrush) typically refers to tall, herbaceous plants that grow in wetlands. ... Genera See text The family Cyperaceae, or the Sedge family, is a taxon of monocot flowering plants that superficially resemble grasses or rushes. ... species Pragmites australis Reed is a generic term used to describe numerous plants including: Common Reed (Phragmites australis Cav. ...

Natural floating islands may have been the source of many "disappearing island" legends, such as those of surrounding the Isle of Avalon. A legend (Latin, legenda, things to be read) is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. ... Avalon (probably from the Celtic word abal: apple; see Etymology below) is a legendary island somewhere in the British Isles, famous for its beautiful apples. ...

Floating artificial islands are generally made of bundled reeds, and the best known examples are those of the Uros people of Lake Titikaka, 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, floating islands used for agriculture. Spiral Island was a more modern one-person effort of constructing an artificial floating island in Mexico. Before Mexico City, Tenochtitlan was an artificial island of 250,000 (Dr Atl) Dejima, not allowed direct contact with nearby Nagasaki Formoza (Gdynia) The World in Dubai An artificial island is an island that has been formed by human, rather than natural means. ... Uros island Uros refers to a group of about 40 floating islets located in Lake Titicaca off Puno, Peru as well as to the pre-Inca people who fashioned them. ... A boat made of reeds on Lake Titicaca. ... Binomial name Podocarpus totara G. Benn. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... Tenochtitlan, looking east. ... Chinampa is an Aztec term referring to a method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture through floating gardens—small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land used for agriculture in the Xochimilco region of the Basin of Mexico. ... Spiral Island was a floating artificial island in a lagoon near Puerto Aventuras, on the East coast of Mexico south of Cancún. ...

The British wartime Project Habakkuk proposed the construction of aircraft carriers made of ice-like Pykrete. Its size and speed made it more an artificial iceberg or island than a ship. Project Habbakuk was a plan by the British in World War II to construct an unsinkable aircraft carrier out of ice, for use against German U-boats in the mid-Atlantic, which was out of range of land-based planes. ... Pykrete is a composite material made of approximately 14 percent sawdust or some other form of wood pulp (such as paper) and 86 percent ice by weight. ...

In fiction

A "floating island" in fiction (sometimes called a "flying island"), is a fictitious landmass that either floats in a body of water (like Vadanis in The Guardian Cycle of novels) or flies above the surface of the earth (or in some cases through the depths of space), defying gravity. These islands are usually free-floating and can be directed by the whim of their inhabitants, although some may be permanently anchored. They are usually propelled and/or held aloft by one or more of the following means: The Guardian Cycle is a series of five adult contemporary fantasy novels by author Julia Gray (A pseudonym of Mark and Julia Smith, who also write as Jonathan Wylie). ... Space has been an interest for philosophers and scientists for much of human history. ... Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ...

• Helium, hydrogen or some other lighter than air gas.
• A lodestone or magnet, as seen in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels' Laputa.
• Magic of some kind.
• Advanced science/technology — anti-gravity or some other form of non-paranormal levitation, as in Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky.

Perhaps the most famous floating island is Scotia Moria, from the novel The Floating Island by Frank Careless. This may or may not be the same island referred to as Seastar Island in the film Doctor Dolittle. General Name, Symbol, Number helium, He, 2 Chemical series noble gases Group, Period, Block 18, 1, s Appearance colorless Atomic mass 4. ... General Name, Symbol, Number hydrogen, H, 1 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 1, 1, s Appearance colorless Atomic mass 1. ... Magnetite Lodestone or loadstone refers to either: Magnetite, a magnetic mineral form of iron(II), iron(III) oxide Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides. ... Iron filings in a magnetic field generated by a bar magnet A magnet is an object that has a magnetic field. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Irish priest, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, and poet, famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. ... Gulliver Exhibited to the Brobdingnag Farmer by Richard Redgrave Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. ... The Sorceress by John William Waterhouse Magic and sorcery are the influencing of events, objects, people and physical phenomena by mystical or paranormal means. ... Anti-gravity is a recurring theme in science fiction, particularly in the context spacecraft propulsion. ... A cubical magnet levitating over a superconducting material (this is known as the Meissner effect). ... Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿, Miyazaki Hayao), born January 5, 1941 in Tokyo, is a director of Japanese animated films. ... Laputa: Castle in the Sky ), or Castle in the Sky in the United States, is a film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, released in 1986 by Studio Ghibli, and later a manga adaptation of the film was released. ... The Floating Island is the new Elizabeth Haydon release. ... Doctor Dolittle is the central character of a series of childrens books by Hugh Lofting. ...

