Largest island

Discounting Australia, which is usually regarded as a continental land mass, the largest island in the world is Greenland, with an area of about 2,175,600 km² (840,000 miles²). The largest sand island in the world is Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia with a sand dune 120 km (75 miles) long.

It was the Norwegian explorer Erik the Red, near the end of the tenth century AD. He established Icelandic settlements which until the fifteenth century. Greenland has been governed from Denmark for most of its modern history, but in 1979, its mainly Inuit and Danish-Norwegian population voted for home rule. Today, the population of around 55,000 endure some of the harshest conditions on Earth. Most of the island is situated north of the Arctic circle, but, in the summer, the temperature can reach an average of 9C 48F.

Apart from the areas around the mountainous coastline, Greenland is buried in a permanent ice cap. In the very middle of the island, the cap is as much as 3km 1.8miles thick, and the coastline is shaped by hundreds of fjords, carved out by glaciation.