Oceania is the collective name for the vast accumulation of
islands and atolls in the central and western parts of the Pacific
Ocean. The borders of Oceania are arbitrary. The island of New
Guinea is considered to be the western border, Easter Island is the
eastern border. As a rule, Oceania does not include Australia, as
well as the islands and archipelagos of Southeast Asia, the Far East
and North America. In the section of geography, country studies,
Oceania is studying an independent discipline - ocean studies.
Oceania is the world's largest cluster of islands located in the
southwestern and central parts of the Pacific Ocean, between the
subtropical latitudes of the Northern and temperate Southern
Hemispheres. When all land is divided into parts of the world,
Oceania is usually united with Australia into a single part of the
world, Australia and Oceania, although sometimes it stands out as an
independent part of the world.
Geographically, Oceania is
divided into several regions: Micronesia (in the north-west),
Melanesia (in the west), and Polynesia (in the east); New Zealand is
sometimes singled out.
The total area of the islands of
Oceania, the largest of which is New Guinea, is 1.26 million km²
(together with Australia 8.52 million km²), the population is about
10.7 million people. (together with Australia 32.6 million people).
Excluding Australia, Oceania in terms of total area and total
population is comparable to the African state of Chad.
The
islands of Oceania are washed by numerous Pacific seas (Coral Sea,
Tasman Sea, Fiji Sea, Koro Sea, Solomon Sea, New Guinea Sea,
Philippine Sea) and Indian Oceans (Arafura Sea).
Equator and
the international date line pass through Oceania. It is a broken
line, most of which runs along the 180 ° meridian.
Sea
currents
Across the whole of Oceania, along the equator, are the
warm Northern Passat and Southern Passat currents and the Passat
countercurrent. In the southwestern part of Oceania, a warm East
Australian Current passes. Characteristic of Oceania is the absence
of cold sea currents (with the exception of the Pacific Ocean region
southeast of New Zealand), which largely determines the climate of
this region.
Oceania in the broadest sense of the term includes all the islands between Asia and America. In most cases, however, the Japanese Islands, the Ryukyu Archipelago, the Kuril Islands and the Aleutian Islands are excluded from this list, and the most common interpretation of the term also excludes Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, since the peoples and cultures of these islands are historically closely connected with continental Asia. Even in this limited sense, there are over 10,000 islands in Oceania, including New Guinea and New Zealand. Oceania in this sense of the term is traditionally divided into 4 regions - Australasia (Australia and New Zealand), Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
Australia
Australia is located entirely in the Southern and
Eastern Hemispheres. Almost in the middle of it crosses the Southern
Tropic. Australia is a separate continent, remote from other continents.
This is what determined the uniqueness of its nature. The main trade
routes pass away from the mainland, which makes it difficult to develop
economic ties.
The area of Australia is 7.6 million km². The
shores of the mainland are slightly indented. In the north, the Gulf of
Carpentaria protrudes into the land, in the south - the Great Australian
Gulf. The Cape York Peninsula forms the northern edge of the mainland.
Off the southeastern coast is the island of Tasmania, off the
northeastern coast is one of the largest islands in Oceania - the island
of New Guinea, separated from Australia by the Torres Strait.
Oceania
The island groups and archipelagos of the western and central
Pacific Ocean are united in a geographical area under the general name
of Oceania. The land area of the island part of Oceania, which
includes New Guinea and New Zealand, but not Australia, is 822,800 km².
Historically, the division of all the islands into four ethnographic and
geographical regions: Polynesia (Tonga, Samoa, Cook, Hawaiian, Easter
Island, etc.), Melanesia (New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon
Islands, etc.), Micronesia (Marshall, Mariana Islands, etc.), New
Zealand. Most of the islands of Oceania are concentrated in the
equatorial belt between 10 ° S. sh. and 20° N. sh.
A prominent
Russian scientist Nikolai Miklukho-Maclay made a great contribution to
the study of the nature and population of Oceania. He studied the life
of the peoples of the island of New Guinea, left descriptions of the
nature of coastal areas. His scientific research was connected with his
conviction of the need to protect the backward and oppressed peoples. At
the very end of the XIX century. lived and worked in the Hawaiian
Islands, Nikolai Konstantinovich Sudzilovsky, a native of the Mogilev
province, was the president of the Senate.
Discovery and exploration of Australia
The Dutch navigator Willem
Janszon was the first European to reach the coast of Australia in 1606.
During the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries, the Dutchman
Abel Tasman explored the northern and northwestern coasts of Australia.
In the XVIII century, the Englishman James Cook re-discovered Australia
about the islands of New Zealand and declared them colonies of England.
