New Guinea , island, c.342,000 sq mi (885,780 sq km), SW Pacific, N of Australia; the world's second largest island after Greenland. Politically it is divided into two sections: the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Irian Jaya in the west and the independent country of Papua New Guinea in the east. The island is c.1,500 mi (2,410 km) long and c.400 mi (640 km) wide at the center. Largely tropical, New Guinea has vast, rugged mountain ranges such as the Owen Stanley and the Bismarck mts., and many parts of the interior remain quite isolated even today. Jaya Peak (16,503 ft/... Read more