Sea
Solomon Sea
Natural Earth’s outline of the Solomon Sea measures about 745,000 km² (288,000 mi²), the 12th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, and about the same size as Chile.
500 km
- Solomon Sea
- Chile
The numbers
- 745,000km²Area, measured288,000 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 720,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · 3.5% below our measure
- 9,140mGreatest depthWikidata
The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%.
What the numbers say about the Solomon Sea
- The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 5.54× the size of the Solomon Sea; the Solomon Sea ranks 12th.
- The Solomon Sea sits between the Kara Sea (815,000 km²) and the Red Sea (446,000 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, the Solomon Sea would be larger than 174 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 39th by area, between Zambia (752,000 km²) and Chile (736,000 km²).
- It is larger than 50 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Texas, 685,000 km²) and smaller than 1.
- It is larger than 28 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Qinghai, 714,000 km²) and smaller than 3.
- The closest Chinese province is Qinghai (714,000 km²): the Solomon Sea is 1.04× the size of Qinghai.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 9,140 m.
- The Solomon Sea lies at 9°S, close to the equator, where a standard web map (Web Mercator) is nearly true to size: it inflates area by only about 1.0×.
- Laid out flat, the Solomon Sea stretches about 837 km north to south and 1,660 km east to west.
- Our measured 745,000 km² is 3.5% above Wikidata’s published figure of 720,000 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.
About the same size as
Countries
Chinese provinces
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands lie within 25 km of the outline of the Solomon Sea. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.
Where the Solomon Sea ranks
The Solomon Sea is the 12th largest of the 42 seas on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare the Solomon Sea
Share this outline
Sources and method
- Outline
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Marine Areas (geography_marine_polys), public domain (Marine Areas (geography_marine_polys)). Natural Earth draws marine areas for labels and cuts them at named sub-areas; the outline is kept because its area matches the published one.
- Boundary
- A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own. The outline is a cartographic one, and the page says so by showing the measured area beside the published one.
- Area basis
- Measured outline: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outline and shown rounded. Published figure: Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11. An outline is kept within 10% of the published figure and matched to other places automatically within 5%.
- Depth, volume, height
- As recorded in Wikidata; a volume that cannot be right for the area and depth is left out.
- Shore
- Countries whose Natural Earth outline contains or comes close to the water's outline; computed, not a statement of ownership.
- Drawing
- Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and two can be laid over each other.
- Data built
- 2026-11-11