When an island is very small, it is called an islet. As a general criterion, the vast majority of islets are uninhabited places. This is generally due to a specific reason: its tiny size is associated with the lack of natural resources and this circumstance makes life in society difficult.
From a geographical point of view, a group of islands is known as an archipelago. Normally every archipelago is made up of a group of islands of different sizes and, in parallel, a series of islets. The archipelago has a joint name (for example, Canary Islands) and each island and islet also receives a specific name for its geographical identification.
From an administrative point of view, every islet is part of a nation. In some cases, these mini islands have a strategic value due to their geographical location or because they are a territory related to a territorial dispute.
In ancient times some islets near the coast were human settlements
The coastal islets were inhabited for several reasons:
1) served as a place of defense against possible enemy attacks,
2) were used to temporarily store goods before being permanently installed on land and
3) these territories were used for funerary purposes, specifically as a necropolis or to perform sacred rituals.
On the Caribbean coast the term cayo is used instead of islet
Etymologically cayo is a word that comes from the Arawak languages that were spoken in the Caribbean and Central America. For this reason, most islets are called keys, such as "Cayo Córdoba" in the Archipelago of San Andrés in Colombia or "Cayo Santa María" in Cuba.
In the history of the Caribbean countries, the keys were used as a refuge for pirates and corsairs. Today some of these tiny territories have been turned into luxury residential areas.
From geography to physiology
The denomination of some geographical features is used in the physiological description of the human body. In this sense, an isthmus is a narrow strip that joins two larger territories, but there are also parts of the human body with this term, such as the isthmus of the fauces or the thyroid isthmus.
The same happens with the word islet, since there is the bony islet or the pancreatic islets.
Photos: Fotolia - Stryjek / Antonio Gravante
