The block tectonics was of primary importance in the island's relief formation during the Holocene. In the Late Pleistocene (Sartan) time the island was actively uplifted (probably due to the process of salt diapirism); the uplift became differentiated, with eastern part being higher and forming a scarp about 90 m high. The scarp keeps its height due to active rockfalls and debris fall, the debris being transported by a strong longshore current. The island differs from adjacent coastal areas in that the morpholithogenesis is much more active here. The man-induced thermal erosion and gravitational slope processes sometimes take on a catastrophic character.