An interesting fact is that for several decades, convicts for various
crimes were sent to Australia from England, who developed new
territories, being engaged in mining and animal husbandry.
In
1840, sheep farmer Edward Eyre intended to explore the area between the
Flindres Range and the West Bank (Perth area) in South Australia. Air
could not go deep into the mainland, but explored only the southern
coast. However, even after such discoveries, the largest lake on the
mainland was named after him. During the four-month journey, Air covered
over 2000 km.
The central deserts were explored by the British
Robert Burke and John Stuart. By the end of the 19th century,
exploration of the interior of Australia was largely completed.
Geography
Location
Australia and Oceania are located in the
southern part of the planet and are washed: from the west by the Indian
Ocean, from the east by the Pacific. The composition of these oceans,
washed by part of the world, includes the seas: Coral, Tasman, Fiji,
Arfur and Timor Seas.
The mainland includes large islands, such
as: about. New Guinea, Northern and Southern O., Solomon Islands,
Tasmania, etc.
Extreme points:
Cape North West Cape
Cape
Steep Point
Cape South East Cale
Cape South East Point
Cape
Byron
The US National Geographic Society website proposes a classification
of the islands that make up Oceania based on geological differences.
According to this principle, continental, high and low islands are
distinguished. The continental islands in this case include Australia,
New Zealand, and New Guinea, which were part of a larger continental
mass before tectonic changes and rising sea levels separated them.
Continental islands are characterized by a variety of relief, in all
three cases including mountain ranges of folded origin, resulting from
the extrusion of rocks upward during the collision of lithospheric
plates. The ongoing tectonic activity in New Zealand and New Guinea is
reflected in the presence of active volcanoes. At the same time, the
dominant processes that formed the continental islands differed
significantly, which led to significant differences in the relief. Such
a distinctive feature for Australia is Outback - a vast region of
deserts and semi-deserts on the plains in its central part; for New
Zealand - glaciers, the presence of which is due to high altitudes and
prevailing wet and cold winds; and for New Guinea, where a significant
altitude is combined with proximity to the equator and humid tropical
winds, high-mountain evergreen tropical forests.
The high, or
volcanic, islands of Oceania arose as a result of the eruptions of
underwater volcanoes, in which the erupted magma was cooled by ocean
water and solidified. Such activity, which continues for a long time,
leads to the formation of islands, in the center of which is a mountain
with steep slopes, from which ridges and gorges diverge towards the
coastline. A significant concentration of high islands is characteristic
of Melanesia in that part of it that coincides with the contour of the
Pacific Ring of Fire - a chain of underwater volcanoes - at the junction
of the Pacific and Australian plates. The important volcanoes of
Melanesia are Tomaniwi (Fiji), Lamington (New Guinea) and Yasur
(Vanuatu).
The basis of low, or coral, islands is the thickness
of coral skeletons. Due to their origin, these islands often barely rise
above sea level and often take the form of a discontinuous semicircular
chain of small islets (atolls) around a central lagoon. This form occurs
when a coral reef forms around an uplift of volcanic land, and then this
land is eroded, leaving a depression in its place, which is filled with
sea water. A typical example is the Kwajalein Atoll (Marshall Islands),
consisting of 97 islets of different sizes, surrounding one of the
world's largest lagoons; the total area of their land and the inner
lagoon is 2173 km². Low islands dominate Micronesia and Polynesia.
There are several mountain ranges in Australia, the most famous of
which is the Great Dividing Range, but there are also such ranges as the
Kimberley Mountains (the highest point of Ord (937 m)) and the Berkeley
Plateau. The highest point on the mainland is Mount Wilhelm in Papua New
Guinea.
The largest mountains in Oceania
Mount Wilhelm (4509 m)
Mount Mauna Kea (4205 m)
Mauna Loa volcano (4169 m)
Mount Cook
(3764 m)
volcano Ruapehu (2797 m)
Ulawun volcano (2300 m)
Mount Kosciuszko (2228 m)
Mount Liebig (1440 m)
Mount Meharri
(1251 m)
Mount Bluff Knoll (1096 m)
Mount Ord (937 m)
The fame of Oceania gives the deepest mark of the world - the
Mariana Trench (10,994 m). In addition to it, there are two other
equally deep trenches on the territory. These are the Tonga Trench
(10,882 m) and the Kermadec Trench (10,047 m). On land, the Eyre
North salt lake, up to −16 meters deep, became a deep mark.
The climate on different islands and in the states is diverse. In central Australia, precipitation is less than 250 mm per year, and the prevailing temperatures are + 7 ° С to + 47 ° С. In the northern part of Australia (city of Darwin), temperatures from +10°С to +41°С and precipitation from 2000 mm and more prevail. The highest precipitation rate is located in the north of Papua New Guinea and reaches more than 3000 mm, when temperatures here prevail from +18 to +24°C.
