Twelve Mile Circle is always up for a good challenge. So, loyal reader Greg laid-down the gauntlet yesterday in the friendliest way possible.
He commented on Largest Artificial Islands :. So what about the opposite of this post, the largest former islands? Naturally, I became completely fixated.
The original article I planned for this evening will just have to wait a couple of days while I focus my energy on this all-important question. First I established the ground rules. I assumed any landfill joining an island to the mainland would have to be man-made to keep it within the spirit of the previous article.
Alternately I could flag the ephemeral islands of the now desiccated Aral Sea. Third, I discarded bridges, causeways and tunnels. The island had to be substantially integrated within the surrounding terrain. It required something more than a dirt trail, a ribbon of asphalt or a set of tracks. This challenge proved much more difficult than I imagined. I had trouble crafting effective search queries that eliminated false positives and faux connections, particularly those pesky bridges and causeways.
However, they created so many results that it was difficult to separate legitimate island wheat from the greater preponderance of mainland chaff. Given that, one should not be surprised by examples I found in areas with significant land reclamation projects. Whining aside, I still found some good examples. I discovered a wonderful before and after map of land reclamation in the Netherlands.
