Galapagos Islands
Bartolomé Island
January 2009
Bartolomé Island is a small volcanic island in Sullivan Bay, east of Santiago Island in Ecuador’s Galápagos archipelago. It was named for Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan, a surveyor and second lieutenant aboard HMS Beagle and a friend of Charles Darwin.
The island is best known for Pinnacle Rock, a steep, eroded volcanic formation rising beside the shoreline. Its surrounding landscape contains lava flows, spatter cones, craters, and deposits of volcanic tuff formed during different periods of volcanic activity.
Bartolomé’s exposed terrain supports relatively sparse vegetation. Pioneer plants colonize volcanic surfaces where soil and freshwater are limited. Among the most distinctive is the endemic lava cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus), which grows directly from barren lava and develops yellow new growth that gradually darkens with age.
The island forms part of Galápagos National Park and the Galápagos Islands UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its volcanic formations provide visible evidence of the geological processes that continue to shape the archipelago.
