Papua New Guinea

tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation

mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills

Oceania, group of islands including the eastern half of the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia

5,152 km

0 sq km (2022)

Oceania

active volcanism; frequent and sometimes severe earthquakes; mud slides; tsunamis volcanism: severe volcanic activity; Ulawun (2,334 m), one of Papua New Guinea's potentially most dangerous volcanoes, has been deemed a Decade Volcano by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; Rabaul (688 m) destroyed the city of Rabaul in 1937 and 1994; Lamington erupted in 1951, killing 3,000 people; Manam's 2004 eruption forced the island's abandonment; other historically active volcanoes include Bam, Bagana, Garbuna, Karkar, Langila, Lolobau, Long Island, Pago, St. Andrew Strait, Victory, and Waiowa; see note 2 under "Geography - note"

note 1: shares island of New Guinea with Indonesia; highlands that trend from east to west break up New Guinea into diverse ecoregions; one of world's largest swamps lies along the southwest coast note 2: Papua New Guinea is one of the countries along the Ring of Fire, which is a belt bordering the Pacific Ocean that contains about 75% of the world's volcanoes and up to 90% of the world's earthquakes

gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries

slightly larger than California

6 00 S, 147 00 E

population concentrated in the highlands and eastern coastal areas on the island of New Guinea; predominantly a rural distribution with only about one fifth of the population residing in urban areas

Sepik river source and mouth (shared with Indonesia) - 1,126 km; Fly river source and mouth (shared with Indonesia) - 1,050 km