Many plants and animals of Oceania come from South Asia, from where
they came to the modern islands during the last ice age, when the lower
level of the oceans made it possible to cross over land. Plant seeds
were also carried by wind, sea currents and birds. After the sea level
rose again, organisms continued to evolve on individual islands or
groups of islands, forming endemic species far from a common ancestor.
The number of endemic species in Australia and Oceania is much higher
than in other parts of the world. Important flowering plants in
Australia and Oceania include jacaranda, hibiscus, pohutukawa, kowhai
(endemic species of Sophora), breadfruit, eucalyptus, and banyan tree.
In the animal world of Oceania, birds occupy a central place due to
their ability to fly between islands; in total, there are over 110
endemic bird species in Oceania. This number also includes the relic
flightless birds of Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand - cassowaries,
emu, kiwi, ueka shepherd and takahe. Among other animals, lizards and
bats are widely represented (in particular, more than 100 species of
fruit bats are known in Oceania). Australia and Oceania are the only
region of the world where representatives of monotremes, egg-laying
mammals, have survived. The surviving species of this order (four
species of echidnas and one species of platypus) live only in Australia
and New Guinea. Other wild mammals are mostly marsupials; of all known
modern marsupial species in the world, 70% are in Oceania, the rest are
concentrated in South America. Due to the absence of large predators,
the marsupials of Oceania grow to sizes inaccessible to their American
relatives - for example, a large red kangaroo reaches a height of 2 m
and weighs up to 100 kg.
Oceania lies in three different marine
ecoregions - Temperate Australasian (the seas washing the southern part
of Australia and New Zealand), Central Indo-Pacific (the northern coast
of Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New
Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga) and Eastern Indo-Pacific (the central region
of the Pacific Ocean from the Marshall Islands to central and
southeastern Polynesia). The temperate Australasian region is
characterized by cold, nutrient-rich waters that support large
populations of fish and seabirds ((several species of albatrosses and
petrels, as well as the Australian gannet and crested penguin). The
other two regions are home to corals that formed in the Central
Indo-Pacific region giant formations - the Great Barrier Reef and the
Barrier Reef of New Caledonia Barrier reefs are the basis for high
biodiversity.Thus, the Great Barrier Reef is home to about 30 species of
whales and dolphins, 6 species of sea turtles, 215 species of birds and
more than 1500 species of fish, and Barrier Reef of New Caledonia - at
least 1000 species of fish in addition to 600 species of sponges, 5500
species of molluscs and 5000 species of crustaceans.
Peoples
All of Western and Eastern Australia is occupied by
Anglo-Australians who settled during the colonization of the Australian
continent. The entire island of New Guinea, attached to Oceania, is
occupied by the Papuan peoples (including those on the Solomon Islands
and the Santa Cruz Islands). Central Australia is inhabited by
Indigenous Aboriginal Australians, for whom reservations have been
established. New Zealand is inhabited by the Anglo-New Zealanders, as
well as on such islands as Chatham and others.
Colonial lands
(for example, the island of New Caledonia) are occupied by the French,
and the Pitcairn Islands, in the south of the world, are inhabited by
the British mixed with indigenous tribes.
Most of the Australian population lives in the east and southwest of the continent, where the population density ranges from 1 to 10 people / km². Near the largest cities, the density varies from 10 to 50 people/km². On the contrary, in Papua New Guinea, despite the mountainous terrain, there is a population density of 10-50 people per square kilometer. The capital of the state, Port Moresby, does not have a large population and does not stand out from the general background. The situation is similar in New Zealand, where the largest city is not the capital Wellington, but Auckland. Of the island states of Oceania, the most densely populated is Fiji (10 - 40 people / km²).
Most of the islands in Oceania are poor in minerals. The exceptions
are New Caledonia, the world's fifth largest producer of nickel, whose
reserves account for about 10% of the world's reserves of this metal,
and Fiji, in whose exports gold occupies second place after cane sugar.
New Guinea has significant mineral resources. The mining industry is one
of Papua New Guinea's main employers, exporting gold, copper and oil. In
the territorial waters of the country, mining has begun from a depth of
more than a mile below the seabed. There are also a number of oil and
gas fields around Australia and New Zealand, but these countries consume
more oil than they produce themselves.
On the continental islands
of Oceania (including Australia), there are significant resources for
the logging and woodworking industries. For example, in Australia, these
areas of the economy in 2008 brought in revenue of $1.7 billion. In this
country, the main products are sawn wood, wood panels and paper. Logging
also plays an important role in the economy of Papua New Guinea, which
exports rosewood, eucalyptus and pine wood.