Alboran Island

Description

The island is a flat platform about 15 m above sea level and about 71200 m² in area. 100 m 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 origin, located in an important seismic zone where the African plate collides with the Eurasian plate. In 1899, a new igneous rock was discovered on Alboran, with the name of alboranite, in honor of the island.

The islet has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding population of Audouin's gulls as well as various species of passerines on migration.

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 in 1974, but was successfully reintroduced from ex-situ conservation stocks in 1999. The plant remains critically endangered, and only grows around the island's helipad.

In 2001, the United Nations 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 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 for the control and protection of the island.

Administration

The island has belonged to Spain since 1540, and to the municipality of Almería since the 19th century.

References

References

1. . (2021). ["Alborán island"](http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/alborán-island-iba-spain). *BirdLife International*.
2. (22 May 2021). "Alboran Sea - Ecosystems and Marine Resources". [[Springer Nature]].
3. "Algunos cartógrafos de los últimos siglos han dado a Alboran el nombre de Albusama, confundiéndola con el pequeño islote costero cercano a la ciudad llamada tambien por ellos Albusama." (Marie Armand Pascal d'Avezac de Castera-Macaya, 1846. ''Historia de las islas de África'' p. 386); "[[Peñón de Alhucemas. ''Alhucema (Albusama)'']]: Pequeña isla del Mediterráneo, sobre la costa del [[Kingdom of Fez. reyno de Fez]], en frente de la [[Al Hoceima. de Alhucema]]." (Antonio Vegas 1806. ''Diccionário geográfico universal, que comprende la descripción de las quatro partes del mundo'', ''s.v.'' "Alhucema").
4. (1899). "Erzherzog Ludwig Salvator aus dem Oesterreichischen Kaiserhause als Forscher des Mittelmeers". Woerls Reisebucher-Verlag.
5. "Alboran".
6. Gutiérrez Castillo, Víctor Luis. (2003). "Análisis histórico-jurídico de la isla andaluza de Alborán". Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales.
7. Hernández Bru, Víctor. (29 July 2018). "Alborán: historias y misterios de esa isla almeriense tan ignorada". [[Ideal (newspaper).
8. Sevillano, Antonio. (5 October 2014). "Isla de Alborán: Documentos (y II)". [[Diario de Almería]].