Indonesia's variations in culture have been shaped--although not
specifically determined--by centuries of complex interactions with the physical
environment. Although Indonesians are now less vulnerable to the vicissitudes
of nature as a result of improved technology and social programs, to some
extent their social diversity has emerged from traditionally different patterns
of adjustment to their physical circumstances.
Indonesia is a huge archipelagic country extending 5,120 kilometers from
east to west and 1,760 kilometers from north to south. It encompasses 13,667
islands (some sources say as many as 18,000), only 6,000 of which are
inhabited. There are five main islands (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi,
and Irian Jaya), two major archipelagos (Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku Islands),
and sixty smaller archipelagos. Two of the islands are shared with other
nations; Kalimantan (known in the colonial period as Borneo, the world's third
largest island) is shared with Malaysia and Brunei, and Irian Jaya shares the
island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea. Indonesia's total land area is
1,919,317 square kilometers. Included in Indonesia's total territory is another
93,000 square kilometers of inlands seas (straits, bays, and other bodies of
water). The additional surrounding sea areas bring Indonesia's generally
recognized territory (land and sea) to about 5 million square kilometers. The
government, however, also claims an exclusive economic zone, which brings the
total to about 7.9 million square kilometers.
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Geographers have conventionally grouped Sumatra, Java (and Madura),
Kalimantan (formerly Borneo), and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) in the Greater
Sunda Islands. These islands, except for Sulawesi, lie on the Sunda Shelf--an
extension of the Malay Peninsula and the Southeast Asian mainland. Far to the
east is Irian Jaya (formerly Irian Barat or West New Guinea), which takes up
the western half of the world's second largest island--New Guinea--on the Sahul
Shelf. Sea depths in the Sunda and Sahul shelves average 200 meters or less.
Between these two shelves lie Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara (also known as the Lesser
Sunda Islands), and the Maluku Islands (or the Moluccas), which form a second
island group where the surrounding seas in some places reach 4,500 meters in
depth. The term Outer Islands is used inconsistently by various writers but it
is usually taken to mean those islands other than Java and Madura.
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Tectonically, this region--especially Java--is highly unstable, and although
the volcanic ash has resulted in fertile soils, it makes agricultural
conditions unpredictable in some areas. The country has numerous mountains and
some 400 volcanoes, of which approximately 100 are active. Between 1972 and
1991 alone, twentynine volcanic eruptions were recorded, mostly on Java. The
most violent volcanic eruptions in modern times occurred in Indonesia. In 1815
a volcano at Gunung Tambora on the north coast of Sumbawa, Nusa Tenggara Barat
Province, claimed 92,000 lives and created "the year without a
summer" in various parts of the world. In 1883 Krakatau in the Sunda
Strait, between Java and Sumatra, erupted and some 36,000 West Javans died from
the resulting tidal wave. The sound of the explosion was reported as far away
as Turkey and Japan. For almost a century following that eruption, Krakatau was
quiet, until the late 1970s, when it erupted twice.
Mountains ranging between 3,000 and 3,800 meters above sea level can be
found on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi, and Seram. The
country's tallest mountains, which reach between 4,700 and 5,000 meters, are
located in the Jayawijaya Mountains and the Sudirman Mountains in Irian Jaya.
The highest peak, Puncak Jaya, which reaches 5,039 meters, is located in the
Sudirman Mountains.
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Nusa Tenggara consists of two strings of islands stretching eastward from
Bali toward Irian Jaya. The inner arc of Nusa Tenggara is a continuation of the
chain of mountains and volcanoes extending from Sumatra through Java, Bali, and
Flores, and trailing off in the Banda Islands. The outer arc of Nusa Tenggara
is a geological extension of the chain of islands west of Sumatra that includes
Nias, Mentawai, and Enggano. This chain resurfaces in Nusa Tenggara in the
ruggedly mountainous islands of Sumba and Timor.
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The Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) are geologically among the most complex of
the Indonesian islands. They are located in the northeast sector of the
archipelago, bounded by the Philippines to the north, Irian Jaya to the east,
and Nusa Tenggara to the south. The largest of these islands include Halmahera,
Seram, and Buru, all of which rise steeply out of very deep seas. This abrupt
relief pattern from sea to high mountains means that there are very few level
coastal plains.
Geographers believe that the island of New Guinea, of which Irian Jaya is a
part, may once have been part of the Australian continent. The breakup and
tectonic action created both towering, snowcapped mountain peaks lining its
central east-west spine and hot, humid alluvial plains along the coast of New
Guinea. Irian Jaya's mountains range some 650 kilometers east to west, dividing
the province between north and south.
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