Arrivals of Life to the Galapagos

In this book, Guillermo Paz-y-Miño-C and Avelina Espinosa synthesize the events connecting the accidental discovery of the Galapagos Islands by Tomas de Berlanga in 1535 with Charles Darwin's exploration of the archipelago in 1835, Herman Melville's sketches of The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles, of 1856, and the geopolitics to control Baltra Island, or 'The Rock', where the United States established a military base from 1942 to 1946, during World War II. These themes are intertwined with discussions about the historical cartography of the Galapagos Islands, the geology of the archipelago, the hypotheses about the origins of the Galapagos terrestrial and marine organisms, and comparisons between Galapagos and other archipelagos, particularly Hawai'i. Offering over 250 figures and diagrams, this work will appeal to a broad audience, including professors in academia, college instructors, study-abroad and international field-trip leaders (with destination Galapagos), science writers, and policymakers.