Galapagos: Fernandina

On the sixth day we visited the island of Fernandina. At 700,000 years old it is the youngest of these islands, and its lack of age shows. The area we landed in was quite lush. It was underwater until 1959, when an underground lava flow forced some of the shoreline above water. A Disney crew was filming in the area at the time. The returned to the area one morning to find the beach has been lifted up. Where there had been water, they found exposed ocean floor. They reported that fish were still flopping around and lobsters were crawling around on the ground.

You can still see where the old beach was. It is a bar of black sand separating the lush mangrove and poison apple forest from the forbidding a’a lava fields behind it. A’a lava comes from the Hawaiian word for pain because of its razor sharp edges. On the lava fields, only the hardiest of organisms can survive. Lava cactus is one of the pioneers on this island, finding enough to get by on from the dust and soil that accumulates in the cracks. A few trees have started to make it here, notably the incense tree – which has a delightful smell that can be used to keep the mosquitoes away.

Of course, for sea going animals, the quality of life inland is of little consequence, so the shores of the island are rich with marine iguanas, sea lions, boobys and shore birds. Despite that, life on shore can still be precarious. The volcano here is still very active. Active enough that it wiped out a breed of tortoise that once lived here. When it will erupt again is anyone’s guess.

But we can be certain it will. Fernandina is still growing, as is Isabella, the largest of the Galapagos Islands. Soon, at least by geological standards, they will be carried away from the hot spot and begin to erode back into the sea as they make the eastward journey towards Peru. Already, they are starting to be replaced. While Fernandina might well be a baby island, its replacement is already starting to gestate. Two miles off her western shore, Scientists have already discovered a new volcano starting to climb towards the surface.