Сан-Сальвадор аралы: тарих, геология және биоәртүрлілік

San Salvador Island of the Galápagos

Christopher Columbus's voyages west were sponsored by Spain in the hopes that he would reach China and the East Indies, circumventing both Turkish and Portuguese control of the eastern and southern routes of the lucrative spice trade. Letters from Columbus to the Spanish monarchs IsabellaI of Castile and FerdinandII of Aragon record that the first island sighted during his first voyage was known to its Lucayan inhabitants as Guanahaní and that he renamed it San Salvador in thanks to God. "timid to a surprising degree", despite forcing his crew to stop cheating them in exchanges of random trash for items of great worth, including one who received 12 g of gold for a used leather strap. Despite their general intelligence, the naval historian Samuel E. Morison; and the Benedictine priest Chrysostom Schreiner eventually led to the island's 1926 renaming. Fr. Schreiner relocated to San Salvador, where his tomb is still preserved. More recently, the National Geographic Society, Keith Pickering, and others have argued for alternative locations, including Samana Cay.

The island now called San Salvador was settled in the 17th century by the English buccaneer George or John Watling. Britain formally colonized the Bahamas in the early 18th century. During the Cold War, the United States Navy's Mobile Construction Battalion 7 constructed a long range navigation (LORAN) station on Grahams Harbor at the north end of the island from 1957 to 1959. After the LORAN station was decommissioned, it became the Bahamian Field Station and then the Gerace Research Center. More than 1,000 students and researchers work from the station every year as a base of operations for studying tropical marine geology, biology, and archeology. San Salvador has required extensive rebuilding following Hurricane Lili in 1996, Hurricane Floyd in 1999, and Hurricane Joaquin in 2015. Floyd in particular caused considerable beach erosion. Fossilized staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) are present near the crest of the fossil reef and other corals such as Montastraea annularis, [[Brain coral, and Porites are scattered in the periphery. San Salvador is also known for the quick dropoff of the submerged platform of the island, allowing for numerous deep dive sites. The western coast has many wall reefs with steep drop offs, while the northern coast has many shallow barrier reefs, particularly surrounding the large shallow lagoon of Grahams Harbor. There are three endemic fish species found only in the inland hypersaline lakes on this island. The scale eating pupfish (Cyprinodon desquamator), the molluscivore pupfish (Cyprinodon brontotheroides), and the widemouth pupfish (Cyprinodon sp. widemouth) are all endemic to this island (Martin and Wainwright 2011, 2013, Richards et al. 2021). The Dixon Hill lighthouse is located on the island south of Dixon Hill Settlement on the east side of the island. It is approximately 160 feet (49 m) tall and was constructed in 1887 by the Imperial Lighthouse Service. There are also several monuments, ruins, and shipwrecks in the area.

The seat of local government is Cockburn Town, with a population of 271 (2010). The current administrator is Gilbert C. Kemp.