Salvatore Cerruto · Landscape photography
Punta Bianca Rock Outcropping (EPOD)
Traveling along the Sicilian central-western coast, and more precisely a few kilometers south-east of Agrigento, it is possible to admire outcrops of a rock formation of rare beauty, that is, the so-called "Trubi", a term that in Sicilian dialect indicates a land of whitish color which not by chance gives the toponym "Punta Bianca" to the place. Intrinsically linked to a geological context that is anything but static like the Mediterranean basin, the sea current seems to transfer the wave motion from the waters to the rhythmic alternation of centimeter and sometimes metric layers of different composition and morphology. They represent part of a transposed succession of an ancient open sea bottom, exhumed by tectonic forces and eroded by the action of the wind, on which, as in a code, important scientific information useful for paleogeographic and paleoclimatic reconstruction is recorded. In the western Mediterranean, in fact, about 5 million years ago at the end of a period known as the "Messinian salinity crisis", which had led to a partial drying out of the Mediterranean basin, conditions were rapidly triggered for geological reasons of different nature and complexity. of deep sea, ideal for the life of small calcareous shell microorganisms known as Planktonic Foraminifera. The latter, once their life ceased, over the course of about 2 million years through the decantation on the bottom and the consequent compaction of their carbonate shells, gave life to limestone and marl banks of considerable thickness (up to one hundred meters). Today, thanks to the geo-tectonic dynamics in progress, mainly linked to the collision between the African plate on one side and the Eurasian plate on the other, it is possible to walk on these geological structures of extraordinary beauty, which like Punta Bianca are to be preserved and preserved. also for their historical value: in fact they provided a safe shelter from the strong currents of the Sicilian Channel and constituted a privileged observation post on the Mediterranean. Description of my friend Giovanni Floridia