Ameland is the measure of all things, or so it sometimes seems. The island is regularly cited as a reference for something that is difficult to form an image of. By comparing it to an island that can be surveyed, it becomes understandable and can be grasped. Ameland is used for that measurement, the Wadden Island, which is long and narrow and can be seen in its entirety when you stand on the dike near Holwerd. Ameland as a frame of reference for a glacier, Manhattan, a gold mine and more.
The Wadden Island as a reference
- Wadden island Ameland
- Size in the media
- Petermann Glacier
- Oil plume
- Iceberg
- Manhattan
- Poisonous Gold
- St. Eustatius
- Symi
- Fano
Wadden island Ameland
Ameland is a Wadden municipality with a certain size. The municipality has an area of 268.50 km², of which 58.83 km² is land and 209.67 km² is water. The island is 27 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide at its widest and 2 kilometers at its narrowest. In 2019, just over 3,670 islanders live there. The island is slightly smaller than Texel and Terschelling and larger than Vlieland and Schiermonnikoog.
Size in the media
Various locations or natural phenomena are compared with the clear size of the island of Ameland. The media use Ameland as a reference for a piece of ice from the Petermann Glacier, an oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico, a huge iceberg, Manhattan in New York, a gold mine in Peru, the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius and the Greek island of Symi. They are the same size as Ameland, about the same size or a multiple or part of the island.
Petermann Glacier
In July 2012, a section of the Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland that is twice the size of Ameland broke off. The floating ice shelf at the end of the glacier that broke off is 120 square kilometers in size. NASA’s Aqua satellite, which travels over the Arctic several times a day, spotted the broken piece of ice and took pictures of it. Two years ago, an even larger piece of the glacier broke off, about 250 square kilometers in size: four times the size of Ameland. The Petermann Glacier is the largest glacier in Greenland. It is 20 kilometers wide, 300 km long and 1 km high and covers about 6 percent of the Greenland ice sheet. The crack that broke through in July 2012 had already been discovered in 2001.
Oil plume
In 2010, there is an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, causing oil to flow into the gulf. On August 20, 2010, various media reported that ‘an oil plume as large as the island of Ameland’ was floating at a depth of 1,100 meters in the Gulf of Mexico. In April, the explosion left a hole that leaked oil until July 15. It was not until September 2010 that the oil leak was finally declared closed.
Source: Jeroen Westhof photo editing
Iceberg
At the beginning of August 2010, part of a glacier also broke off. The iceberg is 260 square kilometers in size. The media talk about an iceberg as big as Ameland. Not since 1962 has such a large piece of ice broken off within the Arctic Circle. The ice colossus has floated.
Manhattan
New York City’s Manhattan Island is not only the same size as Ameland, but also has almost the same shape. You can easily stick Manhattan on Ameland and then the two islands overlap each other almost seamlessly.
Poisonous Gold
On October 23, 2010, the newspaper Trouw wrote about Toxic gold. Cyanide and mercury are used in the extraction of gold in mines in Mozambique, Colombia, South Africa and Peru. Miners often have to work with it without protective clothing. Mines can be very large, writes Trouw. For example, the Yanacocha mine in Peru has an area of 251 square kilometers, about the size of Ameland.
St. Eustatius
Source: Www.ieripetra.com/where-is-symi
Sint Eustatius is one of the islands of the Caribbean Netherlands. The island is one-tenth the size of Ameland in area. The number of inhabitants is slightly more than that of the Dutch Wadden Island: 3900.
Symi
In the program ‘Dream House Wanted’ by Omroep Max (broadcast on November 15, 2015), people are looking for a house in Greece. They end up on the island of Symi, because there is a beautiful house there. Singer and presenter Manuela Kemp also has a small fisherman’s house there. Symi is an island that is about the same size as Ameland.
Symi is 12 kilometers from Rhodes. It is one of the most picturesque parts of Greece . About 4,000 people live there permanently. The island has many colorful neoclassical houses, with remarkable soft pastel shades. On the inside they are often decorated with wood carvings. Symi is only accessible by boat via Rhodes, Kos, Samos, Ikaria, Chios and Lesbos.
Fano
The Danish Wadden Island of Fanø, the northernmost of the Dutch, German and Danish Wadden Islands, is approximately the same size as Ameland. It is a fraction smaller. Fanø has a land area of 55.8 km² and Ameland 58.83 km².
Legend
A . Ameland
B . Manhattan
C . Sint Eustatius
D . Symi
E . Gulf of Mexico
F . Petermann Glacier
G . Fano
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