The
Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, part of
Temotu ProvinceTemotu is the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands. The province was formerly known as Santa Cruz Islands Province. It consists, essentially, of two chains of islands which run parallel to each other from the northwest to the southeast.- Islands :...
of the
Solomon IslandsSolomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands Chain. The Santa Cruz Islands lie just north of the archipelago of
VanuatuVanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
, and are considered part of the
Vanuatu rain forestsThe Vanuatu rain forests are a terrestrial ecoregion that includes the islands of Vanuatu, as well as the Santa Cruz Islands group of the neighboring Solomon Islands. It is part of the Australasia ecozone, which includes neighboring New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, as well as Australia, New...
ecoregion.
The largest island is Nendo, which is also known as
Santa Cruz Island proper (505.5 km², highest point 549 m (1,801 ft), population over 5000).
LataLata is the provincial capital of Temotu Province, Solomon Islands. As of 2007, it has 553 inhabitants. There are a few rest houses for over night stays. There is a Post office, Telecom office and numerous stores....
, located on Nendo, is the largest town, and the capital of
TemotuTemotu can refer to:* Temotu Province, a province of the Solomon Islands* Temotu, Tuvalu, an island in Vaitupu, Tuvalu* Temotu, Kiribati, a village on Marakei, Kiribati...
province.
Other islands belonging to the Santa Cruz group are
VanikoroVanikoro is an island from the Santa Cruz group, located 118 km to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group. It belongs administratively to the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands....
(173.2 km², population 800, which is actually two islands,
BanieBanie is the main island of the Vanikoro group, in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands. The only other inhabited island of the group is the smaller island of Teanu ou Tevai.-Name:...
and its small neighbor
TeanuTeanu is the second island in size of the Vanikoro group, in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands. It is located northeast of the main island of the group, Banie.Teanu has currently only one inhabited village, Puma....
) and Utupua (69.0 km², highest point 380 m (1,247 ft), population 848).
The Santa Cruz Islands are less than five million years old, and were pushed upward by the
tectonicPlate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
subductionIn geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...
of the northward-moving
Indo-Australian PlateThe Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and surrounding ocean, and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and adjacent waters...
under the
Pacific PlateThe Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....
. The islands are mostly composed of
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and volcanic ash over limestone. The highest point in the Santa Cruz Islands is on Vanikoro, 924 m (3,031 ft).
The term Santa Cruz Islands is sometimes used to encompass all of the islands of the present-day Solomon Islands province of
TemotuTemotu can refer to:* Temotu Province, a province of the Solomon Islands* Temotu, Tuvalu, an island in Vaitupu, Tuvalu* Temotu, Kiribati, a village on Marakei, Kiribati...
.
The native languages of the islands are classified as the Reef Islands – Santa Cruz languages, within the
Oceanic subgroup of the
AustronesianThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
language family.
The islands were visited by Spanish explorer
Álvaro de Mendaña de NeiraÁlvaro de Mendaña de Neira was a Spanish navigator. Born in Congosto, in León, he was the nephew of Lope García de Castro, viceroy of Peru...
, the first European to sight them, on his second Pacific expedition in 1595. Mendaña died on the island of Nendo, which he had named Santa Cruz, in 1596.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the
Battle of the Santa Cruz IslandsThe Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Santa Cruz or in Japanese sources as the , was the fourth carrier battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II and the fourth major naval engagement fought between the United States Navy and the Imperial...
was fought north of the Santa Cruz group and some sea planes were based in Graciosa Bay, with one reportedly having sunken there. Chemical ordinance stored on Vanikoro Island was not completely removed until the 1990s.
See also
- American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964
American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964 is a 1978 biography of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur by American historian William Manchester...
, by William Manchester, p. 320
- Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
- Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
- Pacific Islands
The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....