Geography
The land and sea area of the archipelago exceeds 2 million km2. The over 25,000 islands of the archipelago comprise many smaller archipelagoes.
The major groupings are:
- Indonesia
- Sunda Islands
- Greater Sunda Islands
- Lesser Sunda Islands
- Maluku Islands
- Sunda Islands
- Philippine Archipelago
- New Guinea and surrounding islands (when included)
The six largest islands are New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, and Luzon.
Geologically the archipelago is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. Tectonic uplifts have produced large mountains, including the highest in Mount Kinabalu in Sabah with a height of 4,095.2 m and Puncak Jaya on New Guinea at 4,884 m (16,024 ft). Other high mountains in the archipelago include Puncak Mandala 4,760 m (15,617 ft) and Puncak Trikora 4,750 m (15,584 ft).
The climate throughout the archipelago, owing to its position on the equator, is tropical.
Read more about this topic: Malay Archipelago
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