Much of the remainder falls within the territory of Solomon Islands and include the atolls of Ontong Java, Sikaiana, the raised coral atolls of Bellona and Rennell, and the volcanic islands of Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Makira, Malaita, New Georgia, the Nggelas, Santa Isabel, and the Shortlands.

However, it is believed that subduction around the Solomon Islands represents one of the highest rates of convergence found on Earth at 10–12 cm/yr.

[1] Subduction zones around the archipelago are tectonically active, though recorded seismicity is higher on the southern side of the island chain.

[1] The climate of the islands is tropical; however, temperatures do not greatly fluctuate due to the heat sink of the surrounding ocean.

From April to October (the dry season), the southeast trade winds blow, gusting at times up to 30 knots (55 km/h; 35 mph) or more.

November to March is the wet season, caused by the northwest monsoon, and is typically warmer and wetter.

Cyclones arise in the Coral Sea and the area of the Solomon Islands, but they usually veer toward Vanuatu and New Caledonia or down the coast of Australia.

[2] The islands are home to 47 native mammal species, including bats, murid rodents, and possums, gliders, and cuscuses.

[3] The Solomon Archipelago has a rich and diverse marine life, including coral reefs and seagrass meadows.

It was the furthest humans went in the Pacific until Austronesian speakers arrived c. 4000 BCE, also bringing cultural elements such as the outrigger canoe.

[5] It is between 1200 and 800 BCE that the ancestors of the Polynesians, the Lapita people, arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago with their characteristic ceramics.

They made little progress at first, because "blackbirding", the often brutal recruitment and relocation of labourers for the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji, led to a series of reprisals and massacres.

The remaining German Solomon Islands, at the extreme northwest of the archipelago, were retained by Germany until they fell to Australia early on in World War I.

Following the independence of neighbouring Papua New Guinea from Australia in 1975, the British Solomon Islands gained self-government in 1976.