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50-533: The island was originally chosen by the United Kingdom as a comparatively isolated and healthier alternative to the disease-ridden larger islands of the Solomon Islands archipelago . In October 2019, the government of Central Province signed a deal to grant the 75-year lease of the entire island of Tulagi to a Chinese company China Sam Enterprise Group. However, this was declared unconstitutional by

100-431: A 2019 referendum , over 98% of Bougainville voters supported independence. Bougainville leaders have started negotiating independence terms with the government of Papua New Guinea. Atoll An atoll ( / ˈ æ t . ɒ l , - ɔː l , - oʊ l , ə ˈ t ɒ l , - ˈ t ɔː l , - ˈ t oʊ l / ) is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon . There may be coral islands or cays on

150-508: A reef knoll refers to the elevated remains of an ancient atoll within a limestone region, appearing as a hill. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra , with 155 km (60 sq mi). Huvadhu Atoll , situated in the southern region of the Maldives, holds the distinction of being the largest atoll based on the sheer number of islands it comprises, with a total of 255 individual islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained

200-413: A "circular group of coral islets", synonymously with "lagoon-island". More modern definitions of atoll describe them as "annular reefs enclosing a lagoon in which there are no promontories other than reefs and islets composed of reef detritus " or "in an exclusively morphological sense, [as] a ring-shaped ribbon reef enclosing a lagoon". There are approximately 440 atolls in the world. Most of

250-442: A very different origin of formation. In most cases, the land area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 metres (16 ft). Measured by total area, Lifou (1,146 km , 442 sq mi) is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island (660 km , 250 sq mi). More sources, however, list Kiritimati as

300-525: A volcanic island in the tropical sea will grow upward as the island subsides (sinks), becoming an "almost atoll", or barrier reef island, as typified by an island such as Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, and Bora Bora and others in the Society Islands. The fringing reef becomes a barrier reef for the reason that the outer part of the reef maintains itself near sea level through biotic growth, while

350-584: Is a part of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (currently a part of Papua New Guinea) along with Buka Island , the Nukumanu Islands , and a number of smaller nearby islands. Much of the remainder falls within the territory of Solomon Islands and include the atolls of Ontong Java , Sikaiana , the raised coral atolls of Bellona and Rennell , and the volcanic islands of Choiseul , Guadalcanal , Makira , Malaita , New Georgia ,

400-526: Is an island group in the western South Pacific Ocean , north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea . The many islands of the archipelago are distributed across the sovereign states of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands . The largest island in the archipelago is Bougainville Island , which

450-691: Is believed that Papuan -speaking settlers began to arrive around 30,000 BCE from New Ireland . It was the furthest humans went in the Pacific until Austronesian speakers arrived c.  4000 BCE , also bringing cultural elements such as the outrigger canoe . It is between 1200 and 800 BCE that the ancestors of the Polynesians , the Lapita people, arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago with their characteristic ceramics . Most of

500-473: Is believed that subduction around the Solomon Islands represents one of the highest rates of convergence found on Earth at 10–12 cm/yr. Subduction zones around the archipelago are tectonically active, though recorded seismicity is higher on the southern side of the island chain. The largest recorded earthquake from the Solomon Islands was a Mw 8.1 that occurred on April 1, 2007. The climate of

550-481: Is endangered. The Solomon Archipelago has a rich and diverse marine life, including coral reefs and seagrass meadows . The archipelago is part of the Coral Triangle , the region of the western Pacific with world's greatest diversity of corals and coral reef species. The Solomons have 494 species of coral , and 1019 species of reef fish. Dugongs are found in the seagrass meadows and near-shore waters. It

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600-410: Is explained by the sinking of a volcanic island around which a coral fringing reef has formed. Over geologic time, the volcanic island becomes extinct and eroded as it subsides completely beneath the surface of the ocean. As the volcanic island subsides, the coral fringing reef becomes a barrier reef that is detached from the island. Eventually, reef and the small coral islets on top of it are all that

650-405: Is left of the original island, and a lagoon has taken the place of the former volcano. The lagoon is not the former volcanic crater. For the atoll to persist, the coral reef must be maintained at the sea surface, with coral growth matching any relative change in sea level (sinking of the island or rising oceans). An alternative model for the origin of atolls is called the antecedent karst model. In

