Galapagos lava tubes

There are few places in the world that are still untouched, the Galapagos archipelago is certainly one of them. Made famous thanks to the work “The origin of the species” by Charles Darwin, these thirteen volcanic islands are still little known especially from the underground point of view. Three years after our first prospecting, this year we returned taking part to an expedition organized by American speleologists from the Cave Research Foundation who have been exploring the forests of the archipelago in search of lava tubes for several years and the Italian association La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche. The main objective of the expedition was to continue research on the island of Santa Cruz, the second largest island of the archipelago.

Some of the most interesting features from a geological point of view have also been detected with a laser scanner, this will allow us to compare the morphologies present in the Galapagos caves with other volcanic cavities already detected with the same technology.

We come back home as usual with the feeling of having seen few things and convinced that there will still be much to explore among those forests…