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The Galápagos Islands (official name: Archipiélago de Colón; other Spanish names: Islas de Colón or Islas Galápagos) are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km (525 nmi) west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.

The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a biologicalmarine reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.[1]

The islands are geologically young and famed for their vast number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.The first crude navigation chart of the islands was made by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley in 1684.[dubious – discuss] He named the individual islands after some of his fellow pirates or after the British noblemen who helped the privateer's cause. More recently, the Ecuadorian government gave most of the islands Spanish names. While the Spanish names are official, many users (especiallyecological researchers) continue to use the older English names, principally because those were the names used when Charles Darwin visited.

Physical geography

The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973 km (525 nmi; 605 mi) off the west coast of South America. The closest land mass is the mainland of Ecuador800 km/500 mi [2] to the east (the country to which they belong), to the northis Cocos Island at 720 km (389 nmi; 447 mi) and to the south is Easter Island and San Felix Island at 3,200 km (1,730 nmi; 1,990 mi).





Orthographic projection centred over the Galápagos.




Satellite photo of the Galápagos islands overlayed with the names of the visible main islands.




Isabela seen from Spot Satellite.




Waved Albatrosses on Española.Galápagos marine iguana.




Main Street on San Cristóbal Island.









An animated tour of the Galápagos.









NASA oceanographer Gene Carl Feldman reflects on his unique perspective on this region.
The islands are found at the coordinates 1°40'N–1°36'S, 89°16'–92°01'W. Straddling the equator, islands in the chain are located in both the northern and southernhemispheres, with Volcán Wolf and Volcán Ecuador on Isla Isabela being directly on the equator. Española, the southernmost island, and Darwin, the northernmost island, are spread out over a distance of 220 km (137 mi). The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) considers them wholly within the South Pacific Ocean, however.[3] The Galápagos Archipelago consists of 7,880 km2 (3,040 sq mi) of landspread over 45,000 km2 (17,000 sq mi) of ocean. The largest of the islands, Isabela, measures 2,250 sq mi/5,827 km2 [4] and makes up half of the total land area of the Galápagos. Volcán Wolf on Isabela is the highest point, with an elevation of 1,707 m (5,600 ft) above sea level.

The group consists of 13 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at theGalapagos Triple Junction. The archipelago is located on the Nazca Plate (a tectonic plate), which is moving east/southeast, diving under the South American Plate at a rate of about 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) per year.[5] It is also atop the Galapagos hotspot, a place where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The first islands formed here at least 8million and possibly up to 90 million years ago.[6]

While the older islands have disappeared below the sea as they moved away from the mantle plume, the youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in April 2009 where lava from the volcanic island Fernandina started flowing both towards the island's shoreline and into the centre caldera....