page_title: Socorro Island
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Socorro Island / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Küste der Insel Socorro, Mexiko English: Coastline of Socorro Island, Mexico Español: Costa de la Isla Socorro, México
context_page_description: Socorro Island is a small volcanic island in the Revillagigedo Islands, a Mexican possession lying 600 kilometres off the country's western coast. The size is 16.5 by 11.5 km, with an area of 132 km². It is the largest of the four islands of the Revillagigedo Archipelago.
context_section_description: No evidence of human habitation on Socorro exists before its discovery by Spanish explorers. Hernando de Grijalva and his crew discovered an uninhabited island on 19 December 1533 and named it Santo Tomás. In 1542, Ruy López de Villalobos, while exploring new routes across the Pacific, rediscovered Inocentes and renamed it Isla Anublada ("Cloudy Island") due to the clouds frequently forming on the northern slopes of Mount Evermann, and again in 1608, Martín Yañez de Armida, in charge of another expedition, visited Santo Tomás and changed its name to Isla Socorro after Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Virgen del Perpetuo Socorro).
  At the beginning of the twentieth century, Barton Warren Evermann, director of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco promoted the scientific exploration of the island. The most comprehensive biological collections were obtained at this time. The volcano on Socorro was renamed in his honor.
  Archie Smith, an American laborer from San Diego, was abandoned on the island for one month in 1929 before being rescued by a passing fishing boat.
  In September 1997, Hurricane Linda passed near the island near peak intensity causing minor damage to the island.
caption: Offshore Socorro Island
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