A peninsula is a piece of land that is almost entirely
by water but is connected to the mainland on one side.
It may have
with more than one body of water, and the body of water does not have to be an ocean or a sea. A piece of land on a very tight
bend is said to form a peninsula.
It may be connected to the mainland via an isthmus; for example, the Isthmus of
which connects the Peloponnese peninsula to the rest of mainland
.
It can be formed from continental
, glacial erosion, glacial meltwater, glacial deposition, marine
, marine transgressions,
, divergent boundaries or river sedimentation
Some are very small -
often sit on peninsulas near rocky coastlines to warn sailors that they are getting close to land.
They can also be very large. The largest in the world is the Arabian Peninsula which contains eight
and is bordered by the
Sea to the west and southwest, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the northeast, the Levant and
to the north and the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. The peninsula plays a critical
role in the Arab world and globally due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas.
Peninsulas are found on every continent.
In Europe, the nations of Portugal and Spain make up the
Peninsula.
The
of Africa, which juts into the Arabian Sea on central Africa's east coast, is a huge peninsula.
In North America, the narrow peninsula of Baja California, in Mexico, separates the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of
, also called the Gulf of California.
Most of the state of
is a peninsula that separates the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
In Australia, the Cape York Peninsula is only 160 kilometers (99 miles) from the island of New
.
