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For administrative purposes the Maldives government organized these atolls into twenty-one administrative divisions. [2] The largest island of Maldives is Gan, which belongs to Laamu Atoll or Hahdhummathi Maldives. [3] In Addu Atoll the westernmost islands are connected by roads over the reef and the total length of the road is 14 km (8.7 mi). [4]
The geology of the Maldives formed beginning 68 million years ago as a hotspot which produced the Deccan Traps in India. As India moved northward, the hotspot generated an island chain in the Indian Ocean, which includes Mauritius and Réunion. The Réunion hotspot trail was offset by the Central Indian Ridge 35 million years ago.
The Maldives, [d] officially the Republic of Maldives, [e] and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India , about 750 kilometres (470 miles; 400 nautical miles) from the Asian continent's mainland.
Officially known as the Republic of Maldives, the nation of islands is located in the north-central Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka and India.
The islands in the atolls of the Maldives rest on the shelf provided by the reefs. Many reefs have no islands at all, but all islands in the Maldives have an underlying coralline reef. Usually islands are flat and sandy. Often there is a rocky bottom made up of a coral rock conglomerate underneath the island proper.
The Maldives is located south of India's Lakshadweep islands, and about seven hundred kilometres (435 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka. The twenty-six atolls of Maldives' encompass a territory featuring 1,192 islets, two hundred and fifty islands of which are inhabited.
The wildlife of the Maldives includes the flora and fauna of the islands, reefs, and the surrounding ocean. Recent scientific studies suggest that the fauna varies greatly between atolls following a north–south gradient, but important differences between neighbouring atolls were also found (especially in terms of sea animals), which may be ...
This list ranks the top 10 islands of the Maldives by area. Some islands in the Maldives, although geographically one island, is divided into two administrative islands (for example, Gan and Maandhoo in Laamu Atoll). For such cases, this list ranks the entire (combined) area of the geographical island.