[5] There are eight bays surrounding Socorro: three on the southern end of island — Vargas Lozano, Braithwaite, and Lucio Gallardo Pavon; Ensenada Grayson on the southwest; Blanca on the northwest with two inlets separated by a rocky outcropping; and North Bay on the island's north end with two inlets separated by a volcanic formation.

[6] There is a naval station, established in 1957, with a population of 250[7] (staff and families), living in a village with a church, that stands on the western side of Bahía Vargas Lozano, a small cove with a rocky beach, about 800 meters (870 yards) east of Cabo Regla, the southernmost point of the island.

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).

[11] 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.

Archie Smith, an American laborer from San Diego, was marooned on the island for one month in 1929 before being rescued by a passing fishing boat.

[13] The lowlands of Socorro – except on the northern, more humid side – are covered with thick shrubland, consisting mainly of endemic Croton masonii and a cactus, probably Engelmann's prickly pear (Opuntia engelmannii).

In 1953, the following taxa were present: Non-endemic landbirds and shorebirds occur mostly as vagrants or use the island as a stopover during migration; the northern mockingbird became established in the late 20th century.

Unlike the situation on smaller and more isolated Clarión, wind-blown or vagrant birds seem to constitute the bulk of the recorded species, including brown pelican, osprey, peregrine falcon, semipalmated plover, willet, sanderling, belted kingfisher and buff-bellied pipit.

It may be that this puzzling observation is due to the presence of the red-tailed hawks and cats, which has at least made the local Urosaurus more wary than its relative on Clarión, and might deter passing birds from stopping on Socorro.

[8] Being the largest of the Revillagigedo Islands and closer to mainland than Clarion, Socorro sports a rich array of endemic taxa, mainly plants and landbirds as well as lizards.

[20] Socorro Island is a popular scuba diving destination known for underwater encounters with dolphins, sharks, manta rays and other pelagic animals.