The non-circular shapes of volcanic islands

What is it about?

The coastlines of volcanic islands are rarely simple circles, for a variety of reasons, such as erosion or volcanic development. This study used a global database on shorelines to characterise them in terms of elongation or based on their variation away from a centre (idealising the islands as simple plates so that their moments of inertia, which are sensitive to outlying mass, can be calculated and analysed). The results showed remarkably little correlation of these measures with a variety of potential environmental factors, such as latitude or island area and altitude.

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