The famed Darwin's Arch in the Galapagos Islands has lost its top, and officials are blaming natural erosion of the stone.
Ecuador's Environment Ministry reported the collapse on its Facebook page on Monday.
The rock structure — 43 meters (141 feet) high, 70 meters (230 feet) long and 23 meters (75feet) wide — is less than 1 kilometer (about half a mile) from Darwin Island and it's a popular spot for scuba divers. It's not accessible by land.
“Obviously all the people from the Galapagos felt nostalgic because it’s something we’re familiar with since childhood, and to know that it has changed was a bit of a shock," said Washington Tapia, director of conservation at Galapagos Conservancy. "However, from a scientific point of view, it’s part of the natural process. The fall is surely due to exogenous processes such as weathering and erosion which are things that normally happen on our planet.”
The unique flora and fauna on remote islands, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the coast of mainland Ecuador are famed in part for inspiring Charles Darwin's thoughts on evolution.
Fans will be banned from the Tokyo area’s stadiums and arenas when the Olympic Games begin in two weeks.
The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Elsa is strengthening and could became a hurricane before making landfall along Florida’s northern Gulf coast.
Elsa has strengthened into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season and it's blowing off roofs and snapping trees in the eastern Caribbean.
The Biden administration says it is hiring more federal firefighters — and immediately raising their pay — as officials ramp up response efforts in the face of a severe drought that's setting the stage for another destructive summer of intense wildfires across the West.
Electronic cigarette giant Juul Labs Inc. will pay $40 million to North Carolina and take more action to prevent underage use and sales.
Danish toymaker Lego has presented its first building bricks made from recycled drinks bottles — an experimental project that if successful could eventually go into production.
Human stampedes have been a chronically understudied topic and there's been an uptick in reported crushes as populations have increased.
The Tokyo Olympics are not looking like much fun: Not for athletes. Not for fans. And not for the Japanese public.
Australia says it will fight against plans to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status due to climate change, while environmentalists are applauding the U.N. World Heritage Committee’s proposal.
A sharply limited number of fans will be allowed to attend the Tokyo Olympics. The decision announced Monday comes as organizers try to save some of the spirit of the Games where even cheering has been banned.
