Geology of Malta elephant fossils), as well as island gigantism (fossils of Leithia melitensis). Geology of Malta The Geology of Malta consists of a sequence of sedimentary rocks of late Oligocene to late Miocene age cut through by a set of extensional faults of Pliocene age. The Maltese archipelago is situated on the mainly shallow water continental platform between Sicily and North Africa that lies beneath the Sicily Channel, separating the Ionian Basin from the western Mediterranean Basin. The islands lie around 200 km to the south of the subduction boundary between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The platform is crossed
North Cinque Island bars. The northern peninsula is the largest one, 2.9 km long in the N-S direction and 1.1 km wide; it has two adjacent hills about 154 m and 145 m high. The middle (southernmost) peninsula, 1.05 km across, lies 270 m to the south and has a bare hill 89 m high. About 150 m to its west lies the third and smallest peninsula, an oval knob about 450 m across. The sand bar between the south and north peninsulas was broken through in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami but has since reformed. Politically, North Cinque Island is