Socorro Island
— — a volcano alone in open water.
Not only on a wall.
“Socorro is the largest of the Revillagigedo Islands, a small volcanic group lying far out in the Pacific from the mainland of Mexico. The island is essentially the cone of Mount Evermann rising from deep water. There is no town, only a small Mexican Navy station. Divers know the waters for giant Pacific manta rays that come in close to the volcanic walls. The whole archipelago is a UNESCO World Heritage site. — from the studio
Socorro Island, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Socorro Island is the largest of the four Revillagigedo Islands, a Mexican archipelago in the eastern Pacific Ocean about 600 kilometres south of the Baja California peninsula and roughly 700 kilometres west of Manzanillo on the mainland. The island is the exposed top of a shield volcano, Mount Evermann, which rises to about 1,130 metres. Administratively the island belongs to the state of Colima. There is no civilian settlement; only a small Mexican Navy garrison maintains a permanent presence on the south side at Cabo Pearce.
The waters around Socorro are the reason the island is famous. The Revillagigedo Marine Reserve covers about 148,000 square kilometres, the largest fully protected marine area in North America. Giant Pacific manta rays with wingspans approaching seven metres come in close to the volcanic walls and are known to interact with divers. The reserve also holds humpback whales in winter, hammerhead and silvertip sharks, and several species of dolphin. All access is by liveaboard boat from Cabo San Lucas; the crossing takes about twenty-four hours.
There are no roads, no town, no commercial flights, and no civilian visitors permitted ashore. The naval station at Cabo Pearce holds a small permanent crew and a meteorological post. Divers see the island from the deck of a liveaboard, anchored off the south coast. The cone of Mount Evermann last erupted along its southwest flank in 1993. The dark volcanic rock, the open horizon, and the long distance from any other land give the place a held quality that is unusual even by Pacific standards.