Geography of New Caledonia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

New Caledonia
Indonesian 2.6%, Vietnamese 1.4%, Ni-Vanuatu
1.2%, other (Filipino) 3.9%

The geography of

War in the Pacific
.

The archipelago is located east of Australia, north of New Zealand, south of the Equator, and just west of Fiji and Vanuatu.

coastline
of 2,254 km (1,401 mi). New Caledonia claims an exclusive fishing zone to a distance of 200 nmi or 370 km or 230 mi and a territorial sea of 12 nmi (22 km; 14 mi) from shore.

New Caledonia is one of the northernmost parts of an almost entirely (93%) submerged

Gondwanan plant and animal lineages no longer found elsewhere.[3][4][5][6][7]

Composition

An expandable bathymetric and topographic map of New Caledonia and Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides. Click to enlarge.

New Caledonia is made up of a main island, the

Loyalty Islands to the east of the Grande Terre, the Isle of Pines to the south of the Grande Terre, the Chesterfield Islands
and Bellona Reefs further to the west. Each of these four island groups has a different geological origin:

The Grande Terre is by far the largest of the islands, and the only mountainous island. It has an area of 16,372 square kilometres (6,321 square miles), and is elongated northwest–southeast, 350 kilometres (220 miles) in length and 50 to 70 kilometres (31 to 43 miles) wide. A mountain range runs the length of the island, with five peaks over 1,500 meters (4,900 feet). The highest point is Mont Panié at 1,628 meters (5,341 feet) elevation. The total area of New Caledonia is 19,060 km2 (7,360 sq mi), 18,575 km2 (7,172 sq mi) of those being land.

A territorial dispute exists with regard to the uninhabited Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are claimed by both France (as part of New Caledonia) and Vanuatu.

Zealandian origin

Topography of Zealandia. New Caledonia is the slender island in the top left quadrant of the image at 11 o'clock from New Zealand. The ridges running north-northeast and southwest from New Zealand are not part of the continent.[8]

The New Caledonian archipelago is a

microcontinent which was part of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana during the time of the dinosaurs. The Grande Terre group of New Caledonia, with Mont Panié at 1,628 meters (5,341 feet) as its highest point, is the most elevated part of the Norfolk Ridge, a long and mostly underwater arm of the continent.[9] While they were still one landmass, Zealandia and Australia combined broke away from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago. Australia and Zealandia split apart 60–85 million years ago.[10] Although biologists consider it contrary to the evidence of surviving Gondwanan lineages, geologists consider the logical possibility that Zealandia may have been completely submerged about 23 million years ago.[11][12] While a continent like Australia consists of a large body of land surrounded by a fringe of continental shelf, Zealandia consists almost entirely of continental shelf, with the vast majority, some 93%, submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean.[9] This viewpoint is not universal. Bernard Pelletier argues that Grande Terre was completely submerged for millions of years, and hence the origin of the flora may not be local in nature, but due to long distance-dispersal.[13]

Zealandia is 3,500,000 km2 (1,351,358 sq mi) in area, larger than Greenland or India, and almost half the size of Australia. It is unusually slender, stretching from New Caledonia in the north to beyond New Zealand's subantarctic islands in the south (from latitude 19° south to 56° south,[10] analogous to ranging from Haiti to Hudson Bay or from Sudan to Sweden in the Northern Hemisphere). New Zealand is the greatest part of Zealandia above sea level, followed by New Caledonia.[10]

Given its continental origin as a fragment of Zealandia, unlike many of the

mya) and from New Zealand in the mid-Miocene has led to a long period of evolution in near complete isolation. New Caledonia's natural heritage significantly comprises species whose ancestors were ancient and primitive flora and fauna present on New Caledonia when it broke away from Gondwana millions of years ago, not only species but entire genera and even families
are unique to the island, and survive nowhere else.

