1,338 articles
Kunta Kinteh Island
Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly James Island, is a small fortified island in the Gambia River about 30 km from its mouth, core of a 2003 UNESCO World Heritage serial property tied to the start and abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.
Kupreanof Island
Kupreanof Island is a large island in the Alexander Archipelago, southeastern Alaska, within Tongass National Forest, about 90 by 45 km with elevations near 1,200 m; distinct from Kupreanof Strait, Kupreanof Point, and Mount Kupreanof volcano.
Kuril Islands (Курильские острова)
Kuril Islands (Курильские острова, Chishima Rettō): volcanic chain of about 56 islands between Hokkaido and Kamchatka, Russian-administered since 1945; Japan claims the four southern islands as the Northern Territories, blocking a WWII peace treaty.
Kvaløya
Kvaløya (Sállir, old name Salarøy), island in Tromsø municipality, Norway; 737 km², fifth largest mainland island, 13,030 inhabitants (2018), highest point Store Blåmann 1,044 m; distinct from the smaller Kvaløya in Finnmark.
Kvitøya
Kvitøya (Vidön), the easternmost island of Svalbard at 80°N, 682 km², nearly all ice-covered, part of Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve; site of the 1897 Andrée balloon expedition's fatal last camp, found in 1930.
Kwaikans Island
Kwaikans Island, once mapped as Watson Island and locally called Reject Island, is a small official-named island off the northwest side of Masset Inlet, Graham Island, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, named by George Mercer Dawson in 1878.
Kwajalein Atoll
Kwajalein Atoll is a coral atoll in the Ralik chain of the Marshall Islands, one of the world's largest, hosting the U.S. Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
Kyushu (九州)
Kyushu (九州) is Japan's third largest main island, in the southwest, covering 42,231 km² across 2,160 islands and seven prefectures from Fukuoka to Kagoshima, with active volcanoes, major agriculture, and growing inbound tourism.
La Gomera
La Gomera, Canary Island west of Tenerife: 370 km², 1,487 m peak, Garajonay National Park laurel forest (UNESCO 1986), Silbo Gomero whistled language, Peraza lordship from 1478, Gomeran Rebellion 1488.
La Palma
La Palma is the north-westernmost island of Spain's Canary Islands, a volcanic Atlantic island of 708 km² known for its laurel forests and the 2021 Tajogaite eruption.
Lagotellerie Island
Lagotellerie Island, Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula; ASPA 115 (formerly SPA 19), 1.58 km2 island protected for its Antarctic flowering plants, Adélie penguin and Imperial Shag colonies, and rich invertebrate fauna.
Laktionov Island
Laktionov Island is an Antarctic island at 65°46′S 65°46′W off the Antarctic Peninsula coast, listed in the USGS and SCAR gazetteers and named for Soviet oceanographer A.F. Laktionov.
Lampedusa
Lampedusa (Lampidusa in Sicilian) is Italy's southernmost island, a 20.2 km² calcareous Pelagian island between Sicily and Tunisia, known for Rabbit Beach tourism and as Europe's main migrant landing point.
Lanai
Lanai (Lānaʻi), sixth-largest Hawaiian island, 141 sq mi extinct volcano in Maui County; Dole pineapple plantation 1922-1992, once world's largest; 98% owned by Larry Ellison since 2012; economy now tourism.
Land reclamation
Land reclamation creates new land from seas or lakes by filling with sand or by diking and drainage (polders). Key examples: Singapore (28% reclaimed land), Dubai's Palm Jumeirah, Shanghai's Lingang; costs typically under €500/m², with significant environmental impacts.
Land tied island
Land tied island: an island joined to the mainland or another island by a tombolo, a wave-built sand or shingle bar; examples include Portland, Tyre, and Stockton Island.
Land's End
Land's End (Penn an Wlas) is a granite headland in west Cornwall, the most south-westerly point of mainland Britain, with 61 m cliffs, the 874-mile John O' Groats signpost, Longships Lighthouse views, and a Heritage Great Britain visitor complex.
Langkawi
Langkawi: 99-island archipelago and duty-free resort in Kedah, northwest Peninsular Malaysia; main island Pulau Langkawi, 478.5 km2, home of Southeast Asia's first UNESCO Global Geopark (2007) and LADA-managed tourism.
Lanzarote
Lanzarote, easternmost Canary Island (Spain), volcanic island of 845 km² shaped by the 1730–1736 Timanfaya eruption; UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1993 and Geopark since 2015; tourism-led economy with 8.9M airport passengers in 2025.
Lassiter Coast
Lassiter Coast is the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Mackintosh to Cape Adams, on the Weddell Sea side of southern Palmer Land, named in 1947 for pilot James W. Lassiter.
Latady Island
Latady Island: ice-covered Antarctic island in the Bellingshausen Sea at 70°45′S 74°35′W, west of Alexander Island, about 80 km south of Charcot Island; covered by BAS 2025 regional maps.
Laughing Bird Cay
Laughing Bird Cay (Laughing Bird Caye) is a 1.4-acre Belizean island on a coral faro 11 miles off Placencia, Stann Creek District, the core of Laughing Bird Caye National Park, a no-take UNESCO World Heritage component known for Fragments of Hope coral restoration; a same-named island exists in Eleuthera, Bahamas.
Låvebrua Island
Låvebrua Island is a 95-metre-high islet 1.3 km east of South Point, Deception Island, South Shetland Islands; named by Norwegian whalers after 1905, also called Islote Chaco (Argentina) and Islote Lautaro (Chile).
Lavoisier Island
Lavoisier Island, also called Isla Mitre (Argentina) or Isla Serrano (Chile), is an 18-mile-long island in the Biscoe Islands, Antarctica, first charted by Charcot's 1903-05 expedition and renamed in 1960 for chemist Antoine Lavoisier.
Laysan
Laysan (Kauō) is a 4.1 km² low coral sand island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands' Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, with a hypersaline lake, huge albatross colonies, endangered Laysan ducks and finches, and a history of guano mining and rabbit-driven extinctions reversed after 1923.
Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are the northern Lesser Antilles chain from the Virgin Islands to St Lucia, named for shelter from northeast trade winds; includes Antigua, St Kitts, Guadeloupe, and the former British Federal Colony (1871).
Lefkada (Λευκάδα)
Lefkesida (Λευκά시다), also known as Lefkes, is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea between Corfu and Kefalonia, connected to the mainland by a 50-meter floating bridge.
Leizhou Peninsula
Leizhou Peninsula (雷州半岛), China's third-largest peninsula at mainland China's southern tip in Guangdong, lies between the South China Sea and Beibu Gulf, separated from Hainan by the Qiongzhou Strait; volcanic basalt terrain, tropical monsoon climate, Zhanjiang port.
Lemaire Island
Lemaire Island (Le Maire, isla; Lemaire, Isla) is an Antarctic island 4.5 mi long off the west coast of Graham Land, forming the north side of Paradise Harbour; discovered by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897-99 and named for Charles Lemaire.
Lesbos (Λέσβος)
Lesbos (Λέσβος, Lesvos), third-largest Greek island off Asia Minor with capital Mytilene: Petrified Forest of Sigri, Sappho's birthplace, olive and ouzo economy, 2015 refugee gateway.