Map of the Santa Cruz Islands (Solomon Islands)

The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

, part of Temotu Province of the nation of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

discovered by the

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ...

. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands archipelago. The Santa Cruz Islands lie just north of the archipelago of

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of ...

, and are considered part of the Vanuatu rain forests ecoregion.

Geography

The term Santa Cruz Islands is sometimes used to encompass all of the islands of the present-day Solomon Islands province of Temotu. The largest island is Nendö, which is also known as Santa Cruz Island proper (505.5 km², highest point , population over 5000). Lata, located on Nendö, is the largest town, and the capital of Temotu province. Other islands belonging to the Santa Cruz group are Vanikoro (173.2 km², population 800, which is actually two islands,

Banie Banie (formerly ) is a village in Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Banie. It lies approximately south-east of Gryfino and south of the reg ...

and its small neighbor Teanu) and

Utupua Utupua is an island in the Santa Cruz Islands, located 66 km to the Southeast of the main Santa Cruz group, between Vanikoro and Santa Cruz proper (Nendo Island). This island belongs administratively to the Temotu Province of the Solomon Is ...

(69.0 km², highest point , population 848). The Santa Cruz Islands are less than five million years old, and were pushed upward by the

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, ...

of the northward-moving

Indo-Australian Plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

under the

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and I ...

. The islands are mostly composed of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

and volcanic ash over limestone. The highest point in the Santa Cruz Islands is on Vanikoro, .

Culture

Languages

The native languages of the islands are classified as the Reef Islands–Santa Cruz languages, within the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family.

''Tepukei'' (ocean-going outrigger canoes)

Südseeabteilung in Ethnological Museum Berlin 11d

Some Polynesian societies of eastern Solomon Islands built ocean-going outrigger canoes known as

Tepukei A tepukei, tepuke or TePuke is a Polynesian boat type, characterized by its elaborate decking, its submerged hulls and symmetrical "crab claw" sail slender foil or radically extended tips claw sail (Te Laa). ''Tepukei'' boats are produced pri ...

. In 1966 Gerd Koch, a German anthropologist, carried out research at Graciosa Bay on Nendö Island (Ndende/Ndeni) in the Santa Cruz Islands and on Pileni and Fenualoa in the Reef Islands, and returned with documentary film, photographic and audio material. The films that Koch completed are now held by the

German National Library of Science and Technology The German National Library of Science and Technology (german: Technische Informationsbibliothek), abbreviated TIB, is the national library of the Federal Republic of Germany for all fields of engineering, technology, and the natural sciences. ...

(TIB) in Hanover. He brought back to the Ethnological Museum of Berlin the last still complete Tepukei from the Santa Cruz Islands. In 1971 Koch published ''Die Materielle Kultur der Santa Cruz-Inseln''.

Navigators

Navigators from the Santa Cruz islands retained traditional navigation techniques into the 20th century, which skills were also held by navigators of the Caroline Islands. In 1969, Tevake accompanied David Henry Lewis on his ketch ''Isbjorn'' from

Taumako Taumako is the largest of the Duff Islands, in the Solomon Islands. This island has steep sides and rises to a height of above sea level. It is composed of basaltic lavas and pyroclastics like the other islands in the Duffs. The inhabitants of t ...

using traditional navigation techniques by studying wave patterns and made landfall at Fenualoa, having navigated for without being able to view the stars, due to cloud cover. On a second voyage from Nifiloli to Vanikoro, Tevake navigated by the stars, wave patterns, and the patterns of

bioluminescence Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some b ...

that indicated the direction in which islands were located.

Contact with other cultures

The islands were visited by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña, the first European to sight them, on his second Pacific expedition in 1595. Mendaña started a colony on Nendö which he named ''Santa Cruz'', at the place also named by the Spaniards as Graciosa Bay, and he died there in 1596.

World War II

During the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands was fought north of the Santa Cruz group and some

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

s were based in Graciosa Bay's US Navy

seaplane base A seaplane base is a type of airport that is located in a body of water, usually a river, bay, harbor, or lake, where seaplanes and amphibious aircraft take-off and land. History Initially following the invention of the seaplane, traditional boa ...

, with one reportedly having sunk there. VP-23, Patrol Squadron 23, known as the Seahawks was stationed at Seaplane Base with Consolidated PBY Catalina, including ''black Cats'', night fighters. Chemical ordnance stored on Vanikoro Island was not completely removed until the 1990s.

2013 Solomon Islands earthquake

The Santa Cruz Islands were affected by the 2013 Solomon Islands earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The earthquake produced a tsunami measuring at Lata, Solomon Islands, that reached about inland. The airport and low-lying areas were flooded, killing nine people, five of them elderly and one a child. More than 100 houses on the island were damaged, and the water and electricity services were interrupted. It was reported that almost all houses in Nela village were washed away, and some homes in Venga village were shifted by water.

Notes

References

Santa Cruz and the Reef Islands
by W.C. O'Ferrall—1908 account with many illustrations by missionary in Santa Cruz from 1897 to 1904.

External links

* * {{Authority control Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Islands of the Solomon Islands Former Spanish colonies