Geography

Australia is known by many to be the only island in he world deemed both a country and a continent, located in Oceania, between the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean at 27 degrees south, 144 degrees east.

When compared to the land mass of the contiguous United States (8,080,464 square kilometers), Australia is only slightly smaller with a land mass of 7,686,850 square kilometers, when including it’s island territories. The Australian mainland has a total coastline length of 35,876 km with an additional 23,859 km of island coastlines. There are 758 estuaries or sea inlets, around the country with most located in the tropical and sub-tropical zones. Australia claims an extensive economic zone of 8,148,250 square kilometers or 3,146,057 sq. mi, and excludes the Australian Antarctic Territory. Australia has the largest area of ocean jurisdiction of any country on earth, seeing as it has no land borders. The northernmost points of the country are the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland and the Top End of the Northern Territory.

According to various sources, Australia is the lowest, flattest, and oldest continental landmass on Earth and has had a relatively stable geological history. Because it is located virtually in the middle of a tectonic plate, it currently has no active volcanism while minor earthquakes which produce no damage occur regularly, and major earthquakes measuring greater than magnitude 6 occur on average every five years Its highest peak is Mount Kosciuszko at 2,228 meters (7,310 ft), which is relatively low in comparison to the highest mountains on other continents. Erosion has heavily weathered Australia’s surface. The terrain is mostly low plateau with scattered deserts, rangelands and a vast fertile plain in the southeast. Tasmania and the Australian Alps do not have any permanent icefields or glaciers in present day, however, geology suggests that they may have existed in the past. In Western Australia, Mount Augustus, was named by scientists, the largest monolith in the world.A short distance off the north-east coast, lies by far the world’s largest coral reef and therefore an extremely popular tourist attraction, aptly named The Great Barrier Reef.