Farallon Islands

The Farallon Islands are a group of small islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, about 30 miles outside San Francisco's Golden Gate and 20 miles south of Point Reyes, California. Geologically they are granitic outcroppings of the Salinian Block, a slab of continental crust that originated near the Sierra Nevada and was carried northwest along the Pacific Plate. The islands cover only about 0.16 square miles in total, with Southeast Farallon Island the largest and the only one inhabited, by researchers. Long known to mariners as the Devil's Teeth for the treacherous shoals nearby, the islands were made a national wildlife refuge in 1909 and now host the largest seabird colony outside Alaska and Hawaii, along with elephant seals, fur seals, and resident great white sharks.