The Quaternary history of far eastern rainforests

This region differs from those supporting tropical rainforest in other parts of the world in that it is less continental and geologically much more dynamic. It incorporates some major pieces of continental plate, but its center—the so-called ‘‘Maritime Continent’’ (Ramage, 1968)—is largely a complex interaction zone between the Asian and Australian Plates resulting from the continued movement of the Australian Plate into Southeast Asia (Metcalfe, 2002). The effects of tectonic and volcanic activity have resulted in mountain uplift, particularly in New Guinea, and formation of the volcanic island chain of Indonesia. Vulcanicity also occurs out into the Pacific beyond the ‘‘andesite line’’ where most ‘‘high’’ islands are volcanic and most ‘‘low’’ islands are coral islands developed on sunken volcanoes.