SOLOMON SEA

portion of the western South Pacific Ocean, bounded on the west by New Guinea, on the north by New Britain, and on the east by the Solomon Islands. With an area of 280,000 square miles (720,000 square km), the sea contains the Louisiade Archipelago, New Georgia, and Guadalcanal Island. It opens to the Coral Sea (south), the Bismarck Sea (northwest), and the open ocean (northeast). The seafloor is divided into two principal basins. The New Britain Basin in the north has a general depth of more than 13,000 feet (4,000 m); deeper areas, including the New Britain Trench, plunge to a maximum depth of 29,988 feet (9,140 m) in the Planet Deep. The southerly Solomon Basin reaches depths of 23,000 feet (7,000 m). During winter (JulySeptember), a stream of the Pacific South Equatorial Current flows into the sea from the north, then branches southeast and southwest. In the summer it reverses flow. First navigated by Polynesians, Arabs, and Chinese, the sea was not crossed by a European until lvaro de Mendaa de Neira arrived in 1567. The Solomon Sea was the scene of major U.S.-Japanese naval encounters during World War II.