Major Islands of the World
Major Islands of the World : Australia
| Baffin | Borneo | Ellesmere
| Great Britain | Greenland
| Hawaii | Honshu
| Java | Lombok
| Luzon | Madagascar
| Male Island | New
Guinea | North Island |
Ross Island
| South Island | Sri
Lanka | Sulawesi | Sumatra
| Taiwan | Victoria
New Guinea
New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the world's second largest island, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded around 5000 BC. The name Papua has also been long-associated with the island (see "History", below). The western half of the island contains the Indonesian provinces of Papua and Papua Barat (formerly West Irian Jaya), while the eastern half forms the mainland of the independent country of Papua New Guinea.
Geology
A central east-west mountain range dominates the geography of New Guinea, over 1600 km in total length. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4884 m high, and ensuring a steady supply of rain from the tropical atmosphere. The tree line is around 4000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers -- sadly disappearing due to a changing climate. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges. Except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season.
Puncak Jaya, sometimes known by its former Dutch name Carstensz Pyramid, is a mist covered limestone mountain peak 4884 m above sea level.
Another major habitat feature are the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometers, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, and some of the largest expanses of mangrove forest in the world. The southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Sepik, Mamberamo, Fly, and Digul rivers are the island's major river systems that drain in roughly northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest directions respectively. Many of these rivers have broad areas of meander and result in large areas of lakes and freshwater swamps.
In New Guinea are a high percentage of all the world’s ecosystem types: permanent equatorial glaciers, alpine tundra, savanna, montane and lowland rainforest, mangroves, wetlands, lake and river ecosystems, seagrasses, and some of the richest coral reefs on the planet.
|
|