A well-known floating island in popular culture is Mount Flatten in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, which hovered above Earth's surface due to its rich deposits of the gravity-defying mineral Upsidaisium. Another is the Angel Island of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. In Final Fantasy VI there is an entire floating continent, that ends up falling and creating an impact event. In many other fantasy settings flying islands or floating cities kept aloft by magic are prominent, such as the airborne cities of ancient High Netheril in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons setting, or the City of Anemos in the "Golden Sun" series. Roger Dean is also planning a movie entitled Floating Islands. The movie is said to be based on the story of his album art for the band Yes and will feature several of their songs. Other references can be found in the science fiction TV series Star Trek (original; 1966) episode "The Cloud Minders", in Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back's Cloud City, in "Chrono Trigger" as the Kingdom of Zeal, in "Lunar Silver Star Story" and "Lunar 2 Eternal Blue" as the cities of Vane and Neo-Vane, and even in "TransFormers Beast Wars" there are several floating islands in the first season. In the anime series Cowboy Bebop, the planet Venus had been terraformed using enormous floating plants that also functioned as habitable floating islands in the sky. Also, in the videogame Skies of Arcadia, the entire world is a series of islands in the sky, with the ground being a sea of fog and mud. The game Baten Kaitos has a similar setup aswell. Bars of upsidaisium in storage. ... Bullwinkle (left) and Rocky (right), the stars of Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show. ... A fictional chemical substance is a chemical element, isotope, compound or mineral that exists only in works of fiction (usually fantasy or science fiction). ... Angel Island (formerly called the Floating Island) is a fictional island floating high in the air in the world of the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. ... The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a franchise of video games released by Sega starring their mascot character Sonic the Hedgehog. ... Final Fantasy VI ) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Co. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Netheril is the ancient name for Faerun. ... The Forgotten Realms third edition logo. ... For other uses, see Dungeons & Dragons (disambiguation). ... Arches Mist, 1996 Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944, in Ashford, Kent, England) is a contemporary British artist best known for his work on album covers, which began in the late 1960s. ... Yes are an English progressive rock band that formed in London in 1968. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Star Trek is an American science-fiction franchise spanning six television series, ten feature films, hundreds of novels, computer and video games, and other fan stories. ... The Cloud Minders is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, and was broadcast on February 28, 1969. ... Opening logo to the Star Wars films Star Wars is a science fantasy saga and fictional galaxy created by writer / producer / director George Lucas during the 1970s. ... Movie poster Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to the first released Star Wars movie, and the second film released in the original trilogy. ... Cloud City is a fictional floating city on Bespin, a planet in the Star Wars universe which appears in the film The Empire Strikes Back. ... Chrono Trigger ) is a console role-playing game created by Square Co. ... The main cast of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) (L to R: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed Tivrusky, Faye Valentine, and Ein the dog) Anime ) (IPA pronunciation: in Japanese, but typically or in English) is an abbreviation of the word animation. Outside Japan, the term most popularly refers to animation... Cowboy Bebop ) is a Japanese anime series created by Sunrise and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, later continued onto a motion picture and manga series. ... Artists conception of a terraformed Mars in three stages of development. ... Skies of Arcadia is a console role-playing game developed by Overworks and published by Sega in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast. ... Baten Kaitos (pronounced BAH-ten KAI-tos) is a series of role-playing games. ...

See also

• Floating city
• List of fictional airborne castles

Theoretical settlements that use bouyancy to remain in the atmospheres of planets or moons because there is a problem with allowing them to sit on the ground. ... This is a list of fictional airborne castles. ...

External links

• Inca Heartland - A site with numerous pictures of floating artificial islands on Lake Titicaca.
• Tourism Keeping Peruvian Islands Afloat article by Roderick Eime
• "Disagreement on whether to tether island that floats free in Massachusetts pond" - San Francisco Chronicle