A rare floating island composed of vegetation in Yilan County shifted hundreds of meters in the most recent typhoon, surprising plant-life conservationists, who said they have never observed such movement from the island.
At a lake in the county’s Shuanglianpi (雙連埤) area, the smallest island — one of three that are the nation’s only natural floating islands — moved 200m across the entire width of the lake during September’s Typhoon Megi, a member of the Society of Wilderness said, adding that the 0.5 hectare island is a protected wetland.
“I never imagined that the island could move,” the member said, adding that fellow society members were both shocked and excited by the development.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Society habitat protection expert Chuang Yu-wei (莊育偉) on Friday said that one of the two larger islands was reportedly seen moving between 2005 and 2006, adding that the most recent movement is remarkable because of its distance.
Chuang said locals refer to the islands as a family, calling the smallest island the child and the two larger islands its parents. The way the small island floated toward the two larger islands on the other side of the lake is reminiscent of a child returning to the embrace of its parents, Chuang said.
This image is accentuated by the fact that the small island emerged after the largest island split during a typhoon in 2013, he said.
Chuang said that the formation of a natural floating island takes up to 500 years.
He said the islands form from turf on a lake’s coastline growing into the water and eventually breaking off, usually due to powerful winds.
It takes many years for the growth of the island to stabilize, he added.
“A natural floating island is completely made up of vegetation, with its surface comprising of grass, bushes, trees and ferns that become interwoven,” Chuang said, adding that the strong typhoon winds caused the formation’s root system to break free from the lake floor and push it across the lake’s surface.
Chuang said that every movement of a floating island creates a new environment for plant life in a lake, adding that this is one of the reasons why Shuanglianpi lake is a “kingdom of water-borne plant life.”
The lake houses more than 80 species of plant life indigenous to Taiwan.
“Seeing such plants as the Rhynchospora malasica and the Salix kusanoi at 500m above sea level is rare in itself,” Chuang said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS