Bismarck Archipelago

The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands located just off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about.

History

The first inhabitants of the archipelago arrived around 30,000–40,000 years ago. They may have traveled from New Guinea, by boat across the Bismarck Sea or via a temporary land bridge, created by an uplift in the Earth's crust. Later arrivals included the Lapita people, the direct ancestors of the Austronesian peoples of Polynesia, eastern Micronesia, and Island Melanesia.
The first European to visit these islands was Dutch explorer Jacob le Maire in 1616. The islands remained unsettled by western Europeans until they were annexed as part of the German protectorate of German New Guinea in 1884. The area was named in honour of the Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
On 1888 [Ritter Island eruption and tsunami|13 March 1888], a volcano erupted on Ritter Island causing a megatsunami. Almost the entire volcano fell into the ocean, leaving a small rim of the east side of the original island.
Following the outbreak of World War I, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force seized the islands in 1914 and Australia later received a League of Nations mandate for the islands. They remained under Australian administration—interrupted only by Japanese occupation during World War II—until Papua New Guinea became independent in September 1975.

The Bismarck Archipelago includes mostly volcanic islands with a total land area of. The archipelago surrounds the Bismarck Sea and sits upon the North Bismarck Plate, the Manus Plate and the South Bismarck Plate.
Islands are grouped here according to administrative province:

The passage of water between the islands of New Britain and New Ireland is called St. George's Channel after St. George's Channel in the British Isles between Wales and Ireland.