Welcome to the Galapagos Islands! The Galapagos are an archipelago of several volcanic islands located in the Pacific Ocean. The archipelago consists of 13 major islands, six minor islands, and 40 smaller rock formations and reefs spread out over 17,000 square miles of ocean. They are born to create fire, and in the last 200 years a remarkable 50 plus eruptions have occurred. Looking into the geographic location and plate tectonic settings can easily help show why more than 50 eruptions have occurred in such a short period of geologic time.
The Galapagos Islands are located on the equator west of the South American coast. Like many oceanic islands, they are formed by a mantle plume or hotspot like Hawaii. A major subduction zone currently sits under the islands, the two plates that are subducting beneath the South American and Caribbean plates are the Nazca and the Cocos plates. The Galapagos were created by the Cocos and the Nazca plate, which are currently moving......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: Galapagos Islands
Approximate Word Count: 489
Approximate Pages: 2 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on Galapagos Islands, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!