Case file · Anomaly hotspot
The 'Zone of Silence' legend, Mapimí
A patch of the Bolsón de Mapimí desert where Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila meet is said to block radio signals and attract meteorites and UFOs; the story is usually traced to an oil-survey engineer's radio failing there in 1966.
1966 CE · 26.68, -103.75 · status: legend
The account
The legend grew after the 1970 Athena rocket crash and the 1969 Allende fall, and was then fed by magazines, tourism and a nearby research station. The Mapimí Biosphere Reserve, created in 1977, protects the same desert and its endemic Bolson tortoise.
The sceptical view
Radio and GPS work normally in the zone. Meteorite finds reflect a flat, open desert where dark stones are easy to spot, not a 'magnet'.