53 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1998
Papua New Guinea is known as “the land of the unexpected”, by both the national people and foreigners. The area of PNG is equivalent to that of the State of Montana in the USA. Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half of the Island of New Guinea (the second largest Island in the world). (Map) The Indonesian Province of Irian Jaya shares the western half of the Island. Many smaller islands mostly extending to the east are also included with the national territory. Papua New Guinea lies between the Equator and Australia and centers on about 6° North Latitude and 146° East Longitude. Generally PNG is considered to be part of the “South Pacific Realm” but some include it with “Southeast Asia”.
Map produced by the Central Intelligence Agency 1998, Public domain Perry Castaneda Map Library, University of Texas
Papua New Guinea sits on the colliding plate boundary of the northward moving Australian Plate and the southwestern moving Pacific Plate. The Island has been created over the last 30 million years from this collision. Earth quakes and volcanic eruptions are a daily occurrence while tsunamis are reported from time to time. In 1998 a tsunami took 3000 lives along the north coast of the main island.
The interior of the main Island is mountainous with heights reaching over 14000 feet. Mountains form ridges running east to west and on the north side of the main island the mountains are being built at a rate of 2 to 3 inches per year.
The southeast trade wind belt dominates the weather patterns of Papua New Guinea. This produces heavy rainfall throughout the year along the east coast and in certain highland areas where moisture-laden air masses directly affect exposed areas. The northern City of Lae receives an average of 15 feet of rainfall per year. A pronounced dry season in rain shadow locations affects much of the country including the capitol, Port Moresby which receives only 40 inches. Three basic PNG climate types are “tropical rainforest,” “tropical Savannah” and “highland temperate.”
Biodiversity is quite unique in Papua New Guinea. Typical terrestrial biomes are tropical rainforest, tropical savanna, and anemone forests. Aquatic biomes include freshwater swamp, mangrove swamp and coral reef. They include thousands of species found nowhere else on earth.
The people of New Guinea are Melanesians, a Negroid race whose realm extends southeastward into the Pacific as far as the Islands of Fiji. PNG includes a few interspersed small islands where the people are racially considered Micronesian or Polynesian.
It is believed that the first people came to New Guinea about 50,000 years ago, island hopping from the west probably from Asia. These Papua speaking people reached the highlands about 30,000 years ago and by 10,000 BC had settled most of the islands. Archeological evidence shows that agriculture began in the highlands around 9,000 years ago, making Papua New Guineans some of the first farmers in the world.
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