ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the 17 atolls north and southeast of the Solomon Islands. Although there are no atolls among the large Solomon Islands, two, Pinipir and Nissan, are associated with the Bougainville Rise, a block associated with the same geological origin as the main island of Bougainville. By contrast, eight other atolls to the north, including Malum, Nuguria, Kilinailau, Takuu, Nukumanu, Ontong Java, Candelaria, and Sikaiana, are former volcanoes on the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP), the world’s largest ocean plateau with an area equivalent to that of Alaska. In addition, three atolls associated with the Santa Cruz Islands are farther to the southeast, and one more lies among the islands of Vanuatu. All of these are on the Pacific plate, but three others, the Indispensable Reefs, occur to the south on the Australian plate, separated by a series of collision zones including trenches and ridges. The mixture of atoll types includes open, closed, and submerged rims. All of these atolls are in the path of the South Equatorial Current primarily from the southeast. Wind waves follow the monsoonal winds, but the area can be affected by swell from the northwest. Tidal range can exceed 1.75 m.