Since the age of the dinosaurs, as the island moved north due to the effects of

above sea level, serving as refugia for the descendants of the original flora that inhabited the island when it broke away from Gondwana. The isolation of New Caledonia was not absolute, however. New species came to New Caledonia while species of Gondwanan origin were able to penetrate further eastward into the Pacific Island region.[citation needed
]

Climate

Isle of Pines

The

tropical, modified by southeasterly trade winds. It is hot and humid. Natural hazards are posed in New Caledonia by cyclones, which occur most frequently between November and March. While rainfall in the neighboring Vanuatu islands averages two meters annually, from the north of New Caledonia to the south the rain decreases to a little over 1,000 mm (39 in). The mean annual temperature drops over the same interval from 27.5 to 24.3 °C (81.5 to 75.7 °F), and seasonality becomes more pronounced. The capital, Nouméa, located on a peninsula on the southwestern coast of the island normally has a dry season which increases in intensity from August until mid-December, ending suddenly with the coming of rain in January. The northeastern coast of the island receives the most rain, with 2,400 mm (94 in) having been recorded near sea level in Pouébo.[14]

Climate data for Nouméa (Köppen Aw)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 36.8
(98.2)
36.4
(97.5)
36.4
(97.5)
36.1
(97.0)
32.7
(90.9)
30.7
(87.3)
34.0
(93.2)
31.7
(89.1)
33.0
(91.4)
32.3
(90.1)
34.9
(94.8)
35.7
(96.3)
36.8
(98.2)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 29.5
(85.1)
29.9
(85.8)
29.0
(84.2)
27.4
(81.3)
25.6
(78.1)
24.2
(75.6)
23.4
(74.1)
23.4
(74.1)
24.7
(76.5)
26.2
(79.2)
27.6
(81.7)
29.1
(84.4)
26.7
(80.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) 26.5
(79.7)
26.9
(80.4)
26.2
(79.2)
24.7
(76.5)
22.9
(73.2)
21.6
(70.9)
20.6
(69.1)
20.5
(68.9)
21.5
(70.7)
22.9
(73.2)
24.3
(75.7)
25.8
(78.4)
23.7
(74.7)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 23.4
(74.1)
24.0
(75.2)
23.5
(74.3)
22.0
(71.6)
20.2
(68.4)
18.9
(66.0)
17.7
(63.9)
17.5
(63.5)
18.3
(64.9)
19.6
(67.3)
21.0
(69.8)
22.5
(72.5)
20.7
(69.3)
Record low °C (°F) 18.6
(65.5)
19.0
(66.2)
18.8
(65.8)
16.7
(62.1)
15.7
(60.3)
13.6
(56.5)
13.5
(56.3)
13.2
(55.8)
13.3
(55.9)
14.2
(57.6)
15.2
(59.4)
17.8
(64.0)
13.2
(55.8)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 107.2
(4.22)
128.3
(5.05)
161.9
(6.37)
118.3
(4.66)
89.9
(3.54)
77.5
(3.05)
69.8
(2.75)
67.5
(2.66)
39.3
(1.55)
36.3
(1.43)
44.2
(1.74)
64.0
(2.52)
1,004.2
(39.54)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 10.1 10.8 11.9 11.7 11.3 9.3 9.4 8.4 5.8 4.8 6.0 6.7 106.3
Mean monthly sunshine hours 238.5 205.6 196.1 193.1 173.2 154.6 182.4 203.5 230.8 258.6 250.6 261.8 2,548.7
Source 1: Météo-France,[15] Meteociel (sunshine 1981-2010)[16]
Source 2: Service de la météorologie de la Nouvelle-Calédonie[17]
Climate data for Lifou (Köppen Af/Am)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 33.3
(91.9)
34.6
(94.3)
32.1
(89.8)
31.9
(89.4)
30.3
(86.5)
29.5
(85.1)
30.0
(86.0)
28.9
(84.0)
30.6
(87.1)
30.3
(86.5)
32.2
(90.0)
32.8
(91.0)
34.6
(94.3)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 29.6
(85.3)
30.0
(86.0)
29.3
(84.7)
28.1
(82.6)
26.3
(79.3)
25.0
(77.0)
24.3
(75.7)
24.4
(75.9)
25.4
(77.7)
26.6
(79.9)
27.7
(81.9)
28.9
(84.0)
27.1
(80.8)
Daily mean °C (°F) 26.2
(79.2)
26.6
(79.9)
26.2
(79.2)
24.9
(76.8)
22.7
(72.9)
21.4
(70.5)
20.1
(68.2)
20.0
(68.0)
21.0
(69.8)
22.5
(72.5)
23.9
(75.0)
25.3
(77.5)
23.4
(74.1)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 22.8
(73.0)
23.3
(73.9)
23.1
(73.6)
21.7
(71.1)
19.1
(66.4)
17.7
(63.9)
15.9
(60.6)
15.7
(60.3)
16.6
(61.9)
18.5
(65.3)
20.0
(68.0)
21.6
(70.9)
19.7
(67.5)
Record low °C (°F) 11.0
(51.8)
14.1
(57.4)
13.6
(56.5)
10.9
(51.6)
7.4
(45.3)
5.5
(41.9)
4.4
(39.9)
4.5
(40.1)
5.5
(41.9)
7.0
(44.6)
8.5
(47.3)
10.0
(50.0)
4.4
(39.9)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 174.2
(6.86)
194.9
(7.67)
242.4
(9.54)
185.2
(7.29)
144.8
(5.70)
127.8
(5.03)
88.2
(3.47)
70.8
(2.79)
70.4
(2.77)
66.6
(2.62)
75.9
(2.99)
137.8
(5.43)
1,579
(62.17)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 12.1 13.0 15.4 11.9 11.7 9.5 8.0 6.5 6.2 7.0 7.4 10.1 118.8
Mean monthly sunshine hours 223.4 186.8 194.0 194.6 178.3 151.4 180.0 194.5 208.7 236.1 230.1 233.8 2,411.5
Source 1: Météo-France[18]
Source 2: Service de la météorologie de la Nouvelle-Calédonie[19]
Climate data for Poindimié (Köppen Af)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 33.8
(92.8)
34.2
(93.6)
34.4
(93.9)
32.8
(91.0)
31.2
(88.2)
30.2
(86.4)
29.0
(84.2)
30.3
(86.5)
32.1
(89.8)
31.0
(87.8)
33.0
(91.4)
33.3
(91.9)
34.4
(93.9)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 29.5
(85.1)
29.9
(85.8)
29.5
(85.1)
28.4
(83.1)
26.9
(80.4)
25.5
(77.9)
24.8
(76.6)
24.7
(76.5)
25.6
(78.1)
26.5
(79.7)
27.5
(81.5)
28.6
(83.5)
27.3
(81.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) 26.4
(79.5)
26.8
(80.2)
26.5
(79.7)
25.3
(77.5)
23.6
(74.5)
22.2
(72.0)
21.2
(70.2)
21.1
(70.0)
22.0
(71.6)
23.1
(73.6)
24.2
(75.6)
25.5
(77.9)
24.0
(75.2)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 23.3
(73.9)
23.7
(74.7)
23.4
(74.1)
22.1
(71.8)
20.3
(68.5)
18.9
(66.0)
17.6
(63.7)
17.5
(63.5)
18.4
(65.1)
19.7
(67.5)
21.0
(69.8)
22.4
(72.3)
20.7
(69.3)
Record low °C (°F) 17.6
(63.7)
17.9
(64.2)
16.2
(61.2)
15.8
(60.4)
13.5
(56.3)
12.5
(54.5)
11.2
(52.2)
11.0
(51.8)
12.5
(54.5)
12.5
(54.5)
13.1
(55.6)
14.8
(58.6)
11.0
(51.8)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 313.2
(12.33)
326.2
(12.84)
395.8
(15.58)
258.5
(10.18)
194.6
(7.66)
155.6
(6.13)
116.0
(4.57)
101.4
(3.99)
102.7
(4.04)
96.8
(3.81)
144.7
(5.70)
221.1
(8.70)
2,426.6
(95.54)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 17.9 18.6 19.9 16.6 13.9 11.0 9.2 8.4 8.4 11.0 12.1 16.3 163.4
Mean monthly sunshine hours 186.9 158.8 163.5 165.3 153.1 148.2 174.3 186.6 195.5 207.9 186.3 192.0 2,118.2
Source 1: Météo-France[20]
Source 2: Service de la météorologie de la Nouvelle-Calédonie[21]

