Socotra

Socotra is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean between the Gulf of Aden, the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, about 380 kilometers south of the Arabian Peninsula and 232 kilometers east of the Horn of Africa, measuring 132 kilometers long and up to 50 kilometers wide across an area of 3,796 square kilometers. Geologically it is a continental fragment linked to the Somali Plate rather than an oceanic island, made up of three zones: coastal plains of wind-built sand dunes, limestone plateaus with karst topography around Momi, Homhil and Diksam, and a central massif, the Hajhir Mountains, built from granite and metamorphic rock and reaching 1,503 meters at its highest point, Mashanig peak. The island began as part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana and split away during the Miocene epoch as rifting opened the Gulf of Aden alongside it. Its long isolation as a continental fragment has left it with exceptional endemic biodiversity, with about 37 percent of its plant species found nowhere else on Earth. This entity documents Socotra specifically as a geological formation, a continental fragment rifted away from Gondwana during the opening of the Gulf of Aden.