Meloria is a rocky

skerry A skerry is a small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low sea stack. A skerry may have vegetative life such as moss and small, hardy grasses. They ar ...

, surrounded by a shoal, off the Tuscan coast, in the

Ligurian sea The Ligurian Sea ( it, Mar Ligure; french: Mer Ligurienne; lij, Mâ Ligure) is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the Italian Riviera (Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is thought to have been named after the ancient ...

, north-west of Livorno.

Meloria shoal

The Meloria shoal is an attractive archaeological, naturalistic and historical region that makes part, since 2010, of the ''Area Marina Protetta Secche della Meloria'' (Meloria shoal

Marine Protected Area Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conse ...

) assigned to the ''Parco naturale di Migliarino, San Rossore, Massaciuccoli'' (Natural Park of Migliarino, San Rossore, Massaciuccoli) for the management. The shoal is formed by a rocky bank surrounded by swallow water sandy and muddy of the surface of 9,372

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

extending up to 12 km offshore. The

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

varies from 2 meters to 30 meters and the

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is an alternating of rocky areas with characteristic basins seabed with prairies of Posidonia. The sea

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

consists mainly of ''

Posidonia ''Posidonia'' is a genus of flowering plants. It contains nine species of marine plants ("seagrass"), found in the seas of the Mediterranean and around the south coast of Australia. The APG system (1998) and APG II system (2003) accept this ge ...

'' and ''

Caulerpa racemosa ''Caulerpa racemosa'' is a species of edible green alga, a seaweed in the family Caulerpaceae. It is commonly known as sea grapes (along with the related ''Caulerpa lentillifera'') and is found in many areas of shallow sea around the world. There ...

'' while the

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

has a rich variety as: '' Symphodus roissali'', ''

Serranus cabrilla The comber (; ''Serranus cabrilla'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish from the family Serranidae, the sea basses. It is widely distributed in the eastern North and South Atlantic Oceans and into the southwestern Indian Ocean. It is caught f ...

'', ''

Scorpaena scrofa ''Scorpaena scrofa'', the red scorpionfish, bigscale scorpionfish, large-scaled scorpion fish, or rascasse is a venomous marine species of ray-finned fish in the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes. It is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean a ...

'', ''

Muraena helena The Mediterranean moray (sometimes also called Roman eel, ''Muraena helena'', ''زريمباية'') is a fish of the moray eel family. It has a long eel-like body and is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Its bite can be d ...

'', '' Coris julis'', '' Aphia minuta'', '' Pelagia noctiluca'' and others. Geologically the Meloria consists of a calcareous

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

bench corresponding to an active undersea fault called

Rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...

of Meloria which caused numerous local earthquakes up to 3,5 in the

Richter magnitude scale The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

Meloria Tower

The Pisans built in 1157 on a surfacing rock of the Meloria shoal a lighthouse in order to avoid the wrecking of the ships directed to Porto Pisano. It was decided to keep a navigational light giving the task to the Augustinians monks of the hermitage of ''San Jacopo in Acquaviva'' by Livorno signing a written agreement for the work. The tower was destroyed by the Genoese. A second tower was built in 1598 on order of

Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (30 July 1549 – 3 February 1609) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I. Early life Ferdinando was the fifth son (the third surviving at ...

, which in its turn was destroyed by the bad weather.La Meloria
/ref> The current tower was built in 1709 by

Cosimo III de' Medici Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinan ...

and has a characteristic form; it is formed by four quadrangular pillars connected by Gothic arches above which arise the tower 15 meters high. The tower was built on the pillars to allow the flow of the waves but had no signalling light. On the south side of the tower is the Latin inscription: “''Pro navigntium securitate ad latentes copulo evitandos''” (For the sailors safety pay attention to the reef). In 1986 the tower underwent to a complete renovation.

Meloria lighthouses

Meloria Naval battles

First Battle of Meloria

The first Battle of Meloria, on May 3, 1241, was fought between the fleet of the emperor Frederick II, surnamed Stupor Mundi, in alliance with Pisa, against a Genoese squadron and ended with a Pisan and Imperial victory.

Second Battle of Meloria

The

second battle The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

, fought on Sunday August 6, 1284, was of higher historical importance. Usually, ''Battle of Meloria'' refers to this battle. It was a typical medieval sea-fight, and accomplished the ruin of Pisa as a naval power, in favour of Genoa.

Meloria air crash

On 9 November 1971, a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

Lockheed Hercules C.1 crashed into the sea off the coast of Livorno on the Meloria shoal, killing all 46 passengers and 6 crew. At the time it was described by Italian officials as the worst military air disaster in Italy in peacetime.

References

External links

''Area Marina Protetta Secche della Meloria''
''Official website'' {{authority control Islands of Tuscany Livorno