Can a small island realistically have all these environments?
Would it be realistic for a (relatively) small island nation to have these features:
A Forest
A lake
A snowy mountaintop
A desert
A bustling modern city
How large would this island have to be in order to have all these enviornments?
I am imagining this island to be not far off the East coast of North America, but its exact latitude is flexible. The nation was mostly settled by European explorers in colonial times, but is now an independent country. Its main exports are technology.
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1 answer
Welcome to the "Big Island" of Hawaii
Using your own list:
A Forest: the island is dominated by Tropical Rainforest
A lake: Lake Waiau
A snowy mountaintop: Mauna Kea
A desert: Ka'u
A bustling modern city: Hilo
All five link are from Wikipedia.
It seems that volcanic origin is a necessary condition, especially to get the snowy mountain. The few lakes on Hawaii are also carved out by volcanism.
As for size, the big island is currently about 4,000 square miles (10,000 sq. km.) and growing, again due to the volcanoes adding land now and then. In its ancient past, it may have been only as big as the other isalnds, like Oahu at about 600 sqaure miles (1,500 sq. km.), and still maintained these features.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/75086. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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