700-697: Is the highest peak in the archipelago at 2,715 metres. The Solomon Islands archipelago was formed by the convergence of the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate . The Indo-Australian Plate and the smaller Solomon Sea Plate are subducting beneath the Pacific Plate along the New Britain–San Cristobal oceanic trench , which runs south of and parallel to the archipelago in the Solomon Sea . The surface geology of

750-669: Is the wet season, caused by the northwest monsoon , and is typically warmer and wetter. Cyclones arise in the Coral Sea and the area of the Solomon Islands, but they usually veer toward Vanuatu and New Caledonia or down the coast of Australia . The natural vegetation of the Solomon Archipelago consists of lowland and tropical forests. The major plant communities include coastal strand, mangrove forests, freshwater swamp forests, lowland rain forests, and montane rain forest. Seasonally-dry forests and grasslands are found on

800-606: The Central Solomon languages . The predominant religion on the islands is Christianity, with the largest denomination being the Anglican Church of Melanesia . Governance of the Solomon Islands (archipelago) is split between the sovereign state of Solomon Islands and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. Both countries are constitutional monarchies and Commonwealth realms . In

850-559: The Nggelas , Santa Isabel , and the Shortlands . The Santa Cruz Islands are not a part of the archipelago. The Solomon Islands archipelago consists of over 1,000 islands, ranging from low-lying coral atolls to mountainous volcanic islands , including many volcanoes with varying degrees of activity. Bougainville Island is the largest in the archipelago, with an area of 9,300 km (3591 sq miles). Mount Balbi on Bougainville

900-606: The Royal Society of London carried out drilling on Funafuti atoll in Tuvalu for the purpose of investigating the formation of coral reefs . They wanted to determine whether traces of shallow water organisms could be found at depth in the coral of Pacific atolls. This investigation followed the work on the structure and distribution of coral reefs conducted by Charles Darwin in the Pacific. The first expedition in 1896

950-664: The Thousand Islands , Taka Bonerate Islands , and atolls in the Raja Ampat Islands . The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in warm tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas, and therefore atolls are found only in

1000-519: The Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati. Its southern tip is just 13 km (8 mi) north of the Equator. Bermuda is sometimes claimed as the "northernmost atoll" at a latitude of 32°18′ N. At this latitude, coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream . However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while resembling that of an atoll, has

1050-565: The Solomon Islands archipelago. Many Melanesian languages , predominantly of the Southeast Solomonic group , and Polynesian languages are native to the area. Immigrant populations speak Micronesian languages . English is an official language in both areas of the archipelago. There are three families of Papuan languages native to the archipelago: the North Bougainville languages , South Bougainville languages , and

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1100-526: The Solomon Islands parliament after a week and, consequently, the deal was cancelled. The first recorded sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña on 16 April 1568. More precisely the sighting was due to a local voyage done by a small boat, in the accounts the brigantine Santiago , commanded by Maestre de Campo Pedro Ortega Valencia and having Hernán Gallego as pilot. The Japanese occupied Tulagi on May 3, 1942, with

1150-520: The antecedent karst model as they found that the morphology of modern atolls are independent of any influence of an underlying submerged and buried island and are not rooted to an initial fringing reef/barrier reef attached to a slowly subsiding volcanic edifice. In fact, the Neogene reefs underlying the studied modern atolls overlie and completely bury the subsided island are all non-atoll, flat-topped reefs. In fact, they found that atolls did not form doing

1200-477: The antecedent karst model, the first step in the formation of an atoll is the development of a flat top, mound-like coral reef during the subsidence of an oceanic island of either volcanic or nonvolcanic origin below sea level. Then, when relative sea level drops below the level of the flat surface of coral reef, it is exposed to the atmosphere as a flat topped island which is dissolved by rainfall to form limestone karst . Because of hydrologic properties of this karst,

1250-402: The archipelago, numerous streams and short rivers run from the mountains to the sea, cutting deep valleys. The freshwater fishes of the Solomon Archipelago have not been well studied, but there are likely four endemic species of freshwater fish in the islands - two species of genus Sicyopterus , one of Lentipes , and one of Stenogobius . The Otomebora mullet ( Planiliza melinopterus )

1300-767: The arrival of the Europeans. Missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-19th century. They made little progress at first, because " blackbirding ", the often brutal recruitment and relocation of labourers for the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji , led to a series of reprisals and massacres. In 1885 the Germans declared a protectorate over the northern islands, to form the German Solomon Islands Protectorate . The evils of

