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| The Jones have just arrived to the Galápagos Islands |
The Jones have just arrived to the Galápagos Islands in Equator. The family is going to their residences to rest a little after a long flight from Tokyo.
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed on either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, 906 km west of continental Ecuador. The islands are known for their vast number of endemic species and were studied by Charles Darwin during the second voyage of HMS Beagle, as his observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
The Galápagos Islands and their surrounding waters form the Galápagos Province of Ecuador, the Galápagos National Park, and the Galápagos Marine Reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.
More information: Galápagos
The first recorded visit to the islands happened by chance in 1535, when Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panamá, was surprised with this undiscovered land during a voyage to Peru to arbitrate in a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. De Berlanga eventually returned to the Spanish Empire and described the conditions of the islands and the animals that inhabited them. The group of islands was shown and named in Abraham Ortelius's atlas published in 1570.
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| Charles Darwin with a local tortoise |
The first crude map of the islands was made in 1684 by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley, who named the individual islands after some of his fellow pirates or after British royalty and noblemen. These names were used in the authoritative navigation charts of the islands prepared during the Beagle survey under captain Robert Fitzroy, and in Darwin's popular book The Voyage of the Beagle.
The new Republic of Ecuador took the islands from Spanish ownership in 1832, and subsequently gave them official Spanish names. The older names remained in use in English language publications, including Herman Melville's The Encantadas of 1854.
More information: The Encantadas by Herman Melville
The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973 km off the west coast of South America. The closest land mass is that of mainland Ecuador, the country to which they belong, 926 km to the east.
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| Charles Darwin arriving to the Galápagos Islands |
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 southern hemispheres, with Volcán Wolf and Volcán Ecuador on Isla Isabela being directly on the equator. Española Island, the southernmost islet of the archipelago, and Darwin Island, the northernmost one, are spread out over a distance of 220 km. The group consists of 18 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at the Galápagos 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 6.4 cm per year. It is also atop the Galápagos 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 8 million and possibly up to 90 million years ago.
Straddling the equator, islands in the chain are located in both the northern and southern hemispheres, with Volcán Wolf and Volcán Ecuador on Isla Isabela being directly on the equator. Española Island, the southernmost islet of the archipelago, and Darwin Island, the northernmost one, are spread out over a distance of 220 km. The group consists of 18 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at the Galápagos 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 6.4 cm per year. It is also atop the Galápagos 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 8 million and possibly up to 90 million years ago.
More information: UNESCO
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 center caldera.
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| Charles Darwin exploring the island |
Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 and is seen today as the father of the theory of evolution. His work as a naturalist, geologist and scientist led to many books and writings on evolution and his theory of how different species originated from common ancestors is still accepted.
Darwin’s extensive research that resulted in the development of his theories all started on the Galápagos Islands. Even though he did not realize it at the time, the discovery that he made here would make him and the islands world famous.
Darwin was invited on a two-year voyage on the English sea going vessel, the Beagle, and saw the invitation as an opportunity to explore different countries and the geological secrets they hold. The Beagle’s voyage mission was to explore harbor approaches, and this took them to the islands. It was while they moved from one island to the next in the Galápagos Islands archipelago that Darwin noticed that each island had its own unique form of mocking bird.
Moer information: National Geographic
Contrary to popular belief, he did not immediately come to the theory of evolution by seeing this, as he believed that the sample species he collected from the islands was a collection of finches, blackbirds and gross-beaks.
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| Charles Darwin in the Galápagos Islands |
Only after his return to London and by presenting his findings to ornithologist John Gould, did he learn that he had collected approximately fourteen species of birds that were related to the finch. These species would become known as Darwin’s Finches. Even though they all looked similar in size, there were differences in food choices as seen in the shape of their beaks, coloration, behavior and even in their song.
On understanding and realizing that various species and kinds of birds can belong to or originate from one species, Darwin began his quest for answers. It is through these findings that the natural selection theory, an easily understandable description of evolution, was written and published by Darwin.
More information: Darwin Foundation
His book, The Origin of Species, would immortalize himself and the Galápagos Islands. His legacy, as the first geologist on the islands is still seen in the conservation efforts of the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Charles Darwin Research Station, created to preserve the unique beauty of the Galápagos Islands.
More information: Lonely Planet
The Galápagos Islands are probably the most famous wildlife-watching destination in the world. And no wonder, it's almost impossible to exaggerate the sheer spectacle of the place that provided inspiration for Charles Darwin's ground-breaking theory of natural selection.
Mark Carwardine
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