La Cumbre volcano

About La Cumbre volcano: 

• It is located on Fernandina Island – the third largest island in the Galápagos Islands.
• It lies directly atop the mantle plume, or hotspot, that produced all of the Galápagos Island.
• It is located around 1,125 kilometres off mainland Ecuador and erupted for the first time since 2020
• The volcano has a large crater, or caldera, at its summit that harbors a permanent crater lake.
• This lake attracts a wide variety of animals including tens of thousands of Galápagos land iguanas (Conolophus subcristatus) that lay their eggs in nests within the caldera.

Key facts about Galápagos land iguana

• It is one of three species of land iguana endemic to the Galapagos Islands (the others being the Santa Fe land iguana and the Galapagos pink land iguana).
• It is a very large species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. It is primarily an herbivore species.
• This large cold-blooded reptile has a mutualistic relationship with finches, which can often be seen sitting on their backs, picking ticks from between their scales. 
• It is active during the day, spending their time foraging or basking on rocks; at night they sleep in burrows.
• Conservation status

IUCN: Vulnerable

Q1: What is a crater?

It is a bowl-shaped depression, or hollowed-out area, produced by the impact of a meteorite, volcanic activity, or an explosion.

Source: Lava spewing from volcano on Galápagos Islands destroying habitat of rare land iguanas

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