Oceanic Islands (The Natural Environment, No 1)

In most accounts of geographical phenomena, islands in the middle of the oceans are marginalized and implicitly viewed as of little importance. This book sets out to dispose of this view, perceiving it as convenient rather than rational, and examines the great diversity of island environments worldwide and the controls on their development. This book also demonstrates what are for most people the unusual qualities of many island environments: their often simple geology and structure (which hold such important clues to ocean-basin evolution), and their dominantly maritime climates, which together make oceanic islands natural laboratories without equal. Yet this book does not dwell solely on these unusual qualities but also gives a thorough account of oceanic islands worldwide. This should prove as instructive to island dwellers, who have lacked such an account to date, as to the inhabitants of such continents. Dr. Nunn draws his examples from oceanic islands across the globe: of the sev

In most accounts of geographical phenomena, islands in the middle of the oceans are marginalised and implicitly viewed as of little importance. This is a convenient rather than a rational view and one which is comprehensively disposed of in this book which examines the great diversity of island environments world-wide and the controls on their development.

This book also demonstrates what are for most people the unusual qualities of many island environments, their often simple geology and structure (which hold such important clues to ocean-basin evolution), and their dominantly maritime climates, which together make oceanic islands natural laboratories without equal.

Yet this book does not dwell solely on these unusual qualities but also gives a thorough account of oceanic islands world-wide. This should prove as instructive to island dwellers, who have lacked such an account to date, as to the inhabitants of such continents. Dr Nunn draws his examples from oceanic islands across the globe: of the seventeen case studies in this book, five come from the Atlantic (two from the Caribbean), two from the Indian Ocean, and ten from the Pacific.

This book should be of interest and accessible to anyone with an interest in oceanic islands, their origins and development, and should prove informative to a variety of specialists including geographers, geologists, geophysicists, oceanographers and prehistorians.