Indonesia

13 Pages 3216 Words

General Profile
Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago. Archipelago is any water space scattered with many islands. This group of islands is located in Southeastern Asia and acts as a dividing line between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans. To find Indonesia on a map, the geographic coordinates of 5 00 south, 120 00 east are given to aid in the search. With its total area being 1,919,440 sq. km., 1,826,440 sq. km. of that being land and 93,000 sq. km. being water, Indonesia is said to be slightly less than three times the size of Texas. Although Indonesia is a group of islands, it contains 2,602 km. in land boundaries. These land boundaries are divided between Indonesia’s two border countries of Malaysia, which has a boundary of 1,782 km., and Papua New Guinea, whose land boundary with Indonesia is much less than that of Malaysia with a total of 820 km. Due to the numerous islands that make up the country of Indonesia, its total coastline is extremely high with a total of 54,716 !
km.
The geographic coordinates and total coastline of Indonesia has a huge impact on the climate. This country’s climate is described as tropical, hot, and humid with the more moderate temperatures in highlands. The highlands are found on the larger islands but the majority of Indonesia’s terrain is coastal lowlands. The highest elevation point is at Puncak Jaya with the height of 5,030 m. and the lowest point is the Indian Ocean with a measurement of 0 m. Indonesia’s location makes it very vulnerable to natural hazards. These hazards include occasional floods, severe droughts, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes. With Indonesia’s variety in land elevation and climate, the actual land usage is mainly woodlands and forests (62%). The remaining percentage of the land is divided fairly evenly between arable land, permanent crops, and permanent pastures. Indonesia does, however, have a wide variety of natural resourc...