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Belize

Half Moon Caye

Half Moon Caye is an island and natural monument of Belize located at the southeast corner of Lighthouse Reef Atoll. This natural monument was the first nature reserve to have been established in Belize under the National Park Systems Act in 1981 and first marine protected area in Central America. This is also Belize’s oldest site of wildlife protection since it was first designated as a bird sanctuary in 1924 to protect the habitat of the red-footed booby birds.

Half Moon Caye Natural Monument is part of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System World Heritage Site which was established on December 4, 1996, by the United Nations World Heritage Committee after they formally adopted seven marine protected areas along the Belize Barrier Reef and its adjacent atolls under UNESCO at their meeting in Mérida, Mexico.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Belize

Turneffe Atoll

Turneffe Atoll is located southeast of Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, off the coast of Belize in Central America, 20 miles (32 kilometres) from Belize City. It is one of three atolls of the Belize Barrier Reef, along with Glover’s Reef and Lighthouse Reef. It is approximately 30 miles (48 kilometres) long and 10 miles (16 kilometres) wide, making it the largest coral atoll in Belize and in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. The atoll was officially declared a marine reserve on November 22, 2012.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Galapagos

Tower

Genovesa Island (Spanish: Isla Genovesa), referred to in English as Tower Island, is a shield volcano in the Galápagos Islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The island occupies about 14 square kilometres (5 sq mi), and its maximum elevation is 64 m (210 ft).[citation needed] The horse-shoe shaped island has a volcanic caldera whose wall has collapsed, forming the Great Darwin Bay, surrounded by cliffs. Lake Arcturus, filled with salt water, lies in the centre, and sediment within this crater lake is less than 6,000 years old. Although no historical eruptions are known from Genovesa, there are very young lava flows on the flanks of the volcano.

The official Spanish name “Genovesa” is from the Italian city of Genoa, in honor of Christopher Columbus. The English name “Tower” is presumably a corruption of “Downes”. The island’s position was reported by John Downes of the USS Essex in 1813, during the War of 1812, and the name “Dowers’s” appeared in 1815, presumably a misspelled reference to Downes. After passing through “Dowers’s”, “Dowers”, and “Tower’s”, by 1841 it was written as “Tower” in the British Admiralty chart.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Galapagos

Floreana

Floreana Island (Spanish: Isla Floreana) is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It was named after Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago. It was previously called Charles Island (after King Charles II of England), and Santa María after one of the caravels of Columbus.

The island has an area of 173 square kilometres (67 sq mi). It was formed by volcanic eruption. The island’s highest point is Cerro Pajas at 640 metres (2,100 ft), which is also the highest point of the volcano like most of the smaller islands of Galápagos.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Galapagos

Hood

Española Island (Spanish: Isla Española) is part of the Galápagos Islands. The English named it Hood Island after Viscount Samuel Hood. It is located in the extreme southeast of the archipelago and is considered, along with Santa Fe, one of the oldest, at approximately four million years. A popular tourist stop, Isla Española is the most southerly island in the Galápagos Archipelago. The climate is very dry, like most of the Archipelago. But due to the flatness of the island, it is the driest of these islands, with only a few inches of rain per year. It is about a 10- to 12-hour trip by boat from Isla Santa Cruz.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)