The Zone of Silence has been the protagonist of the strangest stories ranging from anomalies in the magnetic field to the visit of extraterrestrials. Located in the heart of the desert between the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila, and Chihuahua, this region has raised all kinds of suppositions.
A lagoon region turned into desert
The mysterious place is located in the Bolsón de Mapimí, which is a basin that joins the three states of Durango, Coahuila, and Chihuahua. Millions of years ago, when the Cenozoic Era reigned on Earth, the region used to be covered by water from the so-called Sea of Thetis and is the big reason why numerous fossils of marine animals have been found in what is now covered by desert sand.
It is estimated that thirty million years ago, the Earth experienced a drastic change in its orogenic configuration, which caused the great continental masses that were covered by water to emerge from the depths. As a result, many regions went from being large aquatic oases to completely arid zones. This is how the Chihuahuan Desert was gradually carved by geological history until a million years ago it acquired its current morphology.
But this is not the only reason why the Zone of Silence is famous among lovers of mystical sites, other events have given it its enigmatic name.
When did the mystery of the Zone of Silence arise?
The whole mystery began in the early 1970s when the Cold War lurked in the darkness. Both the Soviet Union and the United States had embarked on the creation of weapons in case conflict between the two nations broke out in a warlike manner.
One of the joint Air Force and U.S. Army projects was a series of experimental projectiles under the name Athena RTV. On the 122nd launch of the project, something went wrong and one of the Athena rockets ended up in the Chihuahuan Desert.
U.S. forces immediately organized a search to locate the device, which was also accompanied by two spheres of Cobalt-57, a highly radioactive element. The rocket reportedly could not be located by radio tracking and the search went on for several weeks until it was finally located.
The recovery of the remains of the rocket was accompanied by a security operation so that even locals were unable to observe the device. However, many witnesses say they saw the Air Force also remove several tons of sand from the desert, which is believed to have been contaminated by radiation.
Alleged magnetic field anomalies
So much mystery awakened rumors in the region and sometime after the event, a resident in Ceballos claimed to have found an area in the region where radio waves did not behave normally. Supposedly in certain areas, it is impossible to communicate via radio due to interference.
It was then that the hypothesis arose that the Zone of Silence acts as a kind of magnetic cone that causes ionization of the air and that this in turn interferes with radio signals, leaving everyone in the region completely incommunicado.
The rocket crash along with interference in radio frequencies was coupled with the discovery of prehistoric fossils of sea creatures. All of these events gave a certain enigmatic air to the Zone of Silence and then numerous conspiracy theories emerged, such as a supposed extraterrestrial landing.
The truth is that today it is an extremely interesting area inhabited by animals that cannot be seen in any other region of the planet, such as the Mapimí turtle, the largest turtle in North America. Regardless of whether the mystery of the radioactive rocket is true or whether the magnetic field fluctuates in the Zone of Silence, this is a natural region that must be preserved and that, despite the harsh conditions, enjoys great biodiversity.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
