This is the youngest Tertiary formation in the Islands, which reaches a thickness of circa 160 metres in the Bingemma area of Malta. This rock type predominantly outcrops in western Malta and Eatern Gozo wher it forms the high ground of the islands. The rock is composed of three distinct beds of coralline algae Lithothamnion and Lithophyllum. The depositional environment is typical of a warm shallow, tidal waters. Local tectonic activity appears to have resulted in the brief emergence of the formation above the sea.