Solomon Islands - Geography

Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational Issues

Solomon Islands is located Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea. The climate is tropical monsoon; few extremes of temperature and weather. The terrain is mostly rugged mountains with some low coral atolls.

Location

This entry identifies the country's regional location, neighboring countries, and adjacent bodies of water.
Location : Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea

Geographic coordinates

This entry includes rounded latitude and longitude figures for the purpose of finding the approximate geographic center of an entity and is based on the locations provided in the Geographic Names Server (GNS), maintained by the National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency on behalf of the US Board on Geographic Names.
Geographic coordinates : 8 00 S, 159 00 E

Map references

This entry includes the name of the Factbook reference map on which a country may be found. Note that boundary representations on these maps are not necessarily authoritative. The entry on Geographic coordinates may be helpful in finding some smaller countries.
Map references : Oceania

Area

This entry includes three subfields. Total area is the sum of all land and water areas delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines. Land area is the aggregate of all surfaces delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines, excluding inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers). Water area is the sum of the surfaces of all inland water bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs, or rivers, as delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines.
Area - total : 28,450 sq km
Area - land : 27,540 sq km
Area - water : 910 sq km

Area - comparative

This entry provides an area comparison based on total area equivalents. Most entities are compared with the entire US or one of the 50 states based on area measurements (1990 revised) provided by the US Bureau of the Census. The smaller entities are compared with Washington, DC (178 sq km, 69 sq mi) or The Mall in Washington, DC (0.59 sq km, 0.23 sq mi, 146 acres).
Area - comparative : slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries

This entry contains the total length of all land boundaries and the individual lengths for each of the contiguous border countries. When available, official lengths published by national statistical agencies are used. Because surveying methods may differ, country border lengths reported by contiguous countries may differ.
Land boundaries : 0 km

Coastline

This entry gives the total length of the boundary between the land area (including islands) and the sea.
Coastline : 5,313 km

Maritime claims

This entry includes the following claims, the definitions of which are excerpted from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which alone contains the full and definitive descriptions
Maritime claims - territorial sea : 12 nm
Maritime claims - exclusive economic zone : 200 nm
Maritime claims - continental shelf : 200 nm

Climate

This entry includes a brief description of typical weather regimes throughout the year.
Climate : tropical monsoon; few extremes of temperature and weather

Terrain

This entry contains a brief description of the topography.
Terrain : mostly rugged mountains with some low coral atolls

Elevation extremes

This entry includes both the highest point and the lowest point.
Elevation extremes - lowest point : Pacific Ocean 0 m
Elevation extremes - highest point : Mount Makarakomburu 2,447 m

Natural resources

This entry lists a country's mineral, petroleum, hydropower, and other resources of commercial importance.
Natural resources : fish, forests, gold, bauxite, phosphates, lead, zinc, nickel

Land use

This entry contains the percentage shares of total land area for three different types of land use
Land use - arable land : 0.62%
Land use - permanent crops : 2.04%
Land use - other : 97.34% (2005)

Irrigated land

This entry gives the number of square kilometers of land area that is artificially supplied with water.
Irrigated land : NA

Total renewable water resources

This entry provides the long-term average water availability for a country in cubic kilometers of precipitation, recharged ground water, and surface inflows from surrounding countries. The values have been adjusted to account for overlap resulting from surface flow recharge of groundwater sources. Total renewable water resources provides the water total available to a country but does not include water resource totals that have been reserved for upstream or downstream countries through international agreements. Note that these values are averages and do not accurately reflect the total available in any given year. Annual available resources can vary greatly due to short-term and long-term climatic and weather variations.
Total renewable water resources : 44.7 cu km (1987)

Natural hazards

This entry lists potential natural disasters.
Natural hazards : typhoons, but rarely destructive; geologically active region with frequent earthquakes, tremors, and volcanic activity; tsunamis

Environment - current issues

This entry lists the most pressing and important environmental problems. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry
Environment - current issues : deforestation; soil erosion; many of the surrounding coral reefs are dead or dying

Environment

Environment - international agreements - party to : Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Whaling
Environment - international agreements - signed, but not ratified : none of the selected agreements

Geography - note

This entry includes miscellaneous geographic information of significance not included elsewhere.
Geography - note : strategic location on sea routes between the South Pacific Ocean, the Solomon Sea, and the Coral Sea; on 2 April 2007 an undersea earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale occurred 345 km WNW of the capital Honiara, the resulting tsunami devastated coastal areas of Western and Choiseul provinces with dozens of deaths and thousands dislocated; the provincial capital of Gizo was especially hard hit

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