Geography of Australia

The geography of Australia includes a great variety of geographical forms and appearances. Australia is the smallest continent but the sixth largest country in the world. The settlement focuses on the eastern and south-eastern coastal regions.

Area and containment

Location: Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean

Coordinates: 27 ° 00 ' S 133 ° 00' E

Maps: Oceania

Area:

Total: 7.68685 million km ²
Land Area: 7,617,930 km ²
Water Area: 68,920 km ²

Surface compared:

About 21.5 times the size of Germany
The land area of continental Europe is lower than that of Australia.
Slightly less than the 48 contiguous States of the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii)

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 25,760 km

Maritime proportions:

Continental shelf: 200 nautical miles
Territory at sea: 12 nautical miles

Climate and landscape

The largest part of Australia is covered by desert or semi-arid areas. 40 % of the landmass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and the south-west corners have a temperate climate, and partly fertile soils ( black soil ). In the east and south-west there are mainly podzols. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: some tropical rainforests, part grasslands and desert.

The precipitates exhibit a strong variability. Regularly occurring periods of drought may last several years. Frequent dust storms and tornadoes threaten rarer creatures and infrastructure. General observation with an ever increasing salinization and desertification.

The Geology of Australia is determined by the contrast between the Great Dividing Range in the east and the largely flat central and western areas where flat -lying overburden and its sandy cover cover several geologically ancient cratons. The entire continent of Australia is on a tectonic plate and thus has no active tectonic plate boundaries within its territory. For this reason, today there is no volcanic activity caused by plate tectonics, occasional earthquakes are of low intensity and intensity.

The landscape is exposed to strong weather conditions. Tasmania and the Australian Alps have some ice fields and glaciers. The Great Barrier Reef, by far the world's largest coral reef, lies a few kilometers off the northeastern coast. Uluru, also called Ayers Rock, is located in Central Australia.

Relief

While the majority of the Australian outback from flat outback and deserts there, you will find on the east coast and less pronounced in the west of the continent to more than 2,200 meters high mountain ranges, including the Australian Cordillera (English Great Dividing Range), which extends along the east coast from Cape York in the north to Melbourne and the Hamersley Range south of Roebourne and the Stirling Range near Perth on the west coast. The highest part of the Australian Cordillera, the Australian Alps, rises Mount Kosciuszko at 2,228 m. In the plains of Central Australia is the salty Lake Eyre in whose basin is the deepest part of the continent with 16 meters below sea level.

Natural resources and land use

Australia is rich in resources include bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, precious stones, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, oil.

Land use:

Usable land: 6%
Permanent cereal crops: 0%
Year-round pastures: 54%
Forests and scrubland: 19%
Other: 21%

( 1993 figures )

Irrigated land: 21,070 km ² (1993 )

Natural disasters: cyclones along the northern coast; strong storms, droughts and occasional floods; also frequent bush fires.

Environment

Current problems: erosion by industrial expansion, urbanization and outdated tillage; Salinization of the soil by poor quality water; desertification; Extinction of species; Threat to the Great Barrier Reef by tourism and shipping; limited fresh water - resources.

International conventions and agreements:

Signatory of: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity Convention, the Climate Change Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of the Wild Fauna and Flora, the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, Basel Convention, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by dumping Wastes and Other Matter, Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas, treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water, NPT, Montreal Protocol on Substances That deplete the Ozone layer, International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994, Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially As Waterfowl Habitat, International Convention for the regulation of Whaling
Signed, but not ratified: Kyoto Protocol, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Geographical Records

The northernmost point of Cape York, Queensland (10 ° 41 'S)
Southernmost point: Wilson's Promontory, Victoria ( 39 ° 08 'S)

Westernmost point: Steep Point, Western Australia ( 113 ° 09'E )
Easternmost point: Cape Byron, New South Wales (146 ° 22'E )
Lowest point: Lake Eyre: -16 m
Highest point: Mount Kosciuszko: 2228 m

Northernmost point: Boigu Iceland, Torres Strait Islands, Queensland
Southernmost point: Macquarie Island, Tasmania
Westernmost point: Flat Iceland, Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Easternmost point: Norfolk Island
Highest point: Big Ben, Heard Island: 2745 m

Bibliography

Miller, Gifford et al. Sensitivity of the Australian Monsoon to insolation and vegetation: Implications for human impact on continental moisture balance. Geology Vol 33, No. 1, pp. 65-68.

Geography of the States of: Africa | Asia | Europe | North America | South America

Geography (Australia)

Topography Lord Howe Island Port Douglas (Queensland) Cairns Semi-arid climate Volcanism Snowy Mountains Roebourne, Western Australia List of lakes of Australia Gemstone United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change List of protected areas of Western Australia Wilsons Promontory Big Ben (Heard Island) Geography of Africa

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