Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south—as well as with the wider community of Austronesian peoples.
Tarawa Atoll
Mount Marpi in Saipan.
Beach scenery at Laura, Majuro, Marshall Islands
Image of the Castle Bravo nuclear test, detonated on 1 March 1954, at Bikini Atoll
Oceania is a geographical region comprising Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, at the centre of the water hemisphere, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of about 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) and a population of around 44.4 million as of 2022. When compared to the continents, Oceania is the smallest in land area and the second-least populated after Antarctica.
A 19th-century engraving of an Aboriginal Australian encampment
Stone money transport to Yap Island in Micronesia (1880)
Moai at Ahu Tongariki on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
New Zealand troops land on Vella Lavella, in Solomon Islands