The Geography of Indonesia
When it comes to geographical considerations, Indonesia is one of the more unique and interesting countries in all of the world. One of the most interesting aspects of the geography of Indonesia rests in the fact that the country consists of an extraordinary 17,508 individual islands. Of these islands, about 6,000 are inhabited at the present time. Indonesia has a population of 222 million as of 2006, making it the fourth most populated country in the world.
The 17,000 plus islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia are spread out over both sides of the equator. The fives largest islands that make up Indonesia are:
* Java
* Sumatra
* Kalimantan (which is the Indonesian portion of Borneo)
* New Guinea (an island that is shared with Papua New Guinea)
* Sulawesi
Indonesia is comprised of roughly 741,050 square miles (or 1,919,440 square kilometers). This makes Indonesia the 16th largest country in the world in terms of its physical or land area.
The highest point in Indonesia is Puncak Jaya which is located in Papua. This peak is 16,024 feet tall (or 4,884 meters). The largest lake in the country is Lake Toba, which has 442 square miles of water (or 1,145 square kilometers). The countries two largest rivers are the Mahakam and the Barito.
Java is the most populous island in all of the world. The capital of Indonesia is located at Jakarta. Jakarta is located on Java and is the largest city in Indonesia. Four of the other largest cities in Indonesia are Surabaya, Medan, Bandung and Semarang.
Indonesia is located precisely on the edges of three major tectonic plates. Indonesia is situated on the edges of the Pacific, Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Due to this unique position of Indonesia, the country is the site of frequent volcanic eruptions and earth quakes. There are at least one hundred and fifty active volcanoes located throughout Indonesia today. This includes both Krakatoa and Tambora, volcanoes which are famous for truly devastating eruptions during the 1800s.
Heading even farther in history, the volcanic eruption of Toba about 70,000 years ago was one of the largest eruptions in the history of the planet. It was a global catastrophe. Large scale disasters persist to this day. Seismic activity in 2004 caused the monstrous tsunami that killed an estimated 168,000 people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
With its volcanic and earthquake histories, Indonesia remains under the constant gaze of researchers and experts who study these types of activities the world over. Efforts are being made to develop methods through which earthquakes and volcanic eruptions can be predicted or anticipated at least with better precision. Some progress has been made in recent years in regard to these laudable goals.
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