Alboran Island () is a small

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

(

province of Almería Almería (, also ; ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It was named after the Arab ruler of Taifa, Banu Al-Miri. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homony ...

) in the

Alboran Sea The Alboran Sea is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa (Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south). The Strait of Gibraltar, which lies at the west end of the ...

, part of the western

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, about north of the Moroccan coast and from the Spanish mainland. The main buildings are an automated lighthouse built in the 19th century, a small cemetery, and a harbour.

Description

The island is a flat platform about

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

and about in area. off the northeastern end of the island is the small ''islote de La Nube'' (literally, islet of the cloud).

Natural history

Alboran has a

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

origin, located in an important

seismic zone In seismology, a seismic zone or seismic belt is an area of seismicity potentially sharing a common cause. It can be referred to as an earthquake belt as well. It may also be a region on a map for which a common areal rate of seismicity is assume ...

where the African plate collides with the Eurasian plate. In 1899, a new

igneous rock Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

was discovered on Alboran, with the name of alboranite, in honor of the island. The islet has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports a breeding population of Audouin's gulls as well as various species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

s on

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

. The wall-rocket species '' Diplotaxis siettiana'', known in Spanish as ''jaramago de Alborán'' ("Alborán dandelion"), has its only known wild population on the island. It was declared

extinct in the wild A species that is extinct in the wild (EW) is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as only consisting of living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized population outside its historic range ...

in 1974, but was successfully reintroduced from ex-situ conservation stocks in 1999. The plant remains

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

, and only grows around the island's

helipad A helipad is the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fa ...

. In 2001, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

declared the island and its seabed a Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance.

History

The island became a power base of Mustafa ben Yusuf al Mahmud ed Din (), a Tunisian corsair in the Ottoman sultan's service whose attacks were so ferocious that he became known as ''Al-Borani'' (hence the island's name), from the Turkish for "thunderstorm". It became a Spanish possession after the Battle of Alboran in 1540. Alborán has been known in error as "Albusama". The aristocrat

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria (, ; 4 August 1847 – 12 October 1915) was an Austrian archduke of the House of Habsburg. He became known as a champion for Mallorca's wildlife, in an era when the term "conservation movement, conservation" was ...

visited the island and published in 1899 an illustrated book in German about the island. In 1963, the Spanish army established a permanent detachment of

Spanish Navy Marines The Marine Infantry () are the marines of the Spanish Navy. Responsible for conducting amphibious warfare. Fully integrated into the Spanish Navy's structure, the branch's history dates back to 1537 when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor formed the ...

for the control and protection of the island.

Administration

The island has belonged to Spain since 1540, and to the municipality of

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

since the 19th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alboran, Isla de Almería Islands of Africa Islands of Spain Mediterranean islands Volcanoes of Africa Volcanoes of Spain Pre-Holocene volcanoes Landforms of Andalusia Important Bird Areas of Spain Seabird colonies Important Bird Areas of Mediterranean islands