A marginal sea located in the southwest Pacific centred at about 155° E and 14° S off of the northeast coast of Australia. It is also bordered by the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea to the north and west, New Caledonia and the New Hebrides Islands to the east, and abuts the Tasman Sea to the south. The bathymetry is essentially composed of the Solomon Basin to the northwest, the Coral Sea Basin in the center, and the New Hebrides basin to the east. It has a mean depth of about 2400 m with a maximum depth of 9140 m in the New Britain Trench. The shallowest parts are found on the continental shelf off of Queensland.