New Guinea and the Western Melanesian Arcs

Abstract

The area described in this chapter amounts to about 3,000,000 sq. km, divided almost equally between land and sea and dominated by the large island of New Guinea (Fig. 1). The Indonesian province of Irian Jaya (Irian) makes up the western half of the island, but most of the remainder of the area falls within the limits of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. Prior to independence in 1974, Papua New Guinea was administered as a single unit by Australia, although legally divided into the colony of Papua in the south and east and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, which included a number of large offshore islands such as New Britain, New Ireland, Manus, and Bougainville, in the north. Bougainville, although politically part of Papua New Guinea, is geologically a part of the Solomon Islands chain and will not be considered directly in this chapter. Also, the southernmost Open image in new window Fig. 1 The New Guinea region. part of New Guinea, south of the central mountain ranges, may be regarded as a northern extension of the stable Australian Platform and is therefore not discussed in detail. The Coral Sea Basin, which lies immediately to the south of the Papuan Peninsula, is considered in Volume 7B of this title.