Indonesia is located in
Southeast Asia between the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. It is an
archipelagic country made up five large islands - namely, Java, Sumatra,
Sulawesi, New Guinea and Kalimantan. It also has about thirty small
archipelagoes such as Maluku and Nusa Tenggara among others. The country is surrounded by sea as it
straddles two continents – Australia and Asia.
It shares four of these main islands with other nations such as Papua
New Guinea and Malaysia. Tropical
rainforest, open savanna, and grassland are the main vegetation in Indonesia (AsianInfo.org)..
Indonesia |
Tectonically, Indonesia
is very unstable because it is located between Australian and Eurasian plates.
The subduction of plate of Indian Ocean under the Eurasian plate formed a
volcanic arc in the west of Indonesia. This volcanic arc is the most active
area seismically with powerful earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The
formation of landscapes such as crater lakes, faults and mountains in Indonesia
were mainly done through volcanicity and earthquake process. It is the string
of these active volcanoes that led to
the formation of Bali, Java, Nusa Tenggara and Sumatra islands. These
tectonics processes formed major structures such as the Great Sumatran Fault in
Sumatra, Palu-Koro fault in Sulawesi, and Sorong fault in New Guinea.
Tectonic Setting of Sumatra |
Topographically,
Indonesia mainly consists of coastal lowlands. However, some of the main
islands such as Sumatra and Java have interior volcanic mountains with peaks
rising to about 3,650 m. Lombok and Bali islands have gently sloping
mountainsides and wide lowlands plains. Sulawesi Island is predominated with
Mountainous landscape and hilly land with swamp forests dominates Kalimantan
Island. The New Guinea Island could be a part of the Australian continent if
the tectonic action and breakup did not occur to create a towering snow-capped
mountain peaks that lines the central east-west spine of the island. Indonesia
records more than 400 volcanoes and about 150 are active volcanoes. (Darman & Sidi, 2000).
An image showing the the mountain peaks |
Work
cited
AsianInfo.org. Indonesia's Geography (Archipelago,
Sumatra, Java/Madura). n.d. 13 09 2014.
<http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/indonesia/pro-geography.htm>.
Darman, H. & Sidi,
H. An Outline of the Geology of
Indonesia, Indonesian Geologists Association publication, 2000.