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Geological Formations

Faraglioni

Erosional and Karst Formations

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Faraglioni are coastal and oceanic rock stacks along the Italian coast, formed by long term wave erosion of rock cliffs and headlands into freestanding vertical towers. The best known examples rise from the sea off the island of Capri in the Bay of Naples: Stella, still connected to the island and 109 metres tall, the freestanding Mezzo at 82 metres, and Scopolo, also called Fuori, at 106 metres, home to an endemic blue lizard subspecies, Podarcis siculus coeruleus. Similar formations also stand along the Adriatic coast of the Salento peninsula in Apulia, at Torre Dell Orso and Sant Andrea, and in Zagare Bay on the Gargano peninsula within Gargano National Park. The word faraglioni likely derives from the Greek pharos or Latin pharus, meaning lighthouse, related to the Spanish farallon.

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