Bougainville Island
- MODIS image
- date unknown
The mountainous and volcanically active island of Bougainville is the largest member of the Solomon Islands group. It lies at the northern end of the group falling within the territory of Papua New Guinea, where it forms part of the Bougainville Province. The territorial border with the nation of the Solomon Islands is found just off the southern tip of the island.
Covering an area of 10,954 km², and measuring 120 km in length and between 65 and 95 km across, the island has a rugged terrain that is dominated by the Crown Prince Range of mountains that forms the islands central spine. It rises to a height of 2,743 m at the cratered summit of the Balbi stratovolcano. From the mountainous interior the land gives way to plains and coastal lowlands that fringe the entire island. Off the eastern coasts, particularly in the south east, are a series of fringing reefs that gradually move closer to shore towards the north. The island is heavily vegetated with coastal strand vegetation, mangrove forests, freshwater swamp forests, and extensive areas of undisturbed lowland and montane rainforest.
Around the coasts of Bougainville are a number of smaller islands, the largest of these being Buka, with an area of 492 km² and measuring 56 km in length and 14 km across. Buka — lying off the northern tip of Bougainville — is separated from its larger southern neighbour by the narrow Buka Passage. The passage is just about resolved in the large size image (in the above image, the two islands appear as a single entity). The host of islands located off the southern tip of Bougainville — including the Treasury Islands, Shortland Islands, Ovau, Fauro and Oema — belong to the Solomon Islands.
image: MODIS rapid response project at nasa/goddard space flight center.
