Extraordinary Islands Quiz

Answer: Darwin's finches. Depending on the island, these small birds have beaks suited to hard seeds, insects or cacti. Darwin didn't identify them properly at first, but later study made them a superb illustration of natural selection. Researchers have even watched their beaks change within a few generations after droughts.

Answer: Abandon their car and climb one of the refuge towers placed along the road. This road, over 4 km long, can only be used for about two hours around low tide. Every year cars get trapped, and the water can rise very quickly. Crossing times are posted at each end. The Gois also hosts a famous foot race against the incoming tide.

Answer: Kīlauea's lava flows that reach the ocean keep adding new land. When lava pours into the sea, it solidifies into new rocky platforms, sometimes unstable. The 2018 eruption created several hundred hectares this way. The archipelago formed over a 'hotspot'; a new undersea volcano, Kamaʻehuakanaloa, is already growing to the south-east.

Answer: Hot sulphurous mud baths and underwater fumaroles. The Romans placed the god Vulcan's forge there. Today this Aeolian island draws bathers to its warm mud pool and to a cove where volcanic gas bubbles heat the water. The crater, which last erupted in 1890, remains under close watch.

Answer: It is the second-largest, after Greenland. At around 785,000 km², it is bigger than mainland France. Its mountains exceed 4,800 m and even carry small glaciers near the equator. It is home to extraordinary biodiversity, from birds of paradise to tree kangaroos.

Answer: Add new layers of reeds on top, as the base rots in the water. These islands are made of blocks of totora roots covered with piled reeds. The islanders also use the reeds for their houses and boats, and even eat the tender base of the stems. The ground is springy underfoot and must be topped up every few weeks.

Answer: It is used to study how life naturally colonises brand-new land. Since its birth, researchers have watched mosses, insects, seabirds and plants carried by wind or sea arrive. To avoid skewing results, visitors must not bring even a single seed. A tomato plant, probably from a careless scientist, was duly pulled up in the 1960s.

Answer: An abandoned lifeboat, with no trace of its occupants. Largely covered in ice, Bouvet is one of the most remote places on Earth: Antarctica is about 1,600 km away. The boat, found in a lagoon with a few supplies, was never linked to any known shipwreck. Its origin remains a mystery.

Answer: Its ash and aerosols, blasted very high, circled the planet for months. The explosion, heard nearly 5,000 km away, hurled dust into the stratosphere. For months skies were so red that fire crews were called out in New York, thinking there was a blaze. Some art historians think these skies may have inspired Munch's 'The Scream'.

Answer: During the war, the Japanese army secretly made poison gas there. The island was even removed from some maps to keep the secret. A museum there now recalls this past. As for the hundreds of free-roaming rabbits, their origin is debated: the main theory is rabbits released by schoolchildren in the 1970s. They now draw many tourists.

Answer: A Finnish lighthouse had been built by mistake on the Swedish side. In 1885 Russia, which then ruled Finland, built a lighthouse on the highest point… which lay in Swedish territory. In 1985 the two countries redrew the border in an 'S' shape to put the lighthouse on the Finnish side while keeping each country's share of rock the same.