Malpelo is an oceanic island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 500 km (310 mi) west of the Colombian mainland with a military post defended by the Colombian Armed Forces. It consists of a sheer and barren rock with three high peaks, the highest being the 300 m (980 ft) Cerro de la Mona. The island is about 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) in length from northeast to southwest, and 640 metres (700 yards) across at its widest.
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👉 Malpelo Island in the context of Cocos Island
Cocos Island (Spanish: Isla del Coco) is a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica, approximately 550 km (342 mi; 297 nmi) southwest of the Costa Rican mainland. It constitutes the 11th of the 15 districts of Puntarenas Canton of the Province of Puntarenas. With an area of approximately 23.85 km (9.21 sq mi), the island is roughly rectangular in shape. It is the southernmost point of geopolitical North America if non-continental islands are included, and the only landmass above water on the Cocos tectonic plate.
The entirety of Cocos Island has been designated a Costa Rican National Park since 1978, and has no permanent inhabitants other than Costa Rican park rangers. While previously being portrayed as the largest uninhabited island within the tropics, this has been labeled a false claim, as the island of Fernandina in the Galapagos archipelago is also uninhabited and far larger in area. Surrounded by deep waters with counter-currents, Cocos Island is admired by scuba divers for its populations of hammerhead sharks, rays, dolphins and other large marine species. The wet climate and oceanic qualities give Cocos an ecological character that is not shared with either the Galápagos Archipelago or any of the other islands (for example, Malpelo, Gorgona or Coiba) in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Because of the unique ecology of the island and its surrounding waters, Cocos Island National Park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The island can only be reached by sea, which usually takes 36 to 48 hours.
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Malpelo Island in the context of Insular region of Colombia
The insular region of Colombia includes the oceanic islands outside the continental territory. In the Caribbean this includes the San Andrés and Providencia islands near Central America and the many coastal islands along mainland Colombia. In the Pacific, it includes Gorgona Island and Malpelo Island. The ecosystems and wildlife found on these islands are the same as those found on their adjacent mainland areas. For example, the terrestrial habitat on Gorgona Island is tropical rainforest, similar to what is found in the Pacific lowlands of mainland Colombia.
Malpelo Island in the context of Alexander Selkirk
Alexander Selkirk (1676 – 13 December 1721) was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean.
Selkirk was an unruly youth and joined buccaneering voyages to the South Pacific during the War of the Spanish Succession. One such expedition was on Cinque Ports, captained by Thomas Stradling, under the overall command of William Dampier. Stradling's ship stopped to resupply at the uninhabited Juan Fernández Islands, west of South America, and Selkirk judged correctly that the craft was unseaworthy and asked to be left there. Selkirk's suspicions were soon justified, as Cinque Ports foundered near Malpelo Island 400 km (250 mi) from the coast of what is now Colombia.