1350-417: The creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a five-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. Darwin's explanation suggests that several tropical island types: from high volcanic island, through barrier reef island, to atoll, represented a sequence of gradual subsidence of what started as an oceanic volcano. He reasoned that a fringing coral reef surrounding

1400-436: The direct result of the interaction between subsidence and preferential karst dissolution that occurred in the interior of flat topped coral reefs during exposure during glacial lowstands of sea level. The elevated rims along an island created by this preferential karst dissolution become the sites of coral growth and islands of atolls when flooded during interglacial highstands. The research of A. W. Droxler and others supports

1450-561: The dolomitization of calcite and aragonite within them. They are the evaporative, seepage-reflux, mixing-zone, burial, and seawater models. Although the origin of replacement dolomites remains problematic and controversial, it is generally accepted that seawater was the source of magnesium for dolomitization and the fluid in which calcite was dolomitized to form the dolomites found within atolls. Various processes have been invoked to drive large amounts of seawater through an atoll in order for dolomitization to occur. In 1896, 1897 and 1898,

1500-549: The earliest volcanoes on the islands to the Early/Middle Eocene. The archipelago is bounded both to the northeast and southwest by subduction zones, which pull in opposing directions. The rates of subduction on various zones have varied greatly over time due to the subduction of rough seafloor features, such as seamounts . Several ridges have been subducted, associated with periods of tectonic uplift on certain islands, again with highly variable rates. However, it

1550-509: The independence of neighbouring Papua New Guinea from Australia in 1975, the British Solomon Islands gained self-government in 1976. Independence for the Solomon Islands nation was granted on 7 July 1978. The population of the Solomons is mostly Melanesian , although minority Polynesian and Micronesian communities exist. There has also been a large influx of Chinese immigrants. Around 60 to 70 languages are spoken in

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1600-472: The inner part of the reef falls behind, becoming a lagoon because conditions are less favorable for the coral and calcareous algae responsible for most reef growth. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface and the barrier reef remains. At this point, the island has become an atoll. As formulated by J. E. Hoffmeister, F. S. McNeil, E. G. Prudy, and others, the antecedent karst model argues that atolls are Pleistocene features that are

1650-561: The intention of establishing a seaplane base nearby (see Japanese Tulagi landing ). The ships in Tulagi harbor were raided by planes from USS  Yorktown the following day in a prelude to the Battle of the Coral Sea . Allied forces, primarily the 1st Marine Raiders , landed on August 7 and captured Tulagi as part of Operation Watchtower after a day of hard fighting. After its capture by United States Navy and Marine Corps forces ,

1700-507: The island hosted a squadron of PT boats for a year, which included LTJG John F. Kennedy 's PT-109 as well as other ancillary facilities. A small 20-bed dispensary was operated on Tulagi until its closure in 1946. The island also formed part of Purvis Bay , which hosted many US Navy ships during 1942 and 1943. The present-day Tulagi has a fishing fleet . Tulagi offers numerous scuba diving locations. The wrecks of USS Aaron Ward , USS Kanawha , and HMNZS Moa are close by, and

1750-475: The islands is mostly igneous rocks , outcrops of metamorphic rocks , alluvial lowlands, and uplifted coral islands. Areas of ancient coralline limestone are found on Bougainville. Active and dormant volcanoes are found in an arc extending from Bougainville in the north through the New Georgia Islands and Savo Island to Gallego volcano on the northwest end of Guadalcanal. Arc volcanism dates

1800-401: The islands is tropical; however, temperatures do not greatly fluctuate due to the heat sink of the surrounding ocean. Daytime temperatures are normally 25 to 32 °C (77 to 90 °F) and 13 to 15 °C (55 to 59 °F) at night. From April to October (the dry season), the southeast trade winds blow, gusting at times up to 30 knots (55 km/h; 35 mph) or more. November to March

1850-722: The labour trade prompted the United Kingdom to declare a protectorate over the southern islands in June 1893, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate . In 1900, under the Treaty of Berlin , the Germans transferred a number of their Solomon Islands to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate . The remaining German Solomon Islands, at the extreme northwest of the archipelago, were retained by Germany until they fell to Australia early on in World War I . After

