Know Your World – Part 2 (Islands)
Keep an all-for-fun tally of your points. Write down your answers of COUNTRY and LOCATION (either correct City or Name of Island count) as you read each description. Then grant yourself a point for the correct Country and Two points for LOCATION. For example: Where may you find Robin Hood and his merry men? England 1 point, Nottingham or Sherwood Forest 2 points. For a total of 3 points possible for each place. See the answers at the end.
PLACE 1:
This is one of many “off-limits” islands in the world. You would not want to go at all if you get the willies just thinking about snakes. However, even if snakes, in general, don’t bother you … you still would not want to set foot here. It is home to one of the world’s deadliest vipers. In fact, it has the highest concentration of venomous snakes anywhere in the world. Related to the vipers on the mainland, yet this particular variety is 5x more deadly. It is so deadly that the country which owns the island has made it illegal to set foot there. Naval patrols help prevent that but the venom is valuable and some risk their lives to collect samples to sell on the black market.
Did humans ever live there? Yes, for a short while before 1920. The lighthouse used to be manned. It became difficult to find victims to volunteer for that position. So, now when the navy stops to do annual maintenance they are required to have a doctor and anti-venom medications on board. Did I mention this snake is deadly?
Hey! I forgot to mention that there is A SECOND SPECIES of snake on this island paradise? Yup! Not just one, but two! Thankfully snake #2 is not venomous, but does it matter really?
PLACE 2:
Born from a volcano in 1963, this island was discovered when a cook on a fishing trawler called Ísleifur II saw smoke. The captain thought it might be another ship on fire. The ocean depth there is 426 feet and the island’s peak achieved 558 feet. So, it grew almost a thousand feet in less than 3 years. In the 1960s it covered a square mile, that is a whole bunch of volcanic debris. Beneath the waves, the area covered by the volcanic flow was, of course, far larger. However, is slowly eroding, and only has half the land mass now. They named the tiny island after a mythological black fire giant. Indeed, at first the island was just black rocks.
It is also off limits to all but a tiny number of scientists. That is not because of any great physical danger, but because of science. The government declared it a nature reserve in 1965 in order to study how plants, insects, birds, mammals, and other forms of life establish themselves on the island over time. Within a few years there were plants growing on the beaches, then the plain, now some on the mountain sides. Birds moved in, mostly gulls at first, now over 15 species. Insects arrived blown on wind or currents. Seals now breed there which attracts orcas to the nearby waters. Sea life is abundant beneath the waves on the debris which wasn’t there in 1960. Algae and starfish are abundant. Science is learning how life gradually overtakes a barren landscape.
If you want to visit you will have to speak the national language and have a specialized scientific degree.
PLACE 3:
This island had a hospital built in 1885 and a morgue. They needed the morgue. Many of the patients died. It was a true “Hotel California.” In fact, a well-known personage by the name of Mary Mallon died there. She had caused hundreds to become sick and many to die from the disease she carried, but did not suffer from herself. The second time they sent her to this island they refused to allow her to ever leave again. She didn’t.
It was also the site of a sorrowful shipwreck. Pleasure seekers went on a short day-cruise. A fire broke out and that was when the crew realized that safety inspections had not been done. The fire hoses were brittle and the flotation devices were rotted and useless. Hundreds died.
They closed the hospital, morgue, and removed all living people from the place in the early 1960s. It is illegal to venture there today…there is fear that the soil may be contaminated with horrific germs which no one wishes on their worst enemies. Even if the disease-causing diseases are gone it is a spooky place where thousands of birds nest in the broken building which had been a hospital for the dying.
PLACE 4:
The first historical mention of this island is in 421 when people were fleeing a barbarian invasion. Like so many older locations, war causes people movements. And so, there was a continuous population on this small island until 1379 when an enemy fleet was seen in the area. Then in the 17th century the island was made into a fort.
The Public Health Office turned it into a check point in 1776. By the end of the century it became a confinement location for those who were ill who arrived by ship. By the early 1900s it was used for a hospital for the mentally insane.
The island boasts a mass grave for those who died of the bubonic plague which is why it is called the “Island of Ghosts.” It is off-limits, but thrill seekers can easily gain access because it is so near the mainland.
Old and bad luck? Not necessarily bad luck…people lived there continuously for over 950 years. There are worse places, I would think. Bad luck because people died of the plague there? No. People died of the plague in many places. Bad luck because of mass graves? Bad for those in the grave whose lives were cut short. My conclusion: Probably a pretty nice place to raise a brood. So, it is just old and abandoned. Go see it if you must.
TALLY YOUR POINTS BELOW:
If you succeeded with …
3 points. You are good.
6 points. You are great.
9 or more points. You are superior.
(This is only for fun, you receive no punishment if wrong and no reward when correct.)
PLACE 1: Snake Island, Ilha de Queimada Grande, Brazil
PLACE 2: Island of Surtsey, the southernmost point of Iceland.
PLACE 3: North Brother Island, NYCity, USA.
PLACE 4: Island of Povegliea, Italy
Copyright 2024 Donald Whelpley
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere. ~ Sherry]
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