Punta Moreno on Isla Isabela Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
This island was named in honor of Queen Isabela. With an area of 4,640 square kilometres (1,792 mi²), it is the largest island of the Galápagos. Its highest point is Wolf Volcano with an altitude of 1,707 metres (5,600 ft). The island’s seahorse shape is the product of the merging of six large volcanoes into a single landmass. On this island Galápagos Penguins, Flightless Cormorants, marine iguanas, boobies, pelicans and Sally Lightfoot crabs abound. At the skirts and calderas of the volcanos of Isabela, Land Iguanas and Galápagos Tortoises can be observed, as well as Darwin Finches, Galápagos Hawks, Galápagos Doves and very interesting lowland vegetation. The third-largest human settlement of the archipelago, Puerto Villamil, is located at the south-eastern tip of the island. The English named it Albemarle Island.
The Galápagos Islands (Official name: Archipiélago de Colón; other Spanish names: Islas de Colónumio or Islas Galápagos, from galápago, “saddle”—after the shells of saddlebacked Galápagos tortoises) are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator, 965 kilometres (about 600 miles) west of continental Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean (1° S 91° W). The group consists of 13 main islands, 6 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at a geological hot spot, a place where the earth’s crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanos. The oldest island is thought to have formed between 5 and 10 million years ago. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in 2005. It is one of the few places in the world without an indigenous population. The Galápagos archipelago is a province of Ecuador, a country in northwestern South America, and the islands are all part of Ecuador’s national park system. They are famed for their vast number of endemic species and the studies by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle that contributed to the inception of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
