Simbo is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

; it is located in the

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: * Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provin ...

. It was known to early Europeans as Eddystone Island.

Geography

Simbo is actually two main islands, one small island called Nusa Simbo separated by a saltwater lagoon from a larger one. Collectively the islands are known to the local people as Mandegugusu, while in the rest of the Solomons the islands are referred to as Simbo.Scheffler, H. W. (1962). "Kindred and kin groups in Simbo Island social structure." Ethnology 1(2): 135-157. Simbo has an active volcano called Ove as well several saltwater lagoons and a freshwater lake.

Earthquake

On April 2, 2007, Simbo was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami which is now known as the

2007 Solomon Islands earthquake The 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake took place on 2 April 2007, near the provincial capital of Gizo, Solomon Islands, Gizo on Ghizo Island, in the Solomon Islands. Its magnitude was estimated at 8.1 on the scale, and 7.8 on the scale. The tsun ...

. A 12 m tsunami destroyed two villages on the northern side of the island and killed 10 people.

In popular culture

Some of the historic cultural practices on Simbo are referenced in ''

The Ghost Road ''The Ghost Road'' is a war novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1995 and winner of the Booker Prize. It is the third volume of a trilogy that follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World Wa ...

'', a novel by

Pat Barker Patricia Mary W. Barker, (née Drake; born 8 May 1943) is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and pl ...

about

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The author used the research of

Arthur Maurice Hocart Arthur Maurice Hocart (26 April 1883, in Etterbeek, Belgium – 9 March 1939, in Cairo, Egypt) was an anthropologist best known for his eccentric and often far-seeing works on Polynesia, Melanesia, and Sri Lanka. Early life Hocart's family had ...

and the psychoanalyst

William Rivers William Halse Rivers Rivers FRS FRAI ( – ) was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist known for treatment of First World War officers suffering shell shock, so they could be returned to combat. Rivers' most f ...

References

Islands of the Solomon Islands Western Province (Solomon Islands) {{SolomonIslands-geo-stub