Galápagos Islands summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Galapagos Islands.

Galápagos Islands, Spanish Archipiélago de Colón, Island group and province (pop., 2010: 25,124) of Ecuador, eastern Pacific Ocean. The Galápagos are a group of 19 islands lying on the Equator 600 mi (1,000 km) west of the mainland. Their total land area of 3,093 sq mi (8,010 sq km) is scattered over 23,000 sq mi (59,500 sq km) of ocean. Visited by the Spanish in 1535, they were unclaimed when Ecuador took official possession of them in 1832. They became internationally famous after being visited in 1835 by British naturalist Charles Darwin; their unusual fauna, including the giant tortoise (Spanish galápago), contributed to his ideas on natural selection. Ecuador made the Galápagos a wildlife sanctuary in 1935 and a national park in 1959; in 1978 they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

World Heritage site Summary

World Heritage site, any of various areas or objects inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List. The sites are designated as having “outstanding universal value” under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural

The Pacific Ocean, with depth contours and submarine features

Pacific Ocean Summary

Pacific Ocean, body of salt water extending from the 60° S parallel in the south to the Arctic in the north and lying between the continents of Asia and Australia on the west and North America and South America on the east. Of the three major oceans, the Pacific is by far the largest, occupying

Ecuador Summary

Ecuador, country of northwestern South America. Ecuador is one of the most environmentally diverse countries in the world, and it has contributed notably to the environmental sciences. The first scientific expedition to measure the circumference of Earth, led by Charles-Marie de La Condamine of

Map showing the countries of South America with national capitals and surrounding bodies of water, including the Atlantic and Pacific.

South America Summary

South America, fourth largest of the world’s continents. It is the southern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, or simply the Americas. The continent is compact and roughly triangular in shape, being broad in the north and tapering to a point—Cape