Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Early human migration essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Galapagos Islands, located about 600 miles west of continental Ecuador, contain a rich history of settlement and exploration and represent a living example of evolution that is still relevant today. For centuries, this chain of volcanic islands has been used uniquely by various cultures based off distinct needs. What has remained the same however is the fact that island isolation has forced many animal and plant species to adapt differently from one another based off their island’s environmental conditions, creating a living model of microevolution over time. Today, these models tend to be the primary resources used by biology professors when teaching their students evolutionary topics.
The Galapagos Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean with a chain that stretches as far as 220 kilometers from the most northern to the most southern island. This archipelago of volcanic islands is positioned in a way where some islands are found north of the Equator and others are found south of the Equator. There is even one island, Volcan Wolf, which is positioned directly on the equatorial line. The Galapagos has absolutely no indigenous population, and those 25,000 citizens that do live there now speak primarily Spanish. There are a total of 18 main islands, 3 small islands, and 107 islets (very small islands).
Volcanism is a major part of the Galapagos and their formation. The island chain is positioned on the Nazca Plate, which is subducting beneath the South American Plate at a geologically rapid pace of 2.5 inches per year. In addition, this Nazca Plate is located directly on top of the Galapagos Hotspot. It is here that mantle plumes melt Earth’s crust, creating volcanoes as a product. The oldest island was first shaped by this ...
... middle of paper ...
...N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
"History of the Islands." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
.
Abzhanov, Arhat. "Darwin's Galápagos Finches in Modern Biology."Darwin's Galápagos Finches in Modern Biology. The Royal Society, 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
Baldwin, C. C. (2000). Galapagos: Islands of change. Science Scope, 23(4), 32. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/226020979?accountid=14585 The Galapagos Finches (Geospizinae) A Study in Variation by David Lack
Review by: J. T. Zimmer The Auk, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Oct., 1945), pp. 644-645
"Galapagos Conservancy Postcard." Galapagos Conservancy. Galapagos Conservancy, 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
Island arcs form as oceanic plate subducts under oceanic plate. Volcanism is concentrated in an arc of volcanoes, generally approximately located above the leading edge of the subducting plate. A trench often forms where the slabs meet and subduction begins. On the non subducting slab a series of basins form, with a fore-arc basin nearest the subduction/trench, then the main arc, and a back-arc basin on the far side (Mitchell and Reading, 1971; Frisch, Meschede and Blakey, 2010).
a. a. a. a. a James H. Pickering, a.k.a. New York: MacMillan, 1985. 426-34. Kristal, Leonard, ed., pp. 113-117.
U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). Mud volcanoes of the Orinoco Delta, Eastern Venezuela. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70023450
Sledge, E. B. World War II Reference Library. Ed. Barbara C. Bigelow, et al. Vol. 4: Primary
Kurt Vonnegut's Galapagos was written one million years ahead of the year 1986 AD. In this book, Vonnegut argues that the ultimate effect of humanity's sociological problems with technology is that man's intelligence will be the downfall and destruction of the human race. The essential point made by Vonnegut in this work is that the "great big brains" of humanity drives people to go further into technology and create new weapons that will lead to the demolition of man kind; Vonnegut disagreed against virtually every technological development (made by “big brains”).
William Cullen Bryant, II. The New England Quarterly. Vol 21. No 2. (Jun., 1948): 163-184.
... Ed. James McIntosh. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1987. 389-404.
Clifford W.K. (1879) "Lectures and Essays, ed; L.Stephen and F Pollock, 2 vols, London, Macmillan, Vol 2, p70
The commonwealth island of Puerto Rico is located approximately 50 miles east of the Dominican Republic 40 miles west of the Virgin Islands and 1,000 miles of southeast U.S state Florida. Its latitude and longitude are 18.2500 N and 66.5000 W. It’s about 3,515 Sq miles long. Its population is about 3.667 million, the third largest Island in the U.S and, 82nd largest island in the world. The currency used in Puerto Rico was the peso but today’s currency in Puerto Rico is U.S Dollars. The languages spoken by the indigenous that lived there almost 400 years ago were {the Taino Indians} a language derived from an Arawakians Language and, mixed with languages of the Spaniards that tried to colonize the island. The owners before the U.S were Spain but with the 1898 Treaty of Paris Spain handed the land of Puerto Rico to the U.S.
Franck, James, et al. The Franck Report. June 11, 1945. Online. Internet. Available at HTTP: http://www.dannen.com/decision/franck.html. 1 Oct. 2001.
Zacherl, Danielle. “Biology 171 Evolution and Biodiversity.” National Association of Research in Science Teaching 2007 Annual Meeting, New Orleans LA. (2007):n. page. Print.
Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams. 8th ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 1891
Throughout the centuries, ancient castaways, pirates, conquistadors and scientists have encountered the enchanted islands prior to Darwin and their accounts of the mysterious Galápagos gave way to myths. With the fantastical creatures that could not be found on any other part of the world, the mystery of the islands led to more curious expeditions. Popularity began to surround the islands as the Spanish and British governments began to commission expeditions to the Galápagos in the late 18th century and early 19th century. This time could be easily compared to the “Caifornian Gold Rush of the eighteen fifties”(Hickman, 61) as the islands quickly became frequented by ships that would thin the populations of the many tortoises and whales on the premises and surrounding waters. Voyagers would arrive on the group of islands to take these rare animals to the elite, making meats and soaps available for profit. After the “Gold Rush”, c...
The Caribbean region extends from Barbados in the East, Trinidad and Tobago in the South, to the Bahamas in the North and Cuba in the West (Edwards, 2013, Unit 10 ). A rich cultural heritage is one of the regions most prized possessions, dear to the heart of its people. Merriam-Webster(2013) defines culture as “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time”
The inhabited islands clustered in the Caribbean Sea are an interesting study in cultural and social identity. Colonized by european powers from the Fifteenth Century, the Caribbean islands have become mixtures of cultures from Europe, Africa, and India, as well as from the original inhabitants of the islands. As a result, describing and defining the Caribbean is a much more difficult task than it appears on the surface. The norms and ideas of identity and history that exist on one island are vastly different than those that exist on a near neighbor, despite similarities in geography and history.