Categories
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

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)

Categories
Galapagos

South Plaza

South Plaza (Spanish: Isla Plaza Sur) is a small island off the east coast of Santa Cruz in the Galápagos Islands. It has an area of 0.13 km2 and a maximum altitude of 23 metres.

South Plaza was formed by lava up streaming from the bottom of the ocean. Despite its small size, it is home to a large number of species and known for its extraordinary flora. The sea bluffs hold large numbers of birds, such as nesting red-billed tropicbirds and swallow-tailed gulls, and offer wide vistas. The prickly pear cactus trees (Opuntia galapageia) are noteworthy, as is the large colony of Galápagos land iguanas. Furthermore, the territory and breeding season of the Galapagos land iguana overlap only on South Plaza Island with those of the marine iguana, giving rise to a unique population of hybrid iguanas. Depending on the season, the Sesuvium ground vegetation changes its colour from green in the rainy season to orange and purple in the dry season.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Galapagos

Fernardina

Fernandina Island (Spanish: Isla Fernandina, named after Ferdinand II of Aragon, the sponsor of Christopher Columbus) (formerly known in English as Narborough Island, after John Narborough) is the third largest, and youngest, island of the Galápagos Islands, as well as the furthest west. Like the others, the island was formed by the Galápagos hotspot. The island is an active shield volcano that has most recently been erupting since April 11, 2009.

On February 14, 1825, while anchored in Banks Bay, Captain Benjamin Morrell recorded one of the largest eruptions in Galápagos’ history at Fernandina Volcano. His ship escaped to safety and his account of the event was preserved.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Galapagos

Isabela

Isabela Island (Spanish pronunciation: [isaˈβela]) is the largest island of the Galápagos with an area of 4,586 square kilometres (1,771 sq mi) and length of 100 kilometres (62 mi), almost four times larger than Santa Cruz, the second largest of the archipelago. Isabela Island is larger than every other island in the Galápagos combined. It was named after Queen Isabella I of Castile. The island straddles the equator. This island was originally named Albemarle Island for the Duke of Albemarle by Ambrose Cowley, one of the first Europeans to set foot on the islands, in 1684.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)