Fernandina Island

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Fernandina Island

Fernandina Island (formerly known in English as Narborough Island, after John Narborough

John Narborough

Rear Admiral Sir John Narborough, RN was an England navy commander of the 17th century, who served with distinction during the Anglo-Dutch Wars and against the Barbary Coast pirates....
) is the third largest, and youngest, island of the Galápagos Islands

Galápagos Islands

Gal?pagos Islands are an archipelago of Island#Volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador....
. The island is an active shield volcano

Shield volcano

A shield volcano is a large volcano with shallow-sloping sides. The name derives from a translation of "Skjaldbrei?ur", an Icelandic shield volcano whose name means "broad shield", from its resemblance to a warrior's shield....
that last erupted on May 13, 2005. The island was formed by the Galápagos hotspot

Galápagos hotspot

Gal?pagos hotspot is a volcano hotspot responsible for the formation of the Gal?pagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It lies below a section of the Galapagos Rise, the divergent boundary located between the South American coast and the triple junction of the Nazca Plate, the Cocos Plate, and the Pacific Plate ....
. The southern flank of the volcano had a fissure eruption that generated flows, which subsided within hours. This is the youngest and westernmost island of the archipelago.

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Fernandina Island (formerly known in English as Narborough Island, after John Narborough

John Narborough

Galápagos Islands

Shield volcano

Galápagos hotspot

Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, who sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Republic of Genoa navigator, colonialist and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?funded by Queen Isabella of Spain?led to general European awareness of the America in the Western Hemisphere....
.

On the 14th of February 1825, while anchored in Banks Bay, Captain Benjamin Morrell

Benjamin Morrell

Benjamin Morrell was an American seal hunting captain and explorer who between 1823 and 1831 made a series of voyages, mainly to the Southern Ocean and the Pacific Islands, which are recorded in a colourful memoir A Narrative of Four Voyages....
recorded one of the largest eruptions in Galapagos history at Fernandina Volcano. His ship escaped to safety and his account of the event was preserved.

Fernandina has an area of 642 km² and a height of 1,476 meters (4,842 feet), with a summit caldera

Caldera

A caldera is a cauldron-like volcano feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption such as the one at Yellowstone National Park....
about 6.5 km wide. The caldera underwent a collapse in 1968, when parts of the caldera floor dropped 350 meters. A small lake has intermittently occupied the northern caldera floor, most recently in 1988.

Due to its recent volcanic activity, the island does not present much plant life and it has a rather gray ambiance. Visitors to Fernandina Island will be taken to see only the outside skirts of this crater for safety reasons. Punta Espinoza is a narrow stretch of land where hundreds of marine iguana

Marine iguana

The Marine Iguana is an iguana found only on the Galapagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to live and forage in the sea....
s gather in large groups on black lava rocks. The famous Flightless Cormorant

Flightless Cormorant

The Flightless Cormorant , also known as the Galapagos Cormorant, is a cormorant native to the Galapagos Islands, and an example of the highly unusual fauna there....
inhabits this island as well as penguin

Penguin

Penguins are a group of Aquatic animal, flightless bird birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershading dark and white plumage, and their wings have become Flipper ....
s, pelican

Pelican

A pelican is a large water bird with a distinctive pouch under the beak, belonging to the bird Family Pelecanidae.Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobys, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans make up the order Pelecaniformes....
s and sea lion

Sea Lion

For other uses of the term "sea lion", see Sea lion .Sea lions are any of seven species in six genera of modern pinnipeds including one extinct ....
s. Two types of lava flow can be observed, ?a?a

Lava

Lava is molten Rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. When first expelled from a volcanic vent, it is a liquid at temperatures from 700 ?C to 1,200 ?C ....
and pahoehoe

Lava

Lava is molten Rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. When first expelled from a volcanic vent, it is a liquid at temperatures from 700 ?C to 1,200 ?C ....
. Mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline water coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. The word is used in at least three senses: most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal, for which the terms mangrove swamp and mangrove forest are also used, to refer to all trees and...
forests also abound on the island.

Fernandina Island

See also