How many land masses--islands and continents--are in the world?  You
know why I think this question is interesting?  There just aren't that
many types of physical objects which are difficult to count yet
somewhat precise (assuming a lot of islands don't disappear or appear
everyday).

According the Getty Thesaurus of Geogrpahical Names:


http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/


a search on the Place Types:


[ island, island group, island nation, islands, islet, islets ]


returns 18,995 results.


Tisme's COUNT was a bit off!


Let me know if there's anything else needed here.


Cheers,


pafalafa-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by doctorchou2-ga on 20 Aug 2006 19:43 PDT

I should have excluded islands in fresh water, since fresh water
bodies can be manipulated--by man or by seasonal forces--much easier
than salt water bodies.  Sounds like the most precise answer was about
18,000.  I thought it would be closer to half a million.

List of islands by name: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_by_name

"Listing of islands from United Nations Island Directory. Very
comprehensive listing of all islands in the world with lots of
information related to environmental issues.":
http://islands.unep.ch/isldir.htm
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island

But islands often disappear ... Atlantis, as a recent example.

And now, with Global Warming, many others are at risk.

Noah certainly had the right idea.

A friend of mine was in the Royal Navy

At one time he commanded a small ship
They were mooching around the Pacific when they found a new small island
- they ran into it

The definition of island is a bit tricky, is it a rock or must it have
earth on it, also does it need to be surrounded by salt water ?

"But islands often disappear ... Atlantis, as a recent example."

   Islands "often" disappear? How often is "often"?

   Atlantis? Uhhh...

"The definition of island is a bit tricky, is it a rock or must it have
earth on it, also does it need to be surrounded by salt water ?"

   Well of course, there's no big controversy about the salinity of
the water. The Great Lakes for example are littered with bodies which
are clearly islands, and refered to as such by their inhabitants. They
have bedrock, topsoil, plants & animals, towns. The St. Lawrence
Seaway, a body of freshwater, is also known for its abundance of
islands.

Good point qed100 (about the St Lawrence) from where, I believe, '1000
Island Dressing' got its name.

And how about 'Black Tom Island' near Upper New York Bay which became
famous during WWI when the Germans sabotaged American munitions
intended for the war effort?

Or 'Monkey Island' on the Thames?

Does this include artificial or man-maid islands?
Islands that come and go with the rise and fall of the tide or surf
Kemlo

"man-maid" islands:  
Is something going on between between the Irish Sea and the Caribbean
that the Daily Mail has missed?

I'm sure that Kemlo was referring to 'man-maid' as opposed to
'mermaid' islands although in either case sultry maidens await to
pounce on any luckless sailor who should get shipwrecked.

Generally mean high tide is the test, however ten square meters at
mean high tide would likely not be classed as an island, even if it
was thousands of square meters at mean low tide. I'll guess ten
million islands world wide excluding the smallest and those frequently
underwater, but including man made and surounded by tiny streams that
have water 99% of the year.   Neil

Eureka! The answer is 2,502,292,328!! How do I know? It just came to
me! Now I know how Einstein felt...

tisme-ga

Sorry, Tisme, but you are wrong!

I've calculated the number precisely and it appears that you have missed one ...

The correct number is 2,502,292,329.

Believe me!

Sigh... Einstein messed up with the cosmological constant* and
tisme-ga messed up with the total number of islands in the world.

At least it didn't take me years to catch onto my mistake. Apparently
probonopublico-ga has never made a mistake...

tisme-ga


*now some people think he was right about this after all?

@Kemlo
- re-read what you posted
- it had me in stitches

Oh my goodness, Kemlo ...

Your biggest sepling c*ck-up ...

And the biggest-ever hoot on GA!

However, I doubt if tisme will be joining in our laughter.

Sorry Probono
I've counted the whole number of islands on the surface of the world 
and I have found that tisme's count is the correct one at  2,502,292,328.
Your mistake was in counting Malta twice.
A simple mistake to make, you started at Malta, worked Eastwards,going
around the globe and when you got back to the Med. you counted Malta
again.
Don't worry PB its only advancing senile dementia.
Regards KEMLO

Yes, Kemlo ...

And what was YOUR HUGE mistake that required the deletion of your
original comment and the substitution of the one below?

Please be suitably embarrassed when I sell a copy of the original text
to the highest bidder.

O