earth science

Sahul

Sahul is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sahul rather than just read about it. In short: Sahul (, sə-HOOL), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Sahul was in the south-western Pacific Ocean, located approximately north to south between the Equator and the 44th parallel south and west to east between the 112th and the 152nd meridians east.

Key takeaways

Sahul belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sahul to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sahul from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sahul (, sə-HOOL), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Sahul was in the south-western Pacific Ocean, located approximately north to south between the Equator and the 44th parallel south and west to east between the 112th and the 152nd meridians east. Sahul was separated from Sunda to its west by the Wallacean Archipelago. At its largest, when ocean levels were at their lowest, it was approximately 10,600,000 square kilometres (4,100,000 sq mi) in size. Parts of Sahul repeatedly emerged and submerged throughout the Pleistocene epoch, beginning around 2.6 million years ago. Glacial cycles—initially paced at ~41,000 years and later at ~100,000 years—drove sea-level fluctuations of up to ~120 m. Each lowstand exposed the Sahul continental shelf, with reconstructions showing land connections dating back at least ~250,000 years ago, and likely much earlier. The most recent rise in sea level, at the close of the last Ice Age, produced the modern configuration: New Guinea separated from mainland Australia about 8,000 years ago, and Tasmania about 6,000 years ago. Sahul hosted a large variety of unique fauna that changed independently from the rest of the world. Most notably nearly all mammals on Sahul were marsupials including a range of browsers, burrowers, scavengers and predators; bats and rodents represented the only placental mammals. It is estimated humans first migrated to Sahul at least 65,000 years ago, making the ocean crossing from Sunda through Wallacea. Archaeologist Glenn Summerhayes led excavations in the Ivane Valley in the Papua New Guinea highlands finding that the sites were occupied from 49,000 to 44,000 years ago. From Sahul humans spread throughout Oceania.

Usage The name Sahul is used by archeologists, and Meganesia tends to be used by zoogeographers. The name Greater Australia has been used, and has been criticised as "cartographic imperialism" because it places greater emphasis upon what is now Australia at the expense of New Guinea.

See also Arafura Sea – Marginal sea between Australia and Indonesian New Guinea List of paleocontinents Wallace Line

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography Ballard, Chris (1993). "Stimulating minds to fantasy? A critical etymology for Sahul". In Smith, M. A.; Spriggs, M.; Fankhouser, B. (eds.). Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 17–23. ISBN 0-7315-1540-4. Groves, Colin P. (1996). "Hovering on the brink: nearly but not quite getting to Australia". In Rousham, Emily; Freedman, Leonard (eds.). Perspectives in human biology: volume 2 humans in the Australasian region. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co, Pte Ltd. pp. 83–87. ISBN 981-02-3023-0. ISSN 1038-5762. Kennett, B. L. N.; Chopping, R.; Blewett, R. (2018). The Australian continent: a geophysical synthesis. Canberra: Australian National University Press. ISBN 9781760462475. O’Connell, James F.; Allen, Jim; Hawkes, Kristen (2010). "Pleistocene Sahul and the origins of seafaring". In Anderson, Athol; Barrett, James H.; Boyle, Katherine V. (eds.). The global origins and development of seafaring. Cambridge: MacDonald Institute for Archeological Research. pp. 57–68. ISBN 978-1-902937-52-6. O'Connor, Sue; Hiscock, Peter (2018). "The people of Sahul and near Oceania". In Cochrane, Ethan E.; Hunt, Terry L. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 26–45. ISBN 978-0-19-992507-0. Oliver, Douglas L. (1961). The Pacific Islands. New York: The American Museum of Natural History. Thomas, Nicholas (June 2021). "From Sunda to Sahul: the first crossings and early settlement of the Pacific". Natural History. Research Triangle Park: Natural History Magazine, Inc. ISSN 0028-0712. Retrieved 7 January 2022. White, J. Peter; O'Connell, James F. (1982). A prehistory of Australia, New Guinea and Sahul. Sydney: Academic Press Australia. ISBN 0-12-746750-5.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sahul

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sahul claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sahul before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sahul ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sahul

In research: Sahul appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sahul in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sahul is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Asia-Pacific, Australia (continent), Historical continents, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sahul outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sahul in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sahul means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sahul out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sahul in simple terms?

Why does Sahul matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sahul?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sahul.