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Galapagos Islands VolcanosThe volcanic set up of the islands can be explained by looking at the theories of Plate Tectonics and the Hot Spot. The platform where the islands started their volcanic growth lies right on top of the Nazca Plate. The rate of movement (call it island speed) is about 7 cm/year. Here are some facts on Galapagos island
These spots allow the liquid rock (magma) to percolate towards the plate filling up all cracks, crevices and in some cases reaching from below the bottom of the ocean, and eventually breaking the surface of the water. These forces create islands in the middle of the ocean, just like Iceland, Azores, Canary, and the closest example, Hawaii. As the plates move in one direction, and over time, a chain of islands will be formed. These islands will all be different in terms of age, altitude, and other physical factors like erosion, colonization, etc. In Galapagos, the islands to the east are older than those to the west, this implies that the Galapagos Hot Spot is right under the western islands Isabela and Fernandina. Here's more about the latest Galapagos eruption on Fernandina Island These differences should be also related to the amazing wildlife diversity found here. Without different ages, animal and plant colonization would have been a standard process. The age of the Galapagos varies, and islands like Española (Hood), Santa Fé (Barrington) and Floreana (Charles) belong the group of older islands with ages that range 4-5 million years. To the west, we find the youngest rocks on both Isabela (Albermarle) and Fernandina (Narborough); these barely reach a million years. Constant seismic activity, fumaroles, and an occasional large puff of water vapor, are signs of ongoing volcanic processes.
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