Located at approximately 560 miles or 900 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador lies a chain of islands that are like no other in the world.

These islands have been instrumental to our understanding of both biology and geology and

and remain a place of intense scientific study today.

In addition to scientists, it draws tourists, photographers, and even podcasters from all over the world.

Learn more about the Galapagos Islands and what makes them so special

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. There are different lenses that we can look through to understand the Galapagos Islands,

and the first of which would be the lens of geology.

The Galapagos Islands dates back at least 20 million years. They are the creation of what is known as a

hot spot in the Earth's mantle. There are other notable hot spot island chains in the world that

you're probably familiar with, including the Hawaiian Islands and the Canary Islands.

A hotspot is a plume that comes up from the Earth's mantle and comes through the Earth's crust to form a volcano.

Due to the movement of tectonic plates, this plume will create different islands over time.

The metaphor which is often used is that of a conveyor belt.

Imagine a conveyor belt that is moving over a stationary object that pops up and punctures it.

As the belt moves, there will be a series of holes in the conveyor belt.

Those holes would be the equivalent of islands created by a hotspot.

There are currently 18 major islands in the Galapagos chain and the majority of the islands are just south of the equator.

The largest island, Isabella, actually crosses the equator and there are two major islands north of the equator.

If you remember back to my previous episode on Darwin's other theory, during his trip to the

Galapagos he developed a theory on the development of coral reefs.

Basically, as an island is formed by a volcano,

a fringe reef will develop around the island.

...