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Australasia
Three large islands east of Timor Trough
and Aru Basin constitute Asia's farthest region of Australasia.
Australia, its main bulk, can be described as the world's
largest island and smallest continent. The other two
island groups are New Guinea in the north and New Zealand
in the south-east. Australia and New Guinea are only
separated by the shallow Arafura Sea but present a contrast
in geological structure. Australia is mostly founded
on Precambrian stable shield related to Gondwana land.
New Guinea, on the other hand, has east-west axes of
Tertiary folding. New Zealand is similarly built on
a folded structure but aligned south-west/north-east
(Figure 8 and Annex F).
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Figure 8: Australasia |
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