Sunda Islands

Coordinates of extreme points: western - about. Breech , 95 gr. at. d. 5.5 gr. with. sh., eastern - about. Waigeo , 131 gr. at. d., 0 gr. latitude, north - about. Bungei, 177.5 gr. at. d., 7 gr. with. sh., southern - about. Roti, Cape Bois, 123 gr. at. d., 11 gr. w.

The total area of ​​the archipelago is more than 1.7 million km².

The Sunda Islands are divided into two groups:

• Big Sunda Islands : Sumatra , Java , Kalimantan , Sulawesi .
• Small Sunda Islands : Bali , Lombok , Sumbawa , Sumba , Timor , Barat Daya , Flores , Sava and others.

The Great Sunda Islands have an area of ​​1.5 million km², the Small Sunda Islands - 128 thousand km², the Moluccas - 83.7 thousand km². The largest island - Kalimantan (Borneo) - an area of ​​734 thousand km². In total, the archipelago includes more than 3,000 islands.

All the Big and most of the Small Sunda Islands are surrounded by many very small islands. A special place near Sumatra is occupied by the Mentawai archipelago (of which the largest is Siberut). In the east, the Selatan Timur group includes Tanimbar Islands, Kai Islands, and Aru Islands. The Moluccas include the islands of Halmacher, Seram, Morotai, Misool, the islands of Ob, Buru, and others. Some experts consider the Moluccas to be a separate archipelago, which is essentially a pure convention. Together with the neighboring Philippine archipelago, Sunda constitutes a larger entity - the Malay archipelago.

The Sunda Islands are predominantly mountainous, but there are two vast lowlands on Kalimantan, and one on Sumatra. The highest points of the islands: Kinabalu, 4100 m (Kalimantan), Kerinchi, 3805 m (Sumatra), Semeru, 3676 m (Java), Rantokombola, 3455 m (Sulawesi), Segara Rinjani on about. Lombok, 3676 m (Malye Zondskie), on about. Seram, 3018 m. On the archipelago of more than 130 volcanoes, this is a zone of increased seismic activity. The Sunda Islands are either part of the small Sunda Plate , or enter the Sunda Island Arc , formed by the collision of the Sunda and Australian Plates.

From the outside, the archipelago is washed by the South China Sea and Arafura. There are numerous inland seas inside the archipelago (see list below): Rivers are mostly mountainous, short and stormy. The largest rivers are on Kalimantan: Kapuas , Barito , Kayan , Rajang ; in Sumatra - Hari , originates on the Kerinci volcano.

The Sunda Islands are divided by the following inter-island seas :

• South China Sea
• Javan sea
• Sea Sulu
• Sea Sulawesi
• Sea Flores
• Sea gang
• Sea of ​​Seram
• Moluccan Sea
• Timor Sea
• sea ​​of ​​savou
• Sea of ​​arafura

The climate of the Sunda archipelago is equatorial and subequatorial (in the southern part of the archipelago). Forests are evergreen moist, savannas are found in some places. The temperature in January is 24 ° C above zero, in July it reaches 32 ° C above zero. There are a lot of precipitation. On Kalimantan and the west coast of Sumatra - 3000 mm / year. In the remaining areas, 2,000 or more. The flora and fauna are very rich.

During the last ice age , when the sea level was 100 m lower, the Sunda Islands were combined with each other and with Indochina .

The archipelago is populated by numerous peoples of different cultural levels, related in language, speaking the languages ​​of the Indonesian language branch, which is part of a larger family of Austronesian languages .

Minerals: oil , tin , bauxite , nickel , copper , manganese , zinc , chromium , lead . 60% of the territory is occupied by forests with valuable tropical tree species. In the Lesser Sunda Islands, land is predominantly occupied by agricultural land, rice, corn and industrial crops. In agricultural and industrial terms, the most developed island is Java.

• Malay archipelago
• Islands of indonesia
• Sundaland

• Encyclopedic Geographic Dictionary, ed. V. M. Kotlyakova, M. - 2003.
• V.A. Aprodov. Volcanoes, M. - 1982.
• Educational atlas of the world, GUGK, M. - 1968.
• The reference card "Indonesia", GUGK, M. - 1974.
• A. Kondrashov, Directory of necessary knowledge, M. - 2001.