The defined region includes the independent countries of Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu ; the territories of American Samoa, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis, and Futuna; ...
How many islands make up the Pacific islands?
The Pacific Islands is made up of three subregions: Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia: Melanesia means “black islands” in Greek and consists of roughly 2,000 islands in South Pacific Ocean that extends from New Guinea, stretches to New Caledonia and includes the Arafura Sea.
What do the Pacific islands consist of?
It comprises three ethnogeographic groupings— Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia —but conventionally excludes the neighbouring island continent of Australia, the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine, and Japanese archipelagoes, and the Ryukyu, Bonin, Volcano, and Kuril island arcs that project seaward from Japan.
What are the three main areas of the Pacific islands?
Three major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean are Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia .
How many states are in the Pacific islands?
United Nations member states
This section includes all sovereign states located in Oceania that are member states of the United Nations . All 14 states are full members of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Why are there so many islands in the Pacific?
The Pacific Ocean has many more volcanic hot spots . As the oceanic crust moves, the hot spots will produce a series of volcanic islands, the Hawaiian chain be but one example. Eventually these islands sink and only the fringing coral reef remains, the mode of formation of the thousands of Pacific atolls.
Are there islands between California and Hawaii?
Hawaii consists of hundreds of islands spread across an area of 10,931 square miles. ... The shortest distance between Hawaii and California is between the island of Maui and Point Arena near San Francisco. This distance is estimated at about 2,286 miles.
Which ocean has most islands?
The Pacific Ocean has most of the islands in the world. There are about 25,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands entirely within the Pacific Ocean can be divided into three main groups known as Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia.
How many islands are in the South Pacific?
There are 176 islands but only 40 are inhabited.
Is Melanesian black?
The term ‘Melanesia’ comes from the Greek language, meaning “ islands of black [people]” and was used by early European settlers in reference to the dark skin of people in the region, now known as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.
What are the four regions of the Pacific?
Oceania is a region of the South Pacific Ocean that comprises multiple islands. The United Nations divides the region into four sub-regions: Australia and New Zealand (including also the Christmas Islands, Keeling Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and Norfolk Island), Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia .
What is the primary faith practiced by Pacific peoples?
Despite Christian influence, some Pacific Islanders continue to practice animistic religions and many Christian Pacific Islanders mix indigenous beliefs with modern doctrine. The Pacific Islands have also become home to several non-Christian religions.
How many Pacific Islanders live in the US?
Pacific Islander Americans make up 0.5% of the U.S. population including those with partial Pacific Islander ancestry, enumerating about 1.4 million people .
What is the poorest country in Oceania?
Kiribati – $1,641
The per capita income of Kiribati is $1,641 US dollars, which makes it the poorest country in Oceania.
What religion do most of the Pacific Islanders practice?
Christianity in the Pacific is still the dominant idiom and expression for cultural reproduction both within the homelands of Pacific Islanders as well as in their overseas communities.
Why are there so many more islands in the Pacific than the Atlantic?
Many of the islands are volcanic, and the Pacific is much more volcanically active than the Atlantic. The reason for that, in turn, is that the central Atlantic is a divergentboundary between tectonic plates (the plates are moving apart, which produces spread-out, ‘ooze-y’ undersea lava vents).
