D'Entrecasteaux Islands () are situated near the eastern tip of New Guinea in the Solomon Sea in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The group spans a distance of , has a total land area of approximately and is separated from the Papua New Guinea mainland by the wide Ward Hunt Strait in the north and the wide Goschen Strait in the south. D'Entrecasteaux Islands show signs of volcanism. People The inhabitants of D'Entrecasteaux Islands are indigenous subsistence horticulturalists living in small, traditional settlements. People of this area produced and traded clay pots as well as participated in the Kula exchange of shell valuables, travelling widely to other islands on sea-going sailing canoes. During the more recent past, people harvested copra, trochus and pearl-shells and some timber for cash. Alluvial gold mining was once important and in recent years the area has been subject to mineral exploration. Description The three principal islands, from northwest to southeast, are Goodenough (Nidula), then across Moresby Strait to Fergusson (Moratau), the largest of the three, and across Dawson Strait to Normanby Island (Duau). In addition there are numerous small islands and reefs. Sanaroa and Dobu are the most significant of the smaller islands, while Sori or Wild is named for [[Challenger expedition|HMS Challenger'''s]] artist, John James Wild. The highest peak in the group is the Mount Vineuo on Goodenough Island. The D'Entrecasteaux Islands are volcanically active, with a number of areas of historic/geologic volcanism and active geothermal fields. Fergusson Island has three volcanic masses over high. There are geothermal areas in the south east area of Goodenough Island and the Bwabwadana and Iamalele on Fergusson Island. A particularly active hot springs is located at Deidei on Fergusson. Between Fergusson and Normanby Islands the Dawson Straits Group has several volcanic centres that may define a partly submerged caldera; one of the cones on southwestern Fergusson Island may have erupted in 1350. Geologically the islands are largely made up of rock that probably once belonged to the northern edge of the Australian plate that was thrust deep into the Earth's crust by plate collision. The burial of these rocks to great depths (where they also encountered correspondingly high temperatures) metamorphosed the rocks to eclogite facies: >2GPa and >700˚C. Specifically, these islands play host to the youngest known coesite-eclogite sample; CA-TIMS dating of zircons within this sample dates its formation to ~5Ma, meaning it has been