Fernandina Island

Fernandina ( Narborough Iceland English ) is the third largest of the Galapagos Islands. The island gets its name in honor of King Fernando II of Spain, who funded the voyages of Christopher Columbus.

The original name of the island of Narborough was given in 1684 by the privateer William Cowley, who visited the island group of the Galapagos on a circumnavigation ( 1683-1686 ) under William Dampier and had a first detailed map of the archipelago made ​​. He named the islands after various British kings, counts and admirals, including today's Fernandina in honor of Admiral Sir John Narborough.

Fernandina has an area of 642 km ² and reaches the summit of the volcano Cumbre a height of 1476 m. Fernandina is the geologically youngest and westernmost island of the archipelago ( located north-west without considering the far (140 to 180 km), very small and isolated islands of Wolf and Darwin).

The last eruption of the Cumbre dated 10 April 2009 when a cloud of ash and steam rose and poured lava on the slopes along to the sea and the animal and plant life threatened.

On the black lava rocks of the narrow promontory of Punta Espinoza there is a colony of hundreds of marine iguanas. Furthermore, the island of the endangered stub cormorants ( Flightless Cormorant, Phalacrocorax harrisi ) is populated, also by hordes of penguins, pelicans and sea lions.

Along the coast of the island can be found scattered mangrove forests.