Genovesa Island (), also known as Tower Island, is a

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava ...

in the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

in the

eastern Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The island occupies about , and its maximum elevation is . The horse-shoe shaped island has a volcanic

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

whose wall has collapsed, forming the Great Darwin Bay, surrounded by cliffs. The saltwater Lake Arcturus lies in the middle, and sediment within this

crater lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ) is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the Western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is a tourist attraction for its deep blue color and water clarity. T ...

is less than 6,000 years old. Although no historical eruptions are known from Genovesa, there are very young

lava flow Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fractu ...

s on the flanks of the volcano.

Names

''Genovesa'' is

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for "Genovese", named after the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

in honor of its native son

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

. The name was adopted in 1892 as part of Ecuador's celebration of the

quadricentennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries, typically called national days. These could be the date of independence of the nation or the adoption o ...

of Columbus's first voyage. It was previously known as Quita Sueño, Spanish for "Nightmare Island". The English pirate

William Ambrosia Cowley William Ambrosia Cowley, also known as Ambrose Cowley and Captain Cowley, was a 17th-century English people, English buccaneer who surveyed the Galápagos Islands during his 1683–1686 circumnavigation of the world while serving under several c ...

charted it as Eures's Island in 1684, which later became Eure or Eures Island. The origin of this name is uncertain, with two suggestions being William Ewres of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

and Ralph Eure, 8th

Baron Eure Baron Eure was a title in the Peerage of England. It was granted to Sir William Eure by Henry VIII in 1544. The Baron was thereafter called Lord Eure. The title became extinct with the death of Ralph Eure in 1690. The family name is also spelt ...

. The name ''Tower Island'' is believed to be a corruption of Lt. John Downes, an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

serving on the frigate ''Essex'' who recorded the island's position in 1813 during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. The name ''Dowers's Island'' appeared in 1815, presumably in misspelled reference to Downes, andafter passing through ''Dowers's'', ''Dowers'', and ''Tower's''it was finally written as ''Tower'' on an

Admiralty chart Admiralty charts are nautical charts issued by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) and subject to Crown Copyright. Over 3,500 Standard Nautical Charts (SNCs) and 14,000 Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) are available with the Admira ...

in 1841. The island is also sometimes known as Bird Island, from its large and varied colonies.

Wildlife

There are an abundance of

frigatebirds Frigatebirds are a family of seabirds called Fregatidae which are found across all tropical and subtropical oceans. The five extant species are classified in a single genus, ''Fregata''. All have predominantly black plumage, long, deeply forked ...

on Genovesa Island and it is among the best place in the archipelago to see

red-footed boobies The red-footed booby (''Sula sula'') is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. Adults always have red feet, but the colour of the plumage varies. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings. They are ...

, Nazca boobies,

swallow-tailed gull The swallow-tailed gull (''Creagrus furcatus'') is an equatorial seabird in the gull family, Laridae. It is the only species in the genus ''Creagrus'', which derives from the Latin ''Creagra'' and the Greek ''kreourgos'' which means butcher, al ...

storm petrel Storm petrel or stormy petrel may refer to one of two bird family (biology), families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: * Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the No ...

tropicbird Tropicbirds are a family, Phaethontidae, of tropical pelagic seabirds. They are the sole living representatives of the order Phaethontiformes. For many years they were considered part of the Pelecaniformes, but genetics indicates they are most ...

Darwin's finches Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about 18 species of passerine birds. They are well known for being a classic example of adaptive radiation and for their remarkable diversity in beak form and function. They ...

, and

Galápagos mockingbird The Galápagos mockingbird (''Mimus parvulus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. Systematics The Galápagos mockingbird is one of four mockingbird species endemic to the Galápagos Is ...

s. Prince Philip's Steps is an extraordinary steep path that leads through a

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

colony full of life, up to cliffs that are high. At the top, the trail continues inland, passing more seabird colonies in a thin forest. The trail also provides overviews of a rocky plain. Storm petrels here are different from any others in the world because they are active during the day. To avoid predators, they only return to their nest holes at night. The smallest

marine iguana The marine iguana (''Amblyrhynchus cristatus''), also known as the sea iguana, saltwater iguana, or Galápagos marine iguana, is a species of Iguanidae, iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador). Unique among modern lizards, it is a m ...

in the archipelago lives here.

Recreation

In Darwin Bay there is the possibility to either dive along the inner wall or go to the outer wall, which is less protected. Another possibility is to dive from the outside of the volcano through the channel into the caldera.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * . * .

External links

Images from Genovesa
{{Galápagos Islands Islands of the Galápagos Islands Seabird colonies Shield volcanoes of Ecuador Calderas of the Galápagos Islands Volcanic crater lakes Polygenetic shield volcanoes