Kikori is a small town in the
Gulf Province
A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another ...
of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
.
Kikori lies in the
delta of the
Kikori River
The Kikori River is a major river in southern Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea. The river has a total length of and flows southeast into the Gulf of Papua, with its delta at the head of the gulf. The settlement of Kikori lies on the de ...
at the head of the
Gulf of Papua. This area is particularly biologically rich with a diversity of ecosystems and densely forested, with an intricate system of rivers. The geography is that of limestone karst country, with clay type soils. Oil exploitation in Kikori has been operating for several years. Its first commercial oil deposits were found there by the Kutubu Joint Venture (KJV) which has since constructed a pipeline to the Gulf of Papua and is actively extracting oil from the region.
It is the site of
Kikori Airport.
Climate
Kikori has a
tropical rainforest climate
A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southe ...
(
Köppen ''Af'') with very heavy rainfall year-round. Temperatures in Kikori are uniformly hot and humidity extremely uncomfortable.
The town has an average annual rainfall of around ,
[''Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition'', p. 592] making it and surrounding Gulf Province one of the wettest lowland places on Earth – comparable to the
Chocó of Colombia, the exposed monsoonal coasts of Myanmar, the Caribbean Coast of Central America, and the
Alaska Panhandle
Southeast Alaska, colloquially referred to as the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia (and a small part ...
. Rainfall averages at least during every month of the year, but orographic lifting of the southeast
trade winds
The trade winds or easterlies are the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisp ...
between May and September creates a rainfall peak in those months which average over – twice as much as the least wet months of November and December and a striking contrast to the rainlessness of those same trade winds in relatively nearby
Northern Australia.
See also
*
Mount Leonard Murray
Notes
References
*''Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition''. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1997. .
Populated places in Gulf Province
Gulf of Papua
{{GulfProvince-geo-stub