Darwin’s Arch, a famed natural rock formation in the Galapagos Islands that is popular with divers, photographers and cruise-ship tourists, has collapsed from erosion, Ecuadorean environmental officials said on Tuesday.
Photographs posted on social media by Ecuador’s Environment Ministry showed rubble from the curvature of the arch visible in the ocean, with the two supporting columns still standing.
“We report that the iconic Arc of Darwin collapsed,” the ministry wrote in Spanish on its Facebook page.
The arch, named for British naturalist Charles Darwin, stands at the northernmost tip of the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean 600 miles (965 km) west of Ecuador. Darwin’s observation of finches and organisms on the islands in the 19th century helped him explain the theory of evolution.
Once a part of Darwin’s Island, the arch is famed for the variety of underwater life teeming nearby, including schools of hammerhead sharks. Darwin’s Arch once stood 18 meters tall over an underwater platform a kilometer from Darwin Island.
Visitors on a diving boat witnessed the collapse just before midday on Monday, according to the diving website ‘Scuba Diver Life’ no divers were injured.
The place allowed divers to hold onto rocks underwater and examine the sight of marine organisms.
Divers travel to the waters surrounding the arch, with boats departing from the main islands offering the chance to see sharks, turtles, manta rays, and dolphins.
The world’s biggest turtles, also known as giant tortoises, live on the archipelago made out of 234 islands.
The Galapagos Islands, which has the nickname “the enchanted isles”, is located 563 miles west of Ecuador’s mainland. It’s also a Unesco World Heritage Site known for its diverse range of plants and wildlife.
However, tourists are not allowed to set foot on the arch or island.