In the Lesser Sunda Islands there are two geologically different groups of islands. The northern group is volcanic. It is made up of Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores and Wetar. Some of the volcanoes, like Mount Rinjani on Lombok, are still active. However, there are some other volcanoes, such as Kelimutu on Flores, which are extinct. The northern group of islands started forming during the Pliocene, about 15 million years ago. They formed because of the collision between the Australian and the Asian tectonic plates.
The southern group of islands include Sumba, Timor and Babar. They are not volcanic and are probably part of the Australian plate.
Since colonial times in Indonesia, people have been studying the geographical history of the islands. However, we still do not fully understand how the islands were formed. Ideas of how the islands were formed changed in many ways during the last decades of the 20th century.
At the point where two tectonic plates collide, the Lesser Sunda Islands are some of the most geologically complex and active regions in the world. There are several volcanoes located on the Lesser Sunda Islands.
The Lesser Sunda Islands are different from the large islands of Java or Sumatra because it is made of many small islands. These small islands are sometimes divided by deep oceanic trenches. Because flora and fauna cannot move between the islands easily, there are many localised species like the Komodo dragon because of evolution. In "The Malay Archipelago", Alfred Wallace writes about the "Wallace Line" that passes between Bali and Lombok, along the deep waters of the Lombok Strait. In this imaginary line between Bali and Lombok, even when sea levels were lower, the sea stopped flora and fauna from moving between islands. The islands east of the Lombok Strait are part of Wallacea, and have wildlife of Asian and Australasian origin in this region. In the Lesser Sundas, there are many plants and animals that come from Asia, because Weber's Line, which separates the parts of Wallacea that have both Asian and Australasian species, is east of the Lesser Sundas. These islands have the driest climate in Indonesia.
Some of the islands east of the Wallace line, from Lombok and Sumbawa east to Flores and Alor, have original vegetation of dry forest and not the rain forest that covers most parts of Indonesia. These islands have been designated by the World Wildlife Fund as the Lesser Sundas deciduous forests ecoregion. The higher slopes of the islands contain forests of tall Podocarpus conifers and Engelhardias with an undergrowth of lianas, epiphytes, and orchids such as Corybas, Corymborkis, and Malaxis (Adder's Mouth). The islands' coastal plains used to be savanna grasses like the savanna with Borassus flabellifer palm trees on the coasts of Komodo, Rincah and Flores. While most of the vegetation on these islands is dry forest there are small areas of rainforest on these islands too, especially in lowland areas and riverbanks on Komodo. There is also a special area of dry thorny forest on the southeast coast of Lombok. Thorn trees used to be more common in coastal areas of the islands but have mostly been cleared.
Man unique species live on the Lesser Sundas. They include seventeen endemic birds (of the 273 birds found on the islands). The endemic mammals are the endangered Flores Shrew "(Suncus mertensi)", the vulnerable Komodo Rat "(Komodomys rintjanus)", and Lombok Flying Fox "(Pteropus lombocensis)", Sunda Long-eared Bat "(Nyctophilus heran)" while the carnivorous Komodo dragon, which is the world's largest lizard, is found on Komodo, Rincah, Gili Motang, and the coast of northwestern Flores.
More than half of the original vegetation of the islands are cleared. This is because people cleared the forest to grow food, like rice, for settlements or because there were forest fires. Only Sumbawa now contains a large area of intact natural forest, while Komodo, Rincah and Padar are now protected as Komodo National Park.
General observations about small islands that can be applied to Nusa Tenggara include:
Pixie Geldof
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Peaches Geldof
Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof (13 March 1989 – 7 April 2014) was a British journalist, television presenter and model.
She was Paula Yates' and Bob Geldof's second daughter. She was born in Westminster. She was raised in Chelsea and Faversham, Kent. She wrote for the UK version of "Elle Girl" until it stopped being made in October 2005. In September 2007, she modeled on a catwalk for the first time at London Fashion Week. Geldof presented a show on ITV2 called "OMG! with Peaches Geldof" in 2011.
On 5 August 2008, Geldof married Max Drummey in Las Vegas. She had met him one month before. On 7 February 2009, Geldof and Drummey said that they were going to divorce.
She married Thomas Cohen on 8 September 2012 at the church in Davington, Kent, where her parents married. They lived in North London before moving to Wrotham, Kent. On 21 April 2012, Geldof had her first son with Cohen, Astala Dylan Willow. On 24 April 2013, their second son, Phaedra Bloom Forever, was born.
Geldof was found dead on 7 April 2014 at her house in Wrotham, Kent. She was 25 years old. Her cause of death was an accidental heroin overdose.
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Roger Squires