Australia: The land down under
Omar Khalid Rumi
A huge land Australia looks like an island which is the smallest among all the continents. Greenland having a surface area of 2,166,930 sq.kms ( 836,330 sq.miles ) is generally considered the worlds largest island, Australia at 8,600,000 sq.kms ( 3,300,000 sq.miles ) is deemed a continent. Width of the continent, say from Sydney to Perth, the distance is around 3,394 km (2452.79 mile). It takes almost 40 hours to travel from Sydney to Perth by road.
Australia known sometimes as Sahul, Austrilinea or Magnesia is a continent comprising mainland Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania, Serum, Timor and some neighbouring island. The continent lies on a continental shelf and is separated by Arafura Sea and Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea and Bass Strait separated Australian land mass and Tasmanian land mass. As is the case with other continents on earth Australian land mass along with Sunda land mass and the islands were all under the sea. From among all of them including the neighbouring Zealandia (New Zealand) Australia surfaced first from the ocean and the sea level subsided after the last glacial period (18,000 BC). The hard, arid and semi-arid land of Australia today presents the facts compared to Tasmania, New Zealand and New Guinea which are still filled with green flora and fauna, green forests on soft land.
Australia is supposed to be the lowest lying and smallest human inhabited continent on earth. The continental shelf connecting the islands are generally less than 50 meters (160 ft) deep covering 2,500,000 sq.kms (970,000 sq miles) including the Sahul shelf and Bass strait.
Sea Level
The present theory regarding sea level is: When the sea levels were lower during Pleistocene ice age, including the last glacial maximum about 18,000 BC, they were connected by dry land. During the past ten thousand years, rising sea levels overflowed the low lands and separated the continent in todays low lying arid areas.
