Revillagigedo Islands
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How it came to be
The Revillagigedo Islands are four volcanic islands in the Pacific, about 386 km south-west of the tip of the Baja California peninsula: San Benedicto, Socorro, Roca Partida and Clarion. They are the peaks of volcanoes on a submarine mountain range, and there is no evidence of human habitation before the Spanish arrived. In December 1533 the ships of Hernando de Grijalva sighted Socorro and San Benedicto.
The islands are named after Juan Vicente de Guemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, viceroy of New Spain. In 1861 President Benito Juarez placed them under the state of Colima and planned a penal colony on Socorro, which was never built. The Mexican Navy set up a base on Socorro in 1957, and apart from small naval stations the islands are uninhabited.
Isolation has produced many endemic species, and Townsend's shearwater breeds nowhere else in the world. The surrounding waters draw up to 20 species of shark, large gatherings of giant manta rays and, in winter, humpback whales. Introduced sheep, pigs and cats damaged the islands and have been eradicated or reduced. The archipelago was inscribed in 2016, and in 2017 about 150,000 km² around it became a national park.
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