Samoa
The islands of Samoa form a group of 6
main islands, two atolls and numerous small islets located in the South Pacific Ocean at the southwestern
end of the Polynesian Triangle, 350 km east from the islands of
Wallis & Futuna and 550 km west of the Cook Islands;
470 km to the north lies the small island nation of Tokelau. The closest Polynesian
neighbours to Samoa are the northern members of the Tonga group, situated 210 km to the southwest.
The archipelago is divided into two political units: the nation of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) and the US Territory of American Samoa — an unorganized, unincorporated territory.
The archipelago forms a chain of islands, spanning 520 km roughly east to west, at a latitude of 14° south of the equator. The two largest islands of Savai'i (1,708 km²) and Upolu (1,118 km²), located at the western end of the chain, account for 90 per cent of the groups landmass and are the principal islands comprising the nation of Samoa. Minor Samoan islands include Apolima (5 km²), Manono (2.9 km²) and the Aleipata Islands (1.68 km²) of Nu'utele, Nu'ulua, Namu'a and Fanuatapu. To the east lie the islands of American Samoa: Tutuila (135 km²), and the Manu'a Islands of Ofu (4.9 km²), Olosega (3.9 km²), and Ta'ū (39 km²). In the extreme east, 255 km from Tutuila, is the small and isolated Rose Atoll (6 ha); to the north is located Swains Island (2.5 km²) — a small atoll formation that is more closely related to the atolls of the Tokelau group than to the volcanic islands of the Samoan archipelago. Close offshore to the main islands are many small islets, stacks and emergent rocks.