Page 211 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

1625
1740
1817
1826
1912
1935
1977

N
JAKARTA BAY
Pluit
0 1 km

Sunda Kelapa

(Bird and Ongkosongo, 1980)
CASTLE
Changes to Jakarta’s coastline

Ice Ages and Sea-level Changes
The dynamics of sea level height changes are an important part of coastal geology.
Although sea levels are known to have risen and fallen repeatedly over long geological
periods of time before humans, there is now a strong consensus that human actions
are now impacting climate so that sea levels are rising. An important period in the past
was when the sea levels were significantly lower and the present day western islands of
Indonesia were linked to peninsular Malaysia in a single land mass called Sundaland. This
part of Indonesia was still separated from the eastern part of Indonesia by deep sea.
Research into changes in sea levels in the South-east Asian region can provide insight
into the patterns of migration in the past. Around 200,000 years ago, the sea level was as
much as 130 meters lower than it is today. This created the conditions for the formation
of a single land mass uniting the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan with the Malay
peninsula. This land mass was known as Sundaland.

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