Sundaland, The Sinking Continent in Southeast Asia

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INDEPHEDIA.com - Sundaland is a region --- which scientists also call a sinking continent -- in Southeast Asia.

The Sundaland region includes the Sunda Shelf, an extension of the Southeast Asian continental shelf which at that time was still tectonically stable.

Geologically, the Sunda Shelf is an extension of the Eurasian continental plate or a large peninsula in Southeast Asia.

At that time, the Sundaland region had a wider land area and sea levels were lower.

The region covers Southeast Asia on the mainland, such as the Malacca Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and the surrounding small islands.

When sea levels dropped 30-40 meters or more, land bridges connected islands, such as Kalimantan, Java and Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula and mainland Asia.

The open land area in Sundaland has fluctuated over the last 2 million years and the modern land area is about half of its maximum area.

The name Sundaland comes from Dutch (Soendaland). Sunda means Sunda and Land means Mainland; Land.

The term Soendaland was coined by Gustaaf Adolf Frederik Molengraaff, a geologist from the Dutch East Indies in 1919.

In 1949, Reinout Willem van Bemmelen reused the term or name Sundaland in his book entitled Geography of Indonesia.

Sundaland was mapped by Molengraaff who was also mapped again by Tjia in 1980. Then, the map of Sundaland was described in full and detail by Emmel and Curray in 1982.

Regarding the residents of the Sundaland region, they are genetically similar to the native people of Southeast Asia, especially those who live in the island region.

The Sundaland region is said to be the continent where human migration began, especially in Southeast Asia. Linguistically, they are also part of the Austronesian language family. (*)