E-LEARNINGGEOGRAPHY PROJECT

Galápagos Islands

THE GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS

The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed on either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, 926 km (500 nmi) west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.

The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form a national park. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.

The islands are famed for their vast number of endemic species.

The 18 [6] main islands (with a land area larger than 1 km2) of the archipelago (with their English names) shown alphabetically:

1. Baltra Island 2. Bartolomé Island 3. Darwin Island 4. Hood Island 5. Fernandina Island 6. Floreana Island7. Genovesa Island8. Isabela Island9. Marchena Island

10. North Seymour Island 11. Pinzón Island12. Pinta island13. Rábida Island14. San Cristóbal Island15. Santa Cruz Island16. Santa Fé Island17. Santiago Island18. Wolf Island

Main islands

PICTURES OF MAIN ISLANDS:

Daphne Major – A small island directly north of Santa Cruz and directly west of Baltra, this very inaccessible island appears, though unnamed, on Ambrose Cowley's 1684 chart. It is important as the location of multidecade finch population studies by Peter and Rosemary Grant.

South Plaza Island (Plaza Sur) – It is named in honour of a former president of Ecuador, General Leonidas Plaza. It has an area of 0.13 square km (0.05 sq mi) and a maximum altitude of 23 m (75 ft). The flora of South Plaza includes Opuntia cactus and Sesuvium plants, which form a reddish carpet on top of the lava formations. Iguanas (land, marine and some hybrids of both species) are abundant, and large numbers of birds can be observed from the cliffs at the southern part of the island, including tropic birds and swallow-tailed gulls.

Nameless Island – A small islet used mostly for scuba diving.

Minor islands

GALÁPAGOS' ANIMALS

There are lots of species of animals in the Galápagos like:

i. marine iguanas

ii. sea lions

iii. marine turtles

iv. hood mockingbirds

v. blue-footed boobies

vi. Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise

vii. hammerheads sharks

viii. And so on…………

PICTURES OF GALÁPAGOS' ANIMALS:

WEATHER

Although located on the Equator, the Humboldt Current brings cold water to the islands, causing frequent drizzles during most of the year. The weather is periodically influenced by the El Niño events, which occur about every 3–7 years and are characterized by warm sea surface temperatures, a rise in sea level, greater wave action, and a depletion of nutrients in the water.

During the season known as the garua (June to November), the temperature by the sea is 22 °C (72 °F), a steady and cold wind blows from south and southeast, frequent drizzles (garuas) last most of the day, and dense fog conceals the islands. During the warm season (December to May), the average sea and air temperature rises to 25 °C (77 °F), there is no wind at all, there are sporadic, though strong, rains and the sun shines.

Weather changes as altitude increases in the large islands. Temperature decreases gradually with altitude, while precipitation increases due to the condensation of moisture in clouds on the slopes. There is a large range in precipitation from one place to another, not only with altitude, but also depending on the location of the islands, and also with the seasons.

HISTORY

European discovery of the Galápagos Islands occurred when Spaniard Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, sailed to Peru to settle a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and his lieutenants. De Berlanga's vessel drifted off course when the winds diminished, and his party reached the islands on 10 March 1535. According to a 1952 study by Thor Heyerdahl and Arne Skjølsvold, remains of potsherds and other artifacts from several sites on the islands suggest visitation by South American peoples prior to the arrival of the Spanish. However, no remains of graves, ceremonial vessels and constructions have ever been found, suggesting no permanent settlement occurred at the time.

The Galápagos Islands first appeared on the mapsin about 1570. The islands were named "Insulae de los Galopegos" (Islands of the Tortoises) in reference to the giant tortoises found there.

The first English captain to visit the Galápagos Islands was Richard Hawkins, in 1593. Until the early 19th century, the archipelago was often used as a hideout by mostly English pirates who pilfered Spanish galleons carrying gold and silver from South America to Spain.

In 1793, James Colnett described the flora and fauna of Galápagos, and suggested the islands could be used as base for the whalers operating in the Pacific Ocean. He drew the first accurate navigation charts of the islands. Whalers killed and captured thousands of the Galápagos tortoises to extract their fat. The tortoises could be kept on board ship as a means of providing of fresh protein, as these animals could survive for several months on board without any food or water. The hunting of the tortoises was responsible for greatly diminishing, and in some cases eliminating, certain species. Along with whalers came the fur-seal hunters, who brought the population of this animal close to extinction.

The first known permanent human resident on Galapagos was Patrick Watkins, an Irish sailor who was marooned on the Island Floreana from 1807–1809. According to later accounts, Watkins managed to survive by hunting, growing vegetables and trading with visiting whalers, before finally stealing an open boat and navigating to Guayaquil.

In 1818 the Nantucket whaleship Globe, Captain George Washington Gardner, had discovered a "mother lode" of sperm whales some thousand miles west of the South American coast approximately at the equator. He returned to Nantucket in 1820 with more than 2000 barrels of sperm whale oil and the news of his discovery. This led to an influx of whaleships to exploit the new whaling ground and the Galapagos Islands became a frequent stop for the whalers both before and after visiting what came to be known as the Offshore Grounds. This led to the establishment in the Galapagos Islands of a kind of unofficial "post office" where whaleships stopped to pick up and drop off letters as well as for purposes of reprovisioning and repairs.

The Galápagos became a national park in 1959,[23] and tourism started in the 1960s, imposing several restrictions upon the human population already living on the island. However, opportunities in the tourism, fishing, and farming industries attracted a mass of poor fishermen and farmers from mainland Ecuador. In the 1990s and 2000s, violent confrontations between parts of the local population and the Galapagos National Park Service occurred, including capturing and killing giant tortoises and holding staff of the Galapagos National Park Service hostage to obtain higher annual sea cucumber quotas.

This presentation was made by: Malcolm Micallef , 3.02class & Special thanks to the Wikipedia and Google ` Images

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