A giant tortoise is seen on the Galapagos islands April 29, 2007. A volcano in the Galapagos islands spewed molten lava, threatening 100-year-old giant tortoises living around the crater, island officials said on Friday. (Guillermo Granja/Reuters)
Posted on 05/30/2008 4:31:49 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
QUITO, Ecuador - A volcano on the largest of the Galapagos Islands has begun erupting and authorities are evaluating possible dangers to the island's famed plant and animal life, officials said Friday.
Rangers and tour guides spotted lava flowing down the northeastern flank of the Cerro Azul volcano on the seahorse-shaped island of Isabela late Thursday, the Galapagos National Park said in a statement.
Ecuador's Geophysics Institute said that satellite data and a flyover of the island by park officials showed a "small amount of ash" coming out of the volcano, located on the southwestern edge of the island.
The eruption is not endangering people on the island, park official Vinicio Pauta said.
The 5,600-foot (1,690-meter) Cerro Azul — one of five active volcanoes on the island — last erupted in September 1998, causing minor damage to plant life. Cerro Azul is located in the unpopulated southwestern corner of the island.
The Galapagos Islands, 625 miles (1,000 kilometers) off of Ecuador's Pacific coast, are known for unique plant and animal life, including giant tortoises, marine iguanas and seabirds known as blue-footed boobies. Charles Darwin's observations of the islands' finches helped inspire his theory of evolution.
A giant tortoise is seen on the Galapagos islands April 29, 2007. A volcano in the Galapagos islands spewed molten lava, threatening 100-year-old giant tortoises living around the crater, island officials said on Friday. (Guillermo Granja/Reuters)
A giant Galapagos turtle walks along the Charles Darwin Station in Ayora Port in the Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador. A volcano on the largest of the Galapagos islands has erupted and is threatening rare giant tortoises that live in the area, Ecuadoran officials said Friday. (AFP/File/Martin Bernetti)
Ban all volcanos, or put filters on them and tax them for emitting excess greenhouse gases!;)
karma!
Don’t worry—it’s survival of the fittest. Those that cannot evolve must dissolve!
It looks like that tortoise is sprinting from danger!
They are nothing special. Let them evolve, just like us animals. Survival of the Fittest... Volcano.
I'd suggest we get her to kidnap Algore and we'd airdrop him into the volcano's crater.
Darwin Award!!!!
Skiing the Pacific Ring of Fire and Beyond
http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/ROF.php?name=Azul
Galapagos Islands volcano - Cerro Azul
http://www.galapagoscruise.com.ec/index.pl/geology-cerro-azul-volcano
Cerro Azul volcano occupies the southwest corner of Isla Isabela (Albermarle Island). Although smaller than it neighbor to the west, Sierra Negra, at 1690 m (5541 feet) its summit is higher. Cerro Azul is quite active, with 9 known historic eruptions, the most recent of which began in Sept, 1998 and has continued into October. That eruption was somewhat unusual because lava erupted both from a vent near the eastern base and from a vent within the caldera. Because of its remoteness, it is likely that many eruptions over the last several hundred years have gone unnoticed. The composition of Cerro Azul’s lavas is quite uniform and rather similar to that of Sierra Negra’s. Both Cerro Azul and Sierra Negra have strong enrichments in incompatible elements, indications that these melts are derived primarily from the Galapagos mantle plume rather than entrained asthenosphere.
Cerro Azul’s caldera is elongate in a ENE-WMW direction and is among the smallest in the western Galapagos, measuring roughly 4 km by 3 km. Nevertheless, at 650 m (2000 ft), it is among the deepest of the calderas in the western Galapagos. The caldera is quite complex, with numerous embayments and benches, indicating it formed not in a single event, but through multiple collapses. A large cinder cone may be seen in the caldera floor. Numerous young flows erupted from an arcuate vent system on south rim of the caldera, and cascaded down the caldera wall to pond in the caldera floor. A lake has developed in the last decade or so and now occupies much of the northeast half of the caldera floor. Caldera lakes are not uncommon in the Galapagos, but they are rarely permanent.
Nature’s Irony......if I recall correctly the animal life on this island was used as a supporting source for Evolution. Now, it seems Mother Nature is ‘evolving’ it.....can’t be any more ironic than this... (that is, unless ‘Big Gay Al and his band of environmental dynamic duds actually have the balls to come up with a theory that CO2 is somehow boring deep down into the earth’s crust and upsetting the magma).
Today, only 15,000 of these giants are left.
There were 15 subspecies, although only 11 still exist today. They have become extinct because of overhunting, and the introduction of goats, pigs, dogs and other animals which trample or eat the tortoise eggs and compete for food. Most like the upland areas of the large islands because of the humidity, grassy fields and ponds. The largest populations are in Alcedo, Isabela and Santa Cruz.
Over the Hill
Some of the most impressive facts about the Galapagos Giant Tortoise is that they keep growing for 30 to 40 years, reaching almost five feet. They also weigh about 500 pounds. These are the largest tortoises in the world. In general, they are the longest living of all vertebrates (animals with backbones). Because of their life span, it's possible that some of the old-timers in Galapagos today hatched about the time of Darwin's visit (1835).
The oldest giant tortoise on record lived 152 years. Reliable records of tortoise life spans aren't available yet because people haven't been observing them long enough.
The Facts
Throughout the 19th century, giant tortoises were valued by sailors as food supply. They discovered that these docile animals could live for months without food or water, flipped on their backs, and stacked in the cargo hold of a ship. This gave the sailors a ready source of fresh meat when there was no land in sight. Historical records show that tens of thousands of tortoises were collected from the Galapagos, Seychelles, Mascarenes, and other islands.
Only one male, Lonesome George, of the four extinct races exists. Previously he lived on Pinta Island, but is presently kept at the Charles Darwin Research Station.
CALL IN THE (HEAVY) AIRLIFT CREWS
These creatures are almost extinct, if George has anything to do with it; and we hear nothing about their sad slow demise by the reasons mentioned above, until this ACTIVE volcano suddenly burps.
We may well see a rescue operation launched depending on how big the eruption is and where the flow go.. this is still early on.. the volcano may fizzle.. like it has before, it’s pretty remote..
Common sense or history says these long living tortoises (one even 152 years old) have lived through other eruptions.
Another global warming spoof.
Wonder if Lonesome George (aka Hugh Hefner) gets conjugal visits....
Does anyone know when this volcanoe is going to get a CO2 Ration card?
These volcanoes put more CO2 in the atmosphere in one day then man will do in one year. But of coarse the media will not report this.
Iguanas and tortoises hit hardest.
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Ha!
NOT Bush’s fault! - Correa’s Fault!
“These volcanoes put more CO2 in the atmosphere in one day then man will do in one year”
Try 100 years.
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