1900-535: The lagoon within them. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu ( އަތޮޅު , pronounced [ˈat̪oɭu] ). Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Maldives . The word's first recorded English use was in 1625 as atollon . Charles Darwin coined the term in his monograph, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs . He recognized the word's indigenous origin and defined it as

1950-558: The languages spoken today in the Solomon Islands derive from this era, but some thirty languages of the pre-Austronesian settlers survive (see East Papuan languages ). The first European to visit the islands was the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira , coming from the Viceroyalty of Peru to the Spanish East Indies in 1568. The people of Solomon Islands had engaged in headhunting and cannibalism before

2000-412: The largest atoll in the world in terms of land area. It is also a raised coral atoll (321 km , 124 sq mi land area; according to other sources even 575 km , 222 sq mi), 160 km (62 sq mi) main lagoon, 168 km (65 sq mi) other lagoons (according to other sources 319 km , 123 sq mi total lagoon size). The geological formation known as

2050-468: The neighbouring Territory of Papua until the year 1949 when the two territories were formally united into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea . The Territory of Papua and New Guinea became independent from Australia in the year 1975 as the modern state of Papua New Guinea . The Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea was established in the northern Solomon Islands in 2000. Following

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2100-458: The northern ( leeward ) slopes of Guadalcanal . The islands are home to 47 native mammal species, including bats , murid rodents , and possums, gliders, and cuscuses . 26 species are endemic or near-endemic – 17 species of bats, and nine species of murid rodent. 199 bird species are native to the Solomon archipelago, of which 69 species are endemic. On the larger mountainous islands in

2150-401: The rate of dissolution of the exposed coral is lowest along its rim and the rate of dissolution increases inward to its maximum at the center of the island. As a result, a saucer shaped island with a raised rim forms. When relative sea level submerges the island again, the rim provides a rocky core on which coral grow again to form the islands of an atoll and the flooded bottom of the saucer forms

2200-483: The rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most of the approximately 440 atolls in the world are in the Pacific Ocean . Two different, well-cited models, the subsidence model and the antecedent karst model, have been used to explain the development of atolls. According to Charles Darwin 's subsidence model, the formation of an atoll

2250-478: The subsidence of an island until MIS-11, Mid-Brunhes, long after the many the former islands had been completely submerged and buried by flat topped reefs during the Neogene. Atolls are the product of the growth of tropical marine organisms, and so these islands are found only in warm tropical waters. Volcanic islands located beyond the warm water temperature requirements of hermatypic (reef-building) organisms become seamounts as they subside, and are eroded away at

2300-696: The surface. An island that is located where the ocean water temperatures are just sufficiently warm for upward reef growth to keep pace with the rate of subsidence is said to be at the Darwin Point . Islands in colder, more polar regions evolve toward seamounts or guyots ; warmer, more equatorial islands evolve toward atolls, for example Kure Atoll . However, ancient atolls during the Mesozoic appear to exhibit different growth and evolution patterns. Coral atolls are important as sites where dolomitization of calcite occurs. Several models have been proposed for

2350-756: The tropics and subtropics. The northernmost atoll in the world is Kure Atoll at 28°25′ N, along with other atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands . The southernmost atolls in the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°57′ S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°27′ S, in the Tasman Sea , both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at 24°41′ S. The atoll closest to

2400-696: The war the League of Nations formally mandated those islands to Australia along with the rest of German New Guinea , becoming Australian New Guinea. During World War II , the Territory of Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea were within the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (1942–1946). After the war the Australian Territory of New Guinea was administered separately from

2450-942: The world's atolls are in the Pacific Ocean (with concentrations in the Caroline Islands , the Coral Sea Islands , the Marshall Islands , the Tuamotu Islands , Kiribati , Tokelau , and Tuvalu ) and the Indian Ocean (the Chagos Archipelago , Lakshadweep , the atolls of the Maldives , and the Outer Islands of Seychelles ). In addition, Indonesia also has several atolls spread across the archipelago, such as in

2500-622: The wrecks of Ironbottom Sound are not much further off, to the south and west. These three ships were all sunk in the same Japanese naval air raid, part of the Operation "I" on April 7, 1943. The Ward lies upright and intact, its deck replete with artifacts, on a sandy bottom at 70 metres (230 feet). Tulagi is developing a tourism industry based on scuba. Cave dive sites: Solomon Islands (archipelago) 8°00′S 159°00′E  /  8.000°S 159.000°E  / -8.000; 159.000 The Solomon Islands (archipelago)

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