Galapagos Map

Resting on the Nazca tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean approximately 600 miles west of Ecuador, the actively volcanic Galápagos Islands were discovered in 1535 by the bishop of Panama, Tomás de Berlanga, when his ship drifted off course. In 1835, naturalist Charles Darwin, aboard the H.M.S Beagle, arrived in the Galápagos and spent 5 weeks collecting geological and biological specimens from several islands, noting his surprise at the varie...