Ecuador – Volcano erupts in Galapagos

“# Galápagos the Wolf volcano has erupted,” Galápagos National Park (PNG) said on social media, with park wardens “monitoring developments.”

At 12:20 pm (5:20 am GMT) on Friday, Guido’s Geophysical Institute reported a “new eruption of a volcano” at an altitude of 1,707 meters on Isabella Island, emitting nearly 3,800 gases of ash and ash. M above sea level.

“There is no population near the volcano or in the direction of the gray clouds,” the company said in a statement.

However, Ecuadorian authorities and officials have not clarified whether the rare population of pink iguanas living there is endangered.

The previous eruption of the highest volcano in the Galapagos Archipelago, the world’s largest biosphere reserve for flora and fauna, 1000 km off the coast of Ecuador, occurred in 2015 after 33 years of inactivity.

It did not affect the rare fauna of Isabella Island, where in 2009, pink iguanas (Gonolopus marte) were recorded.

A study last year identified 211 specimens of this species, which are considered to be critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The trip found that they live exclusively on an area of ​​25 square kilometers and estimated that “being confined to a single site makes the species more vulnerable”.

On the slopes of Wolf Volcano there are also yellow lizards (Gonolopus subchristatus), native and giant tortoises (Selonoidis pecki).

Isabella, the largest of the 19 islands and about 40 islands of the Galapagos Islands, is also home to the volcanoes Darwin, Alsato, Zero Azul and Sierra Negra.