Solomon Islands (archipelago)

This article is about the island group spreading over two countries. For the island country, see Solomon Islands. For the ecoregion, see Solomon Archipelago.
Not to be confused with Salomon Islands.

8°00′S 159°00′E / 8.000°S 159.000°E / -8.000; 159.000

Solomon Islands (archipelago)
The archipelago, with Papua New Guinea territories (Bougainville) in dun and Solomon Islands territories (excluding the Santa Cruz Islands) in beige.
Map
Geography
LocationSouth Pacific Ocean
Major islandsBougainville, Guadalcanal
Administration

The Solomon Islands (archipelago) 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 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, the Nggelas, Santa Isabel, and the Shortlands. The Santa Cruz Islands are not a part of the archipelago.