Page 475 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

MELANESIA 473

PACIFIC OCEAN C2 PACIFIC OCEAN K3
Arafura Sea Fiji Plateau

AREA 251,000 square miles (650,000 square km) AREA 30,900 square miles (80,000 square km)
MAXIMUM DEPTH 260 ft (80 m) AVERAGE DEPTH Less than 820 ft (250 m)
INFLOWS Coral Sea, Timor Sea, Banda Sea
The Fiji Plateau is the thickest part of
Lying over a shallow continental shelf, the Fiji Plate. The islands of Fiji were
the Arafura Sea marks the boundary originally part of a continuous
between the Pacific and Indian volcanic island arc alongside Vanuatu
oceans. During the Indian summer and the Solomons. They were moved
monsoon, water flows westward GREAT BARRIER REEF east when the Pacific Plate changed
into the Indian Ocean, pulled by PACIFIC OCEAN G3 The largest coral reef structure in the world, its direction of motion, triggering the
the South Equatorial Current, but Coral Sea the Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than creation of new ocean crust in the
the flow is reversed when the 1,200 miles (2,000 km). North Fiji Basin. The Hunter Ridge
Equatorial Counter Current is AREA 1.8 million square miles (4.8 million square km) to the south marks the transform
active during the Indian winter. MAXIMUM DEPTH 30,070 ft (9,165 m) south as the East Australia Current. fracture that allowed this eastward
The eastern and northern sides of motion, while the Vityaz Trench to
INFLOWS West Central Pacific Ocean; Fly, Purari,
Kikori rivers the Coral Sea are marked by deep the north marks the subduction zone
trenches, where the oceanic part that created the islands, though the
This tropical sea earns its name from of the Australian Plate is subducting. trench is now inactive. Over time
the presence of coral reefs along most Volcanism has resulted in the a substantial platform of limestone
of its coasts. The Great Barrier Reef Solomon Islands and the Vanuatu accumulated around the original
(see p.161) grows out to the edge chain. Explosive eruptions in these volcanic islands, as they were uplifted,
of the Australian continental shelf, islands can create pumice, a volcanic faulted, and folded by the opening of
on the western side of the sea. Warm rock that floats due to gas bubbles the young, buoyant North Fiji Basin.
water enters from the Pacific, circulating trapped inside. Lumps of pumice are Growth of the platform continues
weakly before leaving through the sometimes washed up on the western today, thanks to the coral reefs that
SUNSET OVER THE ARAFURA SEA Torres Strait to the west, or to the shore of the Coral Sea. fringe Fiji’s hundreds of islands.

G H I J K L
160˚E 170˚E 180˚ Equator

NAURU KEY
Banaba Tungaru
Lyra Gilbert Ridge sea level
Reef KIRIBATI
Ontong 800 ft 1
Java 6,249m (250 m)
3,179m (20,503ft) 1,600 ft
Rise (10,430ft) (500 m)
Buka 3,300 ft
Island (1,000 m)
8,940m SOLOMON 6,500 ft
(29,332ft) ISLANDS PA CIFIC OCEAN (2,000 m)
Bougainville Choiseul M 9,800 ft
Island 7m e (3,000 m)
(23ft) Santa l 16,400 ft
Isabel TUVALU (5,000 m)
399m New Georgia Sound a
(1,309ft) New Georgia Islands
Malaita n Funafuti land 2
Honiara
Solomon Basin Guadalcanal e seamount
San Cristobal s Vityaz Trench 10˚S
Louisiade 8.322m sea depth
Pockington Trough 9,175m Hazel Holme Bank on map
(27,304ft)
Archipelago South Solomon Trench Santa Cruz maximum depth
Islands i
tectonic plate
Rennell
Bank
Santa Cruz (30,103ft) a Pandora Îles boundary
Louisiade Basin Hebrides Trench Wallis
Plateau Savai’i
1,577m Île Apia
North New
(5,174ft) Futuna WALLIS SAMOA
Banks Islands AND Upolu
FUTUNA 3
Espiritu
Coral Sea Santo Maewo Zephyr Reef
Pentecost
Malekula
Vanua Levu
Fiji
Mellish VANUATU Plateau
Rise North Fiji Basin FIJI Koro Lau Group
Efate Port- Vila Suva Sea
Viti Levu Lau
Erromango
222m Basin Vava’u
NEW (728ft) 4m Group ATLAS OF THE OCEANS
CALEDONIA Tanna (13ft) Tonga Ridge Tonga Trench
New Hebrides Trench
Bellona TONGA 20˚S 4
Plateau New Caledonia Trough Loyalty Islands Hunter Ridge Tongatapu
New Hebrides Trench
16m Lau Ridge Group 10,587m
(52ft) 7,183m South Fiji (34,736ft)
Nouméa (23,567ft) Basin 10,800m
160˚E 170˚E 180˚ (35,435ft)
G H I J K L