(from the the Spanish galapago -
tortoise), tortoise islands,
archipelago is column (Galapagos, Colons), the group of islands in the quiet ok., under the
equator, to 3. from S. America. It belongs To ekuadoru.
Only 16 islands of general pl. 7,8 thousand. km2.
Us. 3,1 thousand man. (1967). G. - vulkanich. of origin
from is much -cisl. cones of the extinct and active volcanoes, vye. to
1707 m. Climate is
equatorial dry; islands wash by the cold Peru Current, which
moderates the heat (cf. annual the rate -.pa of и°S). Vegetation - preim. of
xerophyte ye succulent bushes. On G. the
representatives of fauna and flora of tropics and Transarctic circle
tightly get along: liana and mosses, tropich. of bird and
seagull from Antarctic, parrots and penguins, seals. Abundance
of endemikov. Are characteristic the disappearing gigantic
tortoises and the lizards of iguany. In 1965 it is declared by
national park. The material of personal observations on g. is
used h. By Darwin for the
substantiation of the theory of origin of species.
Lit.: Darwin h., the journey of
naturalist around the light aboard the ship "bigl'", M., 1954;
Re.terso.n R T., The Galapagos Eerie cradle of new species,
"National Geographic Magazine", 1967, V. 131, № 4.
