Geology of Malta The largest of the second set are the Victoria Lines Fault on northern Malta and the Qala Fault on southern Gozo. Overall, the islands of the archipelago are tilted towards the northeast, with cliffs on the southwest coast and descending gradients towards the northeast. The Maltese archipalego is linked to Sicily by an underwater plateau of depths of less than 100 m. During different marine regressions of the Mediterranean, Malta has been connected to Sicily by a surface isthmus by which animals have been able to cross, as evinced by the presence of island dwarfism (Maltese dwarf hippopotamus and dwarf
Alexander Archipelago British Columbia in the late 19th century. Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island and Sitka on Baranof Island are the largest towns on the islands. The most populous neighborhoods of the largest town in the region, Juneau, are on the mainland, though portions of the city also lie on Douglas Island, which is a part of the archipelago. Tourism, fishing, and logging are the main industries of the islands. The first European to visit the archipelago was the Russian navigator Aleksei Chirikov in 1741, who sighted the coasts of Noyes and Baker Islands (both off the west coast of Prince of Wales