Making waves through the Wallace Line
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The islands of Bali and Lombok may only be separated by a distance of about 20 kilometres through the Lombok Strait, but an insurmountable depth has kept the Indonesian Archipelago ecologically disjoint for millions of years.
The Lombok Strait is a major component of the greater Indonesian Throughflow, which connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans through massive amounts of water transfers between each ocean. To the north of the strait, in the Java Sea, depths of about 1000 metres can be found, while to the south, in the Indian Ocean, the depth plummets to 3 to 4 kilometres. Deep and wide seas narrows and shallows with the minimum depth of 250 metres across the strait and width of about 20 kilometres, generating a tremendous tightening of the water flow – leading to intense and dangerous currents.
Local inhabitants of these waters have known for thousands of years about the immense and dangerous currents generated by this flow, with extreme care required in making any strait crossings. The local fauna also reflects this difficult-to-overcome stretch of water. To the east of the strait (so Lombok and beyond to Australia), colourful and exotic birds like cockatoos and parrots and marsupials can be found, more characteristic to Australia’s fauna. On the other side (so Bali and beyond, towards Asia), much fewer brightly coloured birds can be found, replaced by pheasants and fowls happy to live in the jungles that span the Indonesian archipelago. Large terrestrial mammals descendent from Asia like the famous and nearly extinct tigers can (or used to) be found on this side of the strait.
