The Maldives is composed of hundreds of coral atolls, and the highest point is just 5 meters above sea level, with the average elevation just 1.5 meters.
Actually, there are 26 physical atolls. "Physical" because atoll is a loan word from Dhivehi, where atolhu means "province." (Maldivian political atolls often correspond with physical atolls, but some physical atolls are split and others are combined.) The atolls in the north are oldest and are degraded, so that there is virtually no ring reef left, whereas in the south they are younger and it's much easier to see the ancient shoreline of the now-submerged volcanic islands. Enjoyed the quiz.
The last time the above self-professed expert on the Maldives was trying to make a point about atolls he seemed to be confused about what an atoll is. But from what I can see he's sort of right. There are 20+ natural atolls in the Maldives along with hundreds of smaller ring-shaped islands and cays (many part of larger atolls) and some other things that could be classified as atolls but usually aren't.
It's asking about which countries have their land spread out most over different islands. To measure this the following method is used. Countries that are not spread out will have most of their land on one or two landmasses (the UK, for example, has almost all of its land on Great Britain or Ireland). For this reason this quiz is using the smallest percentage of the land lying on an island that is the largest or second-largest island in the country.
Thank You. The title is non-sensical and obfuscates the point of the quiz Most dispersed island nations is fine. What needs elimination is the elaboration below the title.
I was really surprized of Micronesia, which I assumed was like Marshall Island or Tuvalu, but then I checked and there is two "really big" islands, Pohnpei and Weno, and then just atolls.
I misread the question as smallest percent of population on 2 largest land masses and still got all but 2. So while I like this quiz it’s really just name as many countries with three or more islands. I’m curious as to how many countries with three or more islands aren’t on this list.
For the love of god, please REWORD THE QUESTION. I took random guesses, but the description is the most unclear about what I am supposed to be doing here.
An easy fix is to add "their": "Which countries have the lowest percentage of their land area on their TWO LARGEST land masses?"