The iconic Darwin arc of the Galapagos Islands fell into the sea Environmental News

The Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment says the collapse was the result of natural erosion.

Darwin’s arc, the famous formation of natural rocks in the Galapagos Islands, has fallen into the sea as a result of erosion, Ecuador’s environmental officials have said.

Photographs posted on social media by the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment show that the two supporting columns were standing from the top of the arch where the debris fell into the ocean.

“We have denounced the fall of Darwin’s iconic Arch,” the ministry wrote in Spanish on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

The 43-meter-high (141-foot) rock, named after British naturalist Charles Darwin, is located at the northern tip of the Galapagos Islands and is a popular place for divers.

When it was part of nearby Darwin Island, the arch is famous for its underwater life, such as the schools of shark sharks.

“Obviously, everyone in the Galapagos was nostalgic because we’ve known each other since we were little, and knowing that it’s changed has been a huge shock,” said Washington Tapia, conservation director at the Galapagos Conservancy. “However, from a scientific point of view, it is part of the natural process. The fall will surely be caused by exogenous processes such as weathering and erosion, which are things that normally happen on our planet. ”

The Galapagos is a remote volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles west of Ecuador, and is home to a unique flora and fauna that inspired the theory of the evolution of the British naturalist Charles Darwin.

234 islands, inlets and rocks are a biosphere reserve and a World Heritage Site. Four of them are home to about 30,000 people.