The Republic of Maldives consists of 21 atolls and four reef platforms that straddle the equator in the northern Indian Ocean. Comprising 2041 reefs and 1190 reef islands, the archipelago is globally unique in the reef structures it possesses of a submarine ridge that stretches from the islands of the Lakshadweep (Laccadives) group in the north to the Chagos archipelago in the south.
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The Fijian archipelago is centrally located amid the island groups of the southwestern Pacifi c. Tonga and Samoa are to the east, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands to the northwest, New Caledonia to the southwest, more distant New Zealand to the south, and Australia to the west. The group consists of between 300 and 844 islands, depending on the authority and on the defi nition of “island.” There are four major islands: Vitilevu (10,388 km2), Vanualevu (5535 km2), Taveuni (434 km2), and Kadavu (408 km2). Total land area is approximately 18,300 km2, which occupies an ocean area of around 650,000 km2.
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