What causes natural objects to collapse? Recently the natural arch of Darwin – the symbol of the Galapagos Islands – collapsed. Because of what she fell.
The 18-meter arch (photo 1), named after Charles Darwin, who visited the islands in 1835, collapsed due to natural erosion. In recent years, against the background of climate warming, the weather has changed: there are more storms, hurricanes, sudden temperature changes and excessive precipitation. This speeds up the process of breaking down rocks.
A similar fate befell the famous Ivory Foot Arch in Morocco (photo 2). It collapsed in 2016 also due to erosion – the red limestone from which the arch was formed is not a very strong rock.
In 2017, the 28-meter-high “Azure Window” arch disappeared (photo 3). The most famous natural site in Malta can be seen in the “Odyssey” by Andrey Konchalovsky and the TV series “Game of Thrones”. It was formed over 500 years, and collapsed overnight during a storm.
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There are more than 2,000 natural arches in Arches National Park (USA). In 2008, one of the largest collapsed – Stenovaya (photo 4). Over the past 50 years, the park has lost 42 arches. The rock in these places is sandstone, it is even looser and more fragile.
Arches collapse due to earthquakes. In 2020, in Puerto Rico, three earthquakes with a force of 5.7 points collapsed the hallmark of the island state – the Punta Ventana Arch (photo 5).
The anthropogenic factor contributed to the destruction of the chalk arch (chalk is a type of limestone) in the Divnogorye nature reserve (Voronezh region) in 2016. Tourists climbed on it for the sake of beautiful photographs. The fragile natural material could not withstand such an onslaught and eventually crumbled.
