Clarion Island

Clarion Island, formerly Santa Rosa, is the second largest, westernmost and most remote of Mexico's Revillagigedo Islands. The island is located west of Socorro Island and over from the Mexican mainland. It has an area of and three prominent peaks. The westernmost and tallest peak, Monte Gallegos, is high. The central peak is called Monte de la Marina, , and the eastern peak Pico de la Tienda . The coasts are backed by perpendicular cliffs, high, with the exception of the middle part of the southern coast in the vicinity of Bahía Azufre (Sulphur Bay), which is the location of a small military garrison with a contingent of 9 soldiers. Two small and at least temporarily brackish pools are the only source of fresh water; even these may dry up in summers with little rain. Clarion can only be reached by sea, which from Mexico takes 30 hours. History No signs to indicate prehistoric human activity have ever been found on Clarion Island. It was visited in late 1542 by the Spanish navigator Ruy López de Villalobos, but with the exception of a possible re-sighting of the Revillagigedos by Juan Fernández de Ladrillero before 1574 and a short-lived residence by the adventurer Martín Yáñez de Armida on the island he later renamed Socorro (1606), the archipelago was neglected by the Spaniards. Joris van Spilbergen's sighting of the whole group in December 1615 seems not to have been noted in Spain or its American colonies.