Terrain

The terrain of Grande Terre consists of coastal

Mont Panie
, with an elevation of 1,628 m (5,341 ft).

The

In 1993, 12% of New Caledonian land was used for permanent pasture, with 39% occupied by forests and woodland. In 1991, 160 km2 (62 sq mi) of the land was irrigated. A current environmental issue is erosion caused by mining exploitation and forest fires.

Biological isolation

The enigmatic kagu, an endemic New Caledonian bird with no close relatives. See pictures of the erected crest and of wing patterns exposed during defensive posturing at the San Diego Zoo website.
Amborella trichopoda
, the world's most primitive flowering plant
Correlophus ciliatus
, the not-yet-extinct crested gecko of southern Grande Terre isle
Meiolania platyceps
fossil

Given its geographical isolation since the end of the

Correlophus ciliatus), thought to have gone extinct, was rediscovered in 1994.[24] At 14 inches, Leach's giant gecko (Rhacodactylus leachianus), the world's largest[25] and a predator of smaller lizards is another native. The only native mammals are four species of bat including the endemic New Caledonia flying fox.[26]

New Caledonia is home to 13 of the 19 extant species of evergreens in the genus

Given their prehistoric appearance, the dry forests of western New Caledonia were chosen as the location for filming the first episode of the BBC miniseries Walking with Dinosaurs, which was set in the Arizona of the late Triassic.

Mineral wealth

After a formation discovered in

ultrabasic rock, derived not from the crust, but from an upthrust fold of the more deeply underlying mantle of the earth.[29] These mineral-rich rocks are a source of nickel, chromium, iron, cobalt, manganese, silver, gold, lead and copper. The toxicity of the mineral-rich soil has helped preserve the endemic vegetation, which has long been adapted to it, from competition from would-be colonizers which find it unsuitable.[30]

Human geography

Map of Melanesia, surrounded by a pink line
Detailed map of New Caledonia showing physical relief and the territory's towns and villages

Before Western contact

Anthropologically, New Caledonia is considered the southernmost archipelago of

Polynesian languages such as Tahitian, Samoan and Hawaiian are cousins of the New Caledonian languages within the Oceanic language family.[31]

Lapita culture, hypothesized to have spoken proto-Oceanic, and defined by its typical style of pottery, originated to the northwest in the Bismarck Archipelago around 1500 BC.[32] The earliest known human settlement of New Caledonia, dated to 1240 ±220 BC at the Tiwi rockshelter,[33] is attributed to the Lapitans, who then moved on to Fiji by approximately 900 BC, whence the Polynesian expansion would begin.[34]

Since Western contact

Western colonization of the area began in the 18th century. The British explorer

Second World War
.

Today, while French is the official language, 28 indigenous tongues are still spoken. At the 2004 census, 97.0% reported they could speak French, whereas only 0.97% reported that they had no knowledge of French.[36] In the same census, 37.1% reported that they could speak (but not necessarily read or write) one of the 28 indigenous Austronesian languages.[37]

At the 1996 census, the indigenous

Arabs, West Indian (mostly from other French territories) and a small number of ethnic Africans.[38]

See also

Other microcontinental islands:

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook.

CIA
.

  1. ^ Previously known officially as the "Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies" (French: Territoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et dépendances), then simply as the "Territory of New Caledonia" (French: Territoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie), the official French name is now only Nouvelle-Calédonie (Organic Law of 19 March 1999, article 222 IV — see "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2007-06-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)). French courts often continue to use the appellation Territoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.
  2. ^ Boyer & Giribet 2007: 355
  3. ^ "New Caledonia has long been considered a Gondwanan refuge where archaic groups have survived for 80Ma." "New Caledonia: a very old Darwinian island?" Philippe Grandcolas,1* Jérôme Murienne, et al., Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2008 October 27; 363(1508): 3309–3317.
  4. ^ a window into the unique evolutionary history of this part of the world. Initially this biota lived along the New Zealand-New Caledonia coast of Gondwana, but following Cretaceous breakup of this southern supercontinent the fossils record terrestrial and marine evolution on and around the New Zealand "ark" set adrift in the Southwest Pacific." See HAYWARD B.W. (2009).- Protecting fossil sites in New Zealand.- In: LIPPS J.H. & GRANIER B.R.C. (eds.), PaleoParks – The Protection and conservation of fossil sites worldwide.- Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology, Brest, 2009
  5. ^ for scholarly usage of the exact term "biological ark" in context of the Gondwanan breakup: "This globally significant ‘biological ark’, is attributed to Australia's long geographic isolation from other parts of the world." "Potential of ecotourism to protect natural remnant areas within the urban environment" Fiona Prince The University of Western Australia, Department of Environmental Engineering, 2002
  6. ^ At the end of Jurassic (135 My), Gondwana started to break apart. The oldest grounds of current New Caledonia were then located on the eastern margin of this continent as part of the Australian block. Towards the end of Cretaceous, about 85 million years ago, this old New Caledonia broke away and so did New Zealand. New-Caledonia was then isolated... As a result, New Caledonia is now a kind of "Jurassic Park" particularly with regards to its vegetation which is highly endemic and which has kept archaic characteristics." Gondwana super-continent.
  7. ^ Jean-Jacques Espirat, author of Étude géologique de régions de la Nouvelle Calédonie and member of the Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres compares it to Noah's Ark: "La Grande Terre de la Nouvelle-Calédonie s'est séparée il y a 70 millions d'années (au Crétacé terminal) du continent de Gondwana (groupant à l'origine les terres qui se sont séparées pour former l'Australie, l'Antarctique, l'Amérique du Sud, l'Inde, Madagascar et l'Afrique). Telle l'Arche de Noé cette Nouvelle Calédonie de la fin du Crétacé embarquait la flore de cette époque." La faune et la flore de Nouvelle-Calédonie. (French)
  8. ^ "Figure 8.1: New Zealand in relation to the Indo-Australian and Pacific Plates". The State of New Zealand's Environment 1997. 1997. Archived from the original on 2007-04-15. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
  9. ^ a b "Continental shelves".
  10. ^ a b c Keith Lewis; Scott D. Nodder; Lionel Carter (2007-01-11). "Zealandia: the New Zealand continent". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
  11. Dominion Post
    . 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-09. We cannot categorically say that there has always been land here. The geological evidence at present is too weak, so we are logically forced to consider the possibility that the whole of Zealandia may have sunk.
  12. .
  13. ^ Pelletier B., 2007. "Geology of the New Caledonia region and its implications for the study of the New Caledonian biodiversity", in: Payri C. E., Richer de Forges B. (eds.) Compendium of marine species of New Caledonia, Doc. Sci. Tech. II7, second edition, IRD Nouméa, pp 19–32.
  14. .
  15. ^ "Fiche Climatologique Statistiques 1991-2020 et records" (PDF) (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  16. ^ "Noumea (988) / Normales / Moyennes 1981-2010" (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  17. ^ "climate of Noumea 1981-2010" (PDF) (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  18. ^ "Fiche Climatologique Statistiques 1991-2020 et records" (PDF) (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  19. ^ "Climate of Poindimié 1981-2010" (PDF) (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  20. ^ "Fiche Climatologique Statistiques 1991-2020 et records" (PDF) (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  21. ^ "Climate of Poindimié 1981-2010" (PDF) (in French). Météo-France. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  22. ^ a b "Diahot River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  23. ^ "The impacts of opencast mining in New Caledonia". The United Nations University. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  24. ^ De Vosjoli, Phillipe; Repashy, Allen; Fast, Frank (2003), Rhacodactylus: The Complete Guide to their Selection and Care, Advanced Vivarium Inc,
  25. ^ Allison Ballance and Rod Morris, "Island Magic; wildlife of the south seas", David Bateman publishing, 2003
  26. ^ New Caledonia by Leanne Logan, Geert Cole, Lonely Planet, 2001, p 29
  27. ^ Gondwana super-continent. Nouvelle-Calédonie.
  28. ^ "La flore de Nouvelle-Calédonie - Première partie".
  29. ^ Geology – The massifs of ultrabasic rocks or "massifs miniers" New Caledonia
  30. ^ La faune et la flore de Nouvelle-Calédonie. (French)
  31. ^ a b "Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database". Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  32. ^ "The Austronesian Dispersal" Pawley, Andrew, Examining the framing/language dispersal hypothesis, Peter Bellwood and Colin Renfrew, eds., McDonald Institute Monographs, 2002, p 254
  33. ^ "Lapita and non-Lapita ware during New Caledonia's first millennium of Austronesian settlement" Christophe Sand, p 3, in Le Pacifique de 5000 h 2000 avant le present / The Pacific from 5000 to 2000 BP, Archaeologue, http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_7/divers2/010020743.pdf
  34. ^ Pawley, ibid.
  35. ^ "The establishment of Free French rule in New Caledonia and the deportation of the Vichy leaders, meant that the colony was for all practical purposes allied with Australia in the war against Germany" Hasluck: "Clearing a Way to Total War" p 47.
  36. Government of France
    . Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  37. Government of France
    . Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  38. ^ a b Institut de la statistique et des études économiques de Nouvelle-Calédonie (ISEE). "Population totale, selon la communauté par commune et Province de résidence" (in French). Archived from the original (XLS) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-06-24.

External links

  • Croixdusud.info a site in both English and French including information on the geography, geology, and biodiversity of the area