Santa Cruz Island (), also known as Indefatigable Island and by other names, is the most populous and second-largest

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

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 ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Situated in the middle of the group, Santa Cruz 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 ...

with an area of and a maximum altitude of . The seat of Santa Cruz Canton is

Puerto Ayora Puerto Ayora is a town in central Galápagos Province, Galápagos, Ecuador. Located on the southern shore of Santa Cruz Island (Galápagos), Santa Cruz Island, it is the Canton seat, seat of Santa Cruz Canton. The town is named in honor of Isidro ...

on Santa Cruz. The island's total population is around 18,000 with those living in smaller villages chiefly working in agriculture and cattle raising.

Names

The island's original

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 ...

name was San Clemente Island ( or ) in honor of St. Clement. This was changed to Bolivia Island () in honor of the South American revolutionary hero

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

upon the islands' annexation by Ecuador in 1832 and then to ''Santa Cruz'' (, "Holy Cross") in reference to

the cross The Christian cross, seen as representing the crucifixion of Jesus, is a religious symbol, symbol of Christianity. It is related to the crucifix, a cross that includes a ''corpus'' (a representation of Jesus' body, usually three-dimensional) a ...

upon which

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

was

crucified Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Carthaginians, ...

during the 1892 renaming of the islands upon 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 ...

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 ...

's first voyage. It was also sometimes known as Chavez 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 ...

named the island the Duke of Norfolk's Island in 1684, later shortened to Norfolk Island, in honor of either Henry Howard, 6th

Duke of Norfolk Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The premier non-royal peer, the Duke of Norfolk is additionally the premier duke and earl in the English peerage. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the t ...

, or his son Henry, the 7th Duke of Norfolk, or possibly both. It was later renamed Indefatigable Island in honor of the

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Rating When the rating system was f ...

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

HMS ''Indefatigable'', which distinguished itself during the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

and later saw service in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

's South America squadron.

Geography

Santa Cruz is an oval-shaped island long and wide. It has an area of and a maximum altitude of . Santa Cruz is the second-largest island after Isabela.

Geology

The island is a

. Its summit contains a shallow

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 ...

that has been largely buried by youthful

pit crater A pit crater (also called a subsidence crater or collapse crater) is a depression formed by the sinking or collapse of the surface lying above a void or empty chamber, rather than by the eruption of a volcano or lava vent. Pit craters are found ...

s and

cinder cone A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep, volcanic cone, conical landform of loose pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic ash, clinkers, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are forme ...

s with well-preserved craters. The most recent eruptions may have occurred only a few thousand years ago with the effusion of sparsely vegetated lava flows from vents on the north flank and along the summit

fissure A fissure is a long, narrow crack opening along the surface of Earth. The term is derived from the Latin word , which means 'cleft' or 'crack'. Fissures emerge in Earth's crust, on ice sheets and glaciers, and on volcanoes. Ground fissure A ...

. A gigantic

lava tube A lava tube, more rarely called a pyroduct, is a 'roofed conduit through which molten lava travels away from its vent'. If lava in the tube drains out, it will leave an empty cave. Lava tubes are common in low-viscosity volcanic systems. La ...

measuring over long is a tourist attraction on the island. As a testimony to its volcanic history there are two big holes formed by the collapse of a

magma chamber A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it u ...

known as "The Twins" ().

Plant life

Tortuga Bay is located on the Santa Cruz Island near Puerto Ayora where fauna such as

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 ...

s, birds, Galapagos crabs can be seen. There is also a mangrove where white tip reef sharks and the gigantic

Galápagos tortoise The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (''Chelonoidis niger'') is a very large species of tortoise in the genus ''Chelonoidis'' (which also contains three smaller species from mainland South America). The species comprises 15 subsp ...

s can be sighted.

Climate

Demographics

Santa Cruz hosts the largest human population in the archipelago at the town of

, with a total of 18,000 residents on the island.

Points of interest

* Charles Darwin Research Station * Headquarters of the

Galápagos National Park Galápagos National Park () was established in 1959. It began operation in 1968, and it is Ecuador's first national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Park history The government of Ecuador has designated 97% of the land area of the Gal ...

Service *

Lava tube A lava tube, more rarely called a pyroduct, is a 'roofed conduit through which molten lava travels away from its vent'. If lava in the tube drains out, it will leave an empty cave. Lava tubes are common in low-viscosity volcanic systems. La ...

s * El Chato and Rancho Primicias Giant Tortoise Reserves * Itabaca Channel * Black Turtle Cove * Cerro Dragón * Tortuga Bay * Playa El Garrapatero * Los Gemelos * Stand of

Scalesia ''Scalesia'' is a genus in the family Asteraceae endemic to the Galapagos Islands. It contains fifteen species that grow as shrubs or trees. This is unusual, because tree species are uncommon in Asteraceae. The genus ''Scalesia'' resulted from a ...

- daisy trees

Sister cities

On June 19, 2002, the cities of

Seabrook, Texas Seabrook is a city in Harris County, Texas, Harris County, Texas, United States, with some water surface area located within Chambers County, Texas, Chambers County. The population was 13,618 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census. S ...

and Santa Cruz Island finalized a

sister city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inte ...

status during a ceremony at Seabrook City Hall. Charles Darwin Research Station
/ref>

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . {{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Cruz Island (Galapagos) Islands of the Galápagos Islands Calderas of the Galápagos Islands Polygenetic shield volcanoes