New Britain
- Terra MODIS
- 15 August 2002
- 00:25 UTC
At 37,810 km² in area, New Britain is the largest island of Papua New Guinea. Together with the the nearby island of New Ireland (30 km to the east across the St. Georges Channel) it dominates the Bismarck Archipelagp, measuring 475 km in length (east to west) and averaging between 35 and 85 km across. Its northern coasts are washed by the waters of the Bismarck Sea and those of the south by the Solomon Sea.
The island is around 10 million years old, having been formed due to uplift processes and volcanism occurring along an island arc system between the Bismarck and Solomon plates. The island today is mountainous and contains many active volcanoes and a significant amount of hydrothermal activity — the majority of which is to be found along the north coast and its adjacent offshore islands.
Chief among the volcanoes of New Britain are: the 1,330 m Langila in the Cape Gloucester area (western end of the island), the 2,248 m Bamus, and the 2,334 m Ulawun (the highest volcano on the Bismarck arc). Many of the volcanoes have impressive caldera formations such as that created by the Dakataua volcano (see image at the right). Much of the islands volcanic rocks have been overlain with limestone — limestone makes up 30 percent of New Britain — giving parts of the island a karst-type terrain of jagged mountains (such as the central spine of the island formed by the Nakanai and Whiteman ranges), pinnacles, sinkholes, depressions and underground caverns.
New Britain is heavily forested with both lowland rainforest and steep montane forest on the cooler and more humid mountains. Around the coasts are numerous reef formations — occurring as patches and small fringing reefs.
image: MODIS rapid response project at nasa/goddard space flight center.
