Editing Sark (section)

==Geography and geology==
[[File:Sark Coupee.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|La Coupée]]

Sark consists of two main parts, Greater Sark, located at about {{coord|49|25|N|2|22|W}}, and [[Little Sark]] to the south. They are connected by a narrow [[isthmus]] called La Coupée which is {{convert|300|ft}} long and has a drop of {{convert|330|ft}} on each side.<ref name="islandlife.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.islandlife.org/sark.htm |title=Sark Home Page |publisher=Island Life |date=10 December 2008 |access-date=7 December 2012}}</ref> Protective [[Guard rail|railing]]s were added in 1900; before then, children would crawl across on their hands and knees to avoid being blown over the edge. A narrow concrete road covering the entirety of the isthmus was built in 1945 by German [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] under the direction of the [[Royal Engineers]]. Due to its isolation, the inhabitants of Little Sark had their  distinct form of [[Sercquiais]], the native [[Norman language|Norman dialect]] of the island.<ref name="Sercquiais"/>

[[File:Sark windmill working.jpg|thumb|"Le Moulin" windmill, [[Wiktionary:circa|c.]]&nbsp;1905]]

The highest point on Sark is {{convert|374|ft}} [[above sea level]].<ref name="islandlife.org"/> A [[Windmills in the Channel Islands|windmill]], dated 1571, is found there, the sails of which were removed during World War II. This high point is named ''[[Le Moulin]]'', after the windmill. The location is also the highest point in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Little Sark had a number of mines accessing a source of [[galena]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mindat.org/locentry-5464.html|title=Galena from Le Pelley's Shaft, Little Sark, Channel Islands|publisher=[[mindat.org|Hudson Institute of Mineralogy]]|access-date=5 December 2017}}</ref> At Port Gorey, the ruins of silver mines<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uk-fusion.com/content/view/917/48/ |title=Sark (Channel Islands) |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420194139/http://www.uk-fusion.com/content/view/917/48/ |website=uk-fusion.com |archive-date=20 April 2008  }}</ref> may be seen. Off the south end of Little Sark are the Venus Pool and the Adonis Pool, both natural swimming pools whose waters are refreshed at high tide.

The whole island is extensively penetrated at sea level by natural cave formations that provide unique habitats for many marine creatures, notably sea anemones, some of which are only safely accessible at low tide.

Sark is made up mainly of [[amphibolite]] and [[granite]] [[gneiss]] rocks, intruded by igneous magma sheets called [[quartz diorite]]. Recent (1990–2000)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Miller|first1=Brent V|last2=Samson|first2=Scott D|last3=D'Lemos|first3=Richard S|title=Time span of plutonism, fabric development, and cooling in a Neoproterozoic magmatic arc segment: U–Pb age constraints from syn-tectonic plutons, Sark, Channel Islands, UK|journal=Tectonophysics|date=October 1999|volume=312|issue=1|pages=79–95|doi=10.1016/S0040-1951(99)00172-9|bibcode=1999Tectp.312...79M|doi-access=}}</ref> geological studies and rock age-dating by geologists from [[Oxford Brookes University]] shows that the gneisses probably formed around 620–600 million years ago during the Late Pre-Cambrian Age [[Cadomian Orogeny]]. The quartz diorite sheets were intruded during this Cadomian deformation and metamorphic event.

All the Sark rocks (and those of the nearby Channel Islands of [[Guernsey]] and [[Alderney]]) formed during geological activity in the continental crust above an ancient [[subduction]] zone. This geological setting would have been analogous to the modern-day subduction zone of the Pacific Ocean plate colliding and subducting beneath the North and South American continental plate.

Sark also exercises jurisdiction over the island of [[Brecqhou]], only a few hundred feet west of Greater Sark. It is a [[private island]], but it has recently been opened to some visitors. From 1993 Brecqhou was owned by the brothers [[David and Frederick Barclay]], until David Barclay died in 2021 and Frederick Barclay became sole owner. The brothers contested Sark's control over the island. The candidates endorsed by their various business interests on the island failed to win any seats in the elections held in [[2008 Sark general election|2008]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Sark goes to the polls|url=http://www.thisisguernsey.com/latest/2010/12/08/sark-goes-to-the-polls/|website=[[Guernsey Press|This is Guernsey]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524182841/http://www.thisisguernsey.com/latest/2010/12/08/sark-goes-to-the-polls/|archive-date=24 May 2013|date=8 December 2010}}</ref> and [[2010 Sark general election|2010]].<ref>{{cite web|author1=Indyjourno|title=Sark and the Barclays Brothers – Indymedia Ireland|url=http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102039|website=www.indymedia.ie|access-date=4 December 2017|date=29 June 2012}}</ref>