Ras il-Ġebel: An extreme wave-generated bouldered coast at Xgħajra (Malta)

Abstract

Ras il-Ġebel is a small headland on the south-east coast of the Maltese Islands which faces the open sea. The morphology of the coastline is dominated by a wide shore platform and a high volume of boulders that form a small boulder beach. The evolution of these coastal landforms is controlled by geological structure and may be attributed to high energy waves acting upon regular discontinuities in the bedrock. These take the form of a conjugate set of joints and weak interbedding layers which facilitate erosional processes such as block detachment. These processes are enhanced by the different limestone stratigraphic units that occur within the zone of storm wave impact.