Roca Partida

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Coordinates: 19°00′00″N, 112°04′21″W Roca Partida (Spanish: "Divided Rock") is the smallest of the Revillagigedo Islands in Mexico, administrated by the state of Colima. It is uninhabited, with less than one square kilometer in area.

Like the other islands in its group, it is volcanic in origin, but unlike San Benedicto and Socorro which are still active, Roca Partida has eroded to a piece of bare rock, devoid of terrestrial vegetation. It is some 100 m (300 ft) long and about 8 m (25 ft) wide, and rises into two peaks divided by a low-lying area - hence the name. These were some 25 and 34 m (75 and 100 ft) high in 1953 but the higher one appears to have eroded some more meters since then (see photo below). No land animals or fresh water occur on Roca Partida.^[1]

A number of seabirds breed here:^[2]

• Nazca Booby, Sula granti
• Northeast Pacific Brown Booby, Sula leucogaster brewsteri
• East Pacific Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus crissalis - a doubtfully distinct subspecies
• East Pacific Brown Noddy, Anous stolidus ridgwayi

For the former two, Roca Partida is one of the north(east)ernmost breeding sites.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Brattstrom, Bayard H. & Howell, Thomas R. (1956): The Birds of the Revilla Gigedo Islands, Mexico. Condor 58(2): 107-120. doi:10.2307/1364977 PDF fulltext DjVu fulltext
• California/Mexico Island Conservation Database (CMICD) (2007): Plant accounts: Roca Pertida[sic]. Retrieved 2007-NOV-21.

[edit] External links

• Photo. Retrieved 2007-NOV-21.