Blue Lagoon Galapagos Islands

Galapagos Islands – Archipelago of Volcanic Islands

The Galapagos Islands from the coast of Ecuador are known for their connection with Charles Darwin. They are an archipelago of volcanic islands which are distributed on each side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean about 906 km west of continental Ecuador.The Galapagos Islands together with the surrounding waters tend to form the Ecuadorian province, a national park as well as a biological marine reserve. The island is said to have a population of over 25,000 inhabitants and Spanish is their main language.

 The gorgeous islands are well-known for their enormous number of endemic species which had been studied by Charles Darwin at the time of his voyage of the Beagle. In 1835, he had studied the various species which had inhabited the islands and his profound observations together with collections had assisted the beginning of the theory of evolution by natural selection, of Darwin. It is less important that Darwin’s motive of travelling to the Galapagos was to study the geology of the island since he was the first and a leading geologist during that time.

Voyage of Darwin – Evolution & Volcanic Formation

Besides the fascinating wildlife which had motivated the ground-breaking theory of Darwin, this archipelago also tends to claim the incredible unique land formation for just below the crust of the Earth at this locality seems to lay the Galapagos hotspot.

Volcanic hotspot seems to be hotter than the normal region of mantle which tends to melt away the crust of the Earth, resulting in volcanic activity. In the ocean, the hot less-dense rock seems to rise and the magma forms up and cools, ensuing in volcanic islands if the same tends to rise above the surface of the water. This process resulted in the formation of the Galapagos Islands millions of years back.

The voyage of Darwin led him to find out not only the evolution but the volcanic formation also. The Galapagos volcanoes seem to be more interesting than ever and on the Bainbridge rock for instance are small islets off the Santiago Island. On a specific islet, a crater tends to contain a pool of brightly coloured seawater which seems to make a remarkable view for people as well as animals where the turquoise water tends to draw the attention of flamingos.

Fernandina Island – Various Kind of Lava Flow

Another islet off Santiago, Bartolome Island provides an elegant red, orange, green and black landscape of volcanic rock and visitors can enjoy the benefit of an easy climb which tends to lead to a great view from above the volcano. Fernandina Island, owing to its latest volcanic activity should not be missed, for those who would be interested in investigating the various kind of lava flow.

This island together with Isabela tends to have a remarkably large caldera – a development which results from the collapse of a magma chamber which had been damaged after eruption and has perplexed geologists. The islands’ geology affects the landscape as well as the types of animals which tend to live there, and since the islands seems to be isolated there are various species which are unique to one particular island. One of the oldest of the islands, Espanola, hordes its own species of lava lizard, while Floreana Island is home to Devil’s Crown which is an underwater volcanic cone famous for snorkelers owing to its coral formation together with flourishing marine life.