Are these the Marfa Lights (ML)?

Highway 67 headlights on time lapse exposure, seen southwest of the MLVS © Ed Hendricks 2002

Mayor FritzKahl is a pilotand has seenthe ML’s formany years.

Locals tell their stories about the ML’s

Mr. & Mrs.ArmandoVasquez promoted the ML’s early on.

Jimmy & JanPoenisch arelocals whohave witnessedthe ML’s many times.

RosemaryCox’s grand-father’s eye-witness testimonydocumented inthe newspaper

Marfa area: The official ML viewing spot (MLVS) is 9 mi east of Marfa on highway 90, just east of Nopal road.

Checking out the Marfa Area

View to North from Mitchell Hilltop

Mr. & Mrs.RitchieReynolds atAntelopeSprings Ranch

Windmill at Antelope Springs Ranch

Searching for Marfa Lights

Stopped at the Y on Nopal Road

Marfa Landscape

“Chicken Foot” for determining Where landmarks directions are located (at night)

Elevations of MLVS (left) & Shurley Ranch (right) on Chinati Mtns

Map to right shows Marfa andThe MLVS to the right (east) on Hwy 90. To the south of MarfaIs Hwy 67 (a.k.a. Presidio Hwy), which goes up the Chinati Mnts toward Presidio. Most of the “Mitchell Flat” valley is viewable.Tinaja sits in between the MLVSand the the top of the mountain.

RR Release Letter

Mitchell Ranch: Mr. And Mrs. Mitchell claim to see the lights to the south and east and

sometimes north of his house, but rarely to the west

Kerr Mitchell

Mitchell’s land stretches south toward Tinaja, where the railroad tracks lie. The tracks lead from Tinaja to Nopal Road where access was gained.

Researchers with new theories…

Ed Hendricks Engineer/Scientist with 12 years of serious study on the ML’s phenomenon. Ed has

proposed theories on both telluric currents and underground ball lightning as

possibilities.

Jim Bunnell Engineer & Author of the book “Seeing Marfa

Lights”. Jim’s newest theory on the formation of ML’s is based on zeolites and

telluric currents.

No Picture Available

Sun Feeds the Global CircuitInformation supporting Ed Hendrick’s theory of underground lightning and telluric currents

THE SUN CONTROLS THE EARTH'S GLOBAL ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT(Anonymous; "Solar Activity and Terrestrial Thunderstorms," New Scientist, 81:256, 1979.)  

SOLAR ACTIVITY TRIGGERS MICROEARTHQUAKES(Singh, Surendra; "Geomagnetic Activity and Microearthquakes," Seismological Society of America, Bulletin, 68:1533, 1978.)

HUGE UNDERGROUND ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT("Scientists Discover Huge Underground Circuit," Monash Review, p. 10, December 1986, Cr. R.E. Molnar, The Monash Review is an Australian publication.)  

POWERFUL EARTH CURRENT ENTERS NORTH AMERICA FROM THE PACIFIC(Anonymous; "Nature's Hidden Power Line," Science Digest, 90:18, October 1982.)  

ARE NOCTURNAL LIGHTS EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS?(Persinger, M.A., and Derr, J.S.; "Relations among Nocturnal Lights, Geomagnetic Activity and Earthquakes in Southern Washington," Eos, 64:762, 1983.)  

EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS OBSERVED IN CANADA(Ouellet, Marcel; "Earthquake Lights and Seismicity," Nature, 348:492, 1990.)  

ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION FROM STRESSED ROCKS (Ogawa, Toshio, et al; "Electromagnetic Radiations from Rocks," Journal of Geophysical Research, 90:6245, 1985.)  

LIGHTNING TRIGGERED FROM THE MAGNETOSPHERE (Armstrong, W.C.; "Lightning Triggered from the Earth's Magnetosphere as the Source of Synchronized Whistlers," Nature, 327:405, 1987.)

Geological Research in Marfa

Dr. Nelson Rolong at the Soil Survey Office

in Marfa, TX

Derek Ebylooking atan aerialmap of MitchellFlat througha stereoscope

Big Bend Area Map

Zeolites a factor in Marfa Lights?When volcanoes spewed their ash on ancient lakes a few thousand millennia ago, the resulting chemical reaction of the ash and alkaline water altered the ash into various forms of zeolite

crystals What's so unique about these crystals is they take on a honeycomb-like structure of pores and channels. These pores are extremely small -- varying in size from 2.5 to 5.0 Angstroms across. Put more simply, the crystalline pores are so small, only one gram of material (about 0.04 ounces) has an equivalent surface area of 40 meters! (That's more than 130 square feet, or roughly the size of a large room!) Furthermore, when zeolites come in contact with certain liquids and gases, they both absorb and adsorb the materials. That is, they can both suck-up and release moisture, or they can collect certain gases and ions! "Zeolites