Mysterious Islands Quiz / Test | Physical Geography

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which island, just off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, is known as "The Graveyard of the North Atlantic" because of the approximately 350 shipwrecks on the island's shores?

Answer: Sable Island

Sable Island is a small crescent-shaped island southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fogs, currents and the island's location in the middle of a major transatlantic shipping route are to blame for approximately 350 ships that now litter the ocean floor. Temporary home to shipwreck survivors, permanent home to wild horses, and being the subject of ghost stories make Sable Island prime material for our first "Mysterious Island".

2. What island, just off the coast of what is now North Carolina, was home to 115 English settlers in 1587 but who, three years later, were gone with only a single word "Croatoan" found carved into a wooden post?

Answer: Roanoke Island

As the mystery goes, John White led a group of settlers from England to Roanoke Island in 1587 and returned to get supplies but was called into war against Spain. When he finally arrived back in 1590, he found no trace of his family and other settlers, just the one word "Croatoan". Croaton is the name of an island south of Roanoke, and one theory holds that they were killed or abducted by Native Americans from the neighboring island. Either way, the mystery remains unsolved and makes Roanoke Island our second "Mysterious Island".

3. What country owns the island of Surtsey (if it still exists) that just appeared for the first time in 1967 after an underwater volcano in the Westman Islands erupted?

Answer: Iceland

Surtsey is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Iceland. It was formed after a volcano erupted in 1963. The volcanic activity lasted for four years by which point an island of 1.0 sq miles was formed. Each year, wave erosion has caused the island to get smaller; in 2002 it was at 0.54 square miles. Iceland's Surtsey Island is (while it still exists) our third "Mysterious Island".

4. On the beaches of which country's North and South Islands could you see septarian concretions - large spherical boulders that formed on the ancient sea floor millions of years ago?

Answer: New Zealand

Septarian concretions are spherical masses of hardened sediment and materials that contain cavities or cracks in the rock ("septaria" refers to the cracks). The process that creates the septaria are still a mystery. Koekohe Beach on the South Island of New Zealand has some of the world's largest septarian concretions and will certainly make for an interesting stop for our fourth "Mysterious Island".

5. Where would you find the Flannan Isles (or the Seven Hunters), an island group that in 1900 was home to three lighthouse keepers that vanished without a trace?

Answer: Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Scotland

The mystery of the Flannan Isles of Scotland is that a ship passing by the islands on December 15, 1900, noticed that the lights were not working. They are supposed to be manned by three people with a rotating fourth man on the shore. A relief vessel arrived on December 26, but it didn't find anything - the flag, box of provisions or the men.

The relief keeper went to investigate and found nothing amiss other than storm damage. Common sense says that they must have been swept up into the sea by the storm, but as with all mysteries, other theories exist including paranormal activity. Finding our way to the Flannan Islands (during clear weather) in the Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland is a must stop for our fifth "Mysterious Island".

6. Which island in New York City, known as "The Island of the Dead", is said to be haunted due to its history as a Civil War prison camp, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a psychiatric institution, a boy's reformatory and the burial of 850,000 people?

Answer: Hart Island

Hart Island, a tiny island of 131 acres in New York City at the western end of Long Island Sound, has a long and unpleasant history. During the American Civil War it served as a POW camp and the first 235 burials occurred. Then it was a quarantine station for yellow fever in 1860.

A women's insane asylum was built in 1885 and then a reformatory for delinquent boys was constructed. Since then it has served as a burial place for people who could not have a proper burial - approximately 850,000 people.

The only people allowed on the island are press for guided tours and family members of those who have been buried there. While we can't stop there, Hart Island's disturbing history can provide countless stories for our sixth "Mysterious Island".

7. Where would you find Isla de Las Munecas (translated as Island of the Dolls), an island where caretaker Don Julian Santana Barrera hung dolls in trees to appease the ghost of a girl who drowned there?

Answer: Mexico

Isla de Las Munecas is located south of Mexico City between the canals of Xochimilco. Legend has it that a girl was found drowned on the island by caretaker Don Julian Santana Barrera. He found a doll floating next to her and hung it in a tree as a sign of respect.

After being haunted by the girl, he hung more dolls to appease her spirit. After fifty years of hanging dolls, he was found drowned in the same location as the girl. The dolls are now believed to house the spirit of the girl and Don Julian, and move and talk at night. Who knows what's really happening, but the fact remains that there are hundreds of dolls, very creepily, hanging in trees on this charmed island that marks our seventh "Mysterious Island".

8. Which island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, is home to 200 years of treasure hunting in search of a money pit?

Answer: Oak Island

Oak Island is a 140-acre island off the southern coast of Nova Scotia. Its mysterious history starts in 1795 when Daniel McGinnis found a circular depression in a clearing on the island and a tackle block on a nearby tree. He and friends started digging and found a layer of flagstones and a layer of logs every ten feet, but they abandoned their dig at thirty feet. Eight years later, the Onslow Company excavated further in search of treasure and found layers of charcoal, putty and coconut fibre and stones with symbols translated as "forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried." but the hole filled with water and they cancelled the expedition. Since then, hundreds of people have made the trek in search of buried treasure. Now we shall as well making the Money Pit of Oak Island our eighth "Mysterious Island".

9. Which island country has 5,000 or 10,000-year-old underwater ruins first discovered in 1986, containing archways, pillars, stairways and ledges?

Answer: Japan

Japan's underwater ruins - the Yonaguni Monument - lay at the bottom of the East China Sea just off the coast of Yonaguni island. Most believe that these are just natural rock formations but other historians think they are built by ancient civilizations. Like a real Atlantis, Yonaguni is perfect for our ninth "Mysterious Island".

10. Which Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean is famous for its 887 monolithic human figures carved into rock?

Answer: Easter Island

The presence of the moai (the name given to the rock statues), indicates Easter Island was inhabited by Polynesian people in the first millennium CE, but that fact is a rather odd one considering Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world.

The nearest inhabited land is over 2,000 kilometers away and Chile (its closest continental point) is over 3,500 kilometers away. The people who inhabited Easter Island over the centuries endured a lot, and the moai show the creative and physical feats of these people; however, how they were moved on the island and what exactly they symbolize is a mystery.

This makes Easter Island our tenth and final "Mysterious Island".

Source: Author napierslogs

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Tizzabelle before going online.
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Mysterious Islands Trivia Quiz

Tall, dark and handsome... oh wait, that's supposed to apply to men. But there's a certain beauty in the mysteriousness of these islands. Let's go island hopping!

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