List of islands of Indonesia
The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian archipelago and formerly known as the Indian archipelago, may refer either to the islands comprising the nation-state of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands. According to the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, of 17,508 officially listed islands within the territory of the Republic of Indonesia, 16,056 island names have been verified by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) as of July 2017.
Indonesia
Tectonically, Indonesia is highly unstable, making it a site of numerous volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. It lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire where the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate are pushed under the Eurasian plate where they melt at about deep. A string of volcanoes runs through Sumatra, Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara, and then to the Banda Islands of Maluku to northeastern Sulawesi. Of the 400 volcanoes, around 130 are active. Between 1972 and 1991, 29 volcanic eruptions were recorded, mostly on Java. While volcanic ash has resulted in fertile soils (a factor in historically sustaining high population densities of Java and Bali), it makes agricultural conditions unpredictable in some areas.