Australia’s features are significantly diverse for those who are unfamiliar with the country as a whole. The country is comparable to the United States in size, totaling to be the sixth largest country by its total area. This country is comprised of three major geographical features which are the Western Plateau, the Interior Lowlands, and the Eastern Uplands. Within these regions lies the Great Barrier Reef, the Snowy mountains, the Outback, and the Uluru providing much to offer for its native people as well as international travelers. Australia is home to just over 24 million people. Australia’s landforms have seen to result in inimitable scenery and the foundation for dispersal and wildlife of biological and human commotion.
Along the northeastern coast of Australia lies the longest and largest reef complex in the world, the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef consists of a network of coral reefs, islets, and shoals extending about almost more than 1,250 miles with an area of 135,000 square miles wide in the Pacific Ocean. The great reef carries a variety of reefs consisting of over 2,100 individual ones as well as 800 fringing reefs that connect to bordering islands and coastlines.
Many of these reefs are dry, some have sandy islands that cover these reefs, and others are on the coastline edges of the mainland. In spite of the variety in the location of these reefs, within the coastal boundaries of Australia, they share a common derivation that was formed millions of years ago. The Reef can be as deep as 1,650 feet suggesting that the geographic location has existed over 15 million years, but the coral currently residing there is only about 18,000 years old.
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The Great Barrier reef is also home to at least 300 species of life within its region. Some of the forms that are present include sponges, worms, crabs, lobsters, and a vast variety of birds and fish. One of the most destructive fish that roam here is the crown-of-thorns starfish, which has been able to reduce the coloration and attraction of the reefs by feeding on the coral. The most characteristic feature of the Barrier reef could be argued to be the red algae that creates the purplish red rim.
Another geographical feature that Australia is home to is the Outback. The Outback is essentially the arid center of the Western Plateau and northern plains where water bodies are scarce and the semiarid areas of Eastern Australia. The Western Plateau area, known as the Australian Shield in Australia, is comprised of the ancient rock shield. The land, which is arid, covers about two-thirds of the continent. In comparison, this region is roughly four times the size the whole continental Europe (dkjdkfjkdjf). The plateau has an average elevation of 1,250 ft. and is broken down into numerous district blocks of rock, including two large portions: the Pilibara in the North and Yilgarn in the Southwest. These two portions are the oldest parts of the plateau.
Some of the blocks have been elevated to create highlands, the Kimberleys, and others have been depressed forming lowlands and basins such as the Gibson desert and Great Sandy desert. The Kimberleys are characterized by deep valleys where rainfall is abundant to Australia, but is only able to average around 15 inches annually. The Great Sandy Desert is the second largest desert in the continent containing large dune seas. Within the Outback and the Great Sandy Desert lies the Uluru, the country’s best known natural landmark.
This landmark is better known as the Ayers Rock named after Sir Henry Ayers in 1873. This landmark is where the native people of Aboriginal live on and is their sacred part of their mythology. The Aborigines have inhibited the area of Ayer rock for the last 10,000 years, while the rock itself has been around for over 600 million years. This region originally had been underwater, but presently the feature stands 1,150 feet above ground. However, there is still about 8,200 feet of the rock underground. Ayers Rock is considered one of the wonders of the world.
A unique feature to the Uluru is its similarity and its nonexistence of jointing and parting at bedding tops, which lead to the lack of development of scree slopes and soil. It is what has lead to the landforms’ long survival while other surrounding rock formations and soils have eroded and diminished. In comparison to the United States, red rock landscapes are found on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona, and West. The most famous location is Sedona in Arizona where cliffs and canyons are formed by deep red sandstone.
Another feature of the United States that is more commonly known that has this similar red rock formation of the Uluru is the Grand Canyon. It is over 250 miles long and 18 miles wide being more than a mile deep as a result of erosion from the Colorado River (hhkjhkjh). The Canyon too is semiarid on its upper plateau with little vegetation, while having dry basins at the bottom of the canyon. The Grand Canyon has been occupied by the Native Americans for thousands of years and it is considered a holy site by the Pueblo people.
The Australian Alps, also known as the Snowy Mountains or “The Snowies”, is a subregion in Australia and also the largest mountain range in the country. The mountain range include peaks that exceed over 7,000 feet. The tallest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko, resides in this mountainous region peaking at 7,310 feet above sea level. The mountains get its name for its naturally large amounts of snowfalls during the winter season (June through September). Several rivers rise from the snowfall and flow inland, which are the Tumut, Whites, Murrumbidgee, and the Murray rivers.
The Snowy river flows to the Bass strait and is sidetracked by channels and passageways for irrigation and stores power. In this region, many of the streams and rivers have battered down to create basins, lower uplands, and valleys that could be used for gazing. During the 1900s (1949-1974), a project for hydroelectricity was formed to create the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme that includes sixteen dams and several reservoirs. This scheme has a capacity of about 3,750 megawatts of hydroelectricity.
Compared to the United States, there are three major mountain regions that are within its location: the Appalachian, the Rocky, and Sierra Nevadas. The Appalachian mountains run for 1500 miles long on the Eastern part of the United States and have a range of around 6,000 feet. The Rocky Mountains are the longest range in the States and as well as North America extending into Canada. The highest peak is over 14,000 feet above sea level.
These mountains are known for their seasonal cold snowy winters and rainy summers. The Sierra Nevada range runs along the west coast between Nevada and California running about 400 miles long and having its highest peak at 14,405 in Mount Whitney. These mountains form a fault-blocking range where the Earth’s crust pull apart to form the terrain.
These features all together are what make Australia the country it is today, a prospering tourist place for people to be able to inhibit and also enjoy its wonders.
