Galapagos Tour Pictures.

Galapagos Overview

The Galapagos islands are a group of hot spot volcanoes, in many ways similar to those in Hawaii, but they have been studied to a much smaller extent than their Hawaiian cousins. They consist mostly of basalt, and for the most part their eruptions are non explosive. However, there are a number of important differences. For example, there is no clear linear age progression as there is in Hawaii. As you can see from the comparison diagram, the Galapagos volcanoes are also smaller than Hawaiian volcanoes, and many of them are a good deal steeper.

The most active Galapagos volcanoes comprise the islands of Fernandina (1 volcano) and Isabela (6 volcanoes). Other Galapagos volcanoes that have erupted since the islands were settled (in the 1500's) include Marchena, Santiago, and Pinta. A few geologists have made studies of the Galapagos volcanoes, including Tom Simkin of the Smithsonian Institution, Alexander McBirney of the University of Oregon, and Dennis Geist of the University of Idaho. Here at the University of Hawaii we have mainly relied on remote sensing data to study the Galapagos volcanoes. We have applied what we know from studies of Hawaii to what we can see in satellite images in an attempt to understand why these rarely-visited volcanoes are both similar and different.

The Galapagos Tour

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