| The Santa Cruz Islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands. They lie approximately 250 miles (400 km) to the southeast of the Solomon Islands Chain. The Santa Cruz Islands lie just north of the archipelago of Vanuatu, and are considered part of the Vanuatu rain forests ecoregion.
The largest island in the group is Nendo (505.5 km², highest point 549 m, population over 5000), followed by Vanikolo Island (173.2 km², population 800, which is actually two islands, Banie and its small neighbor Tevai) and Utupua (69.0 km², highest point 380 m, population 300). Lata, located on Nendo, is the largest town, and the capital of Temotu province.
The Santa Cruz Islands are less than five million years old, and were pushed upward by the tectonic subduction of the northward-moving Indo-Australian Plate under the Pacific Plate. The islands are mostly composed of limestone and volcanic ash over limestone. The highest point in the Santa Cruz Islands is on Vanikoro, 924 m.
The term Santa Cruz Islands is sometimes used to encompass all of the islands of the present-day Solomon Islands province of Temotu.
The islands were visited by Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira on his second Pacific expedition in 1595. Mendaña died on the island of Nendo, which he had named Santa Cruz, in 1596.
During World War II, the Islands were considered uninhabitable. Engineers sent to survey sites for air strips were nearly wiped out by cerebral malaria.
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