THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1908 



LINOSA AND ITS ROCKS 



HENRY S. WASHINGTON 



INTRODUCTION 



In the present paper are described the geology and petrology of a 

 small islet in the Mediterranean which, up to the present, has remained 

 almost unknown to geologists. The observations and collections 

 on which the paper is based were made in September, 1905, in the 

 course of a trip to some of the less-known volcanoes of the western 

 Mediterranean, undertaken for the Carnegie Institution of Washing- 

 ton, to the trustees of which I am indebted for permission to pubHsh 

 this paper here. 



About half-way between Malta and the coast of Tunis three small 

 islets — Linosa, Lampedusa, and Lampione — project above the sea, 

 which are called collectively the Pelagic Islands (Isole Pelagic). 

 While geographically grouped together, geologically they are very 

 diverse, Linosa being entirely volcanic, while Lampedusa and Lam- 

 pione are composed wholly of limestone. 



Although this paper deals properly with Linosa alone, it may yet 

 be of interest to record a few facts about Lampedusa.^ This island, 

 the largest of the group, is of narrow, oblong shape, the greatest 

 length (ea;st and west) being eleven kilometers, and the greatest 

 breadth (north and south) about three kilometers, almost at the 

 eastern end. It is essentially a tilted block of limestone, the highest 



I Cf. W. Deecke, Italien, Berlin, 1899 (?), p. 479; and Italy, London and New 

 York, 1904, p. 449. 



Vol XVI, No. I I 



