Carpentaria - Sapphire

Carpentaria is the third largest continental landmass on the
planet Sapphire. It consists of two large subcontinent-sized islands and long
archipelagos stretching north and south longitudinally. Most of Carpentaria’s
land mass is in the planet’s northern hemisphere. Carpentaria was named for the
survey ship Carpentaria, which surveyed the Sapphire system in the 40th
Solar Century. Its largest city is New Halifax. It has two regional capitals:
Forrestal on the Northern Subcontinent and Bonaventure on the Southern
Subcontinent. Curiously, the two cities are less than 200 kilometers apart on
either side of the Carpentaria rift that demarcates the northern and southern
subcontinents.  
Carpentaria is the youngest of Sapphire’s continents and
apparently sprang from a fissure in the planet’s crust some 4,000,000 years
before the human discovery of the planet. Most of the continent is mountainous.
It boasts the majority of the planet’s mineral deposits, including the only
readily exploitable sources of titanium, molybdenum, osmium, palladium, and
other elements on the planet. 
As such, mineral extraction has long been the backbone of
the Carpentarian economy; initially during the planet’s early post-colonial
period and extending through the re-establishment of spacefaring capabilities,
Carpentarian mines supported most of the planet’s industry. The port city of
New Halifax was the major site for exporting minerals, some of which required
extreme drilling to extract from deep under the continent’s mountain ranges.
Later, as asteroid mining became viable, New Halifax remained the primary point
of transfer for orbital minerals and chemicals, being a well-protected harbor
with a long sea approach. (Atmospheric insertion for heavy mining ships can be
a tricky business, as attested by the hundreds of sunken hulks that litter the
seabed approach to Halifax Harbor.) 
Geothermal energy is readily available from the volcanic highlands and
powers many of the cities along the western coast. 
Agriculture is limited by the mountainous landscape and by
the poor quality of soil across most of the continent. At the extreme north,
there is an active fisheries industry operating out of small, scenic fishing
towns in the northern archipelago. 
As of the Solar Year 7300, Carpentaria’s population was
approximately 325 million. Over four million people live in New Halifax, making
it Sapphire’s largest city. As interstellar trade expanded, New Halifax became
a center for trade with other worlds and hosted an expanded population of
interstellar immigrants.