Geosites in the Galápagos Islands Used for Geology Education Programs

Abstract

The Galápagos Islands are a group of basaltic volcanic islands built above a hotspot on the Nazca Plate. The societal history of the islands has included efforts toward both conservation and tourism. An inventory of geosites has been identified from among the Galapagos National Park sanctioned tourist sites. These sites demonstrate the volcanic history and processes of the islands. The majority of these sites are located within the Galápagos National Park and thus are only accessible when accompanied by licensed naturalist guides. While many visitors to the Galápagos Islands are interested in tours related to biodiversity, as an alternative, an educational program based on the geologic history of the islands and the features of hotspot volcanism can be conducted by utilizing these geosites. Such a program can be run using an itinerary that allows for visits to a large number of sites on several islands.

The magnitude rule in geoheritage site inventories

“…Volcanic areas have also frequently been evaluated for geoheritage and geotourism promotion, and an implicit criterion of magnitude is once again evident in the works analysed (e.g. Guijón et al, 2011; Tefogoum et al, 2014; Velazquez et al, 2014, Kelley and Salazar, 2017; Pérez-Umaña et al, 2019; Bussar and Reynard., 2022). These inventories attribute prime relevance to prominent craters (a main crater ∼1320 m in diameter) and cinder cones (∼220 m high and ∼950 m in diameter) in Poás (Costa Rica), Paricutín (Mexico) and Teide (Spain); to large and spectacular collapse craters and long volcanic tubes in Santa Cruz (Galapagos islands); to an unusual and prominent impact crater (of ∼3.6 km and ∼275 m depth) in Colônia (São Paulo, Brazil); and to kilometric diameter-depth calderas, large crater lakes, clusters of volcanic cones and spectacular culminating domes (the highest points of the caldera) in Manengouba Volcano (Cameroon).…”

Geotourism: definition, characteristics and international perspectives

“…In some related parks and other areas, geotourism is being used to promote geoheritage. They include the geologic park of Aliaga, Spain (Escorihuela and Dowling, 2015); the US Fossil Parks (Clary and Wandersee, 2014); Sheringham Park, England (Daniels and Veale, 2015); a region in southeastern Serbia (Began et al, 2017); and in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (Kelley and Salazar, 2017). Many regions have also been assessed for their potential for geotourism.…”

InterGEO: a Digital Platform for University Education on Geomorphological Heritage

“…For example, mountain geosites are openair laboratories for environmental education for their high geodiversity, the activity of processes and their sensitivity to climate change (Reynard and Coratza 2016;Bollati et al 2017a). Also, sites exposed to natural hazards (Coratza and De Waele 2012;Ferrero and Magagna 2015;Bollati et al 2017b), volcanic sites (Kelley and Salazar 2017), karstic sites (North and van Beynen 2016) and even cliffs equipped for climbing (Bollati et al 2016) are important landmarks where to promote geological education. Geoparks (UNESCO 2016;Miśkiewicz 2016) and protected areas with geological interest (Serrano and González Trueba 2011;Ilieș et al 2017) are other privileged places to develop environmental education activities based on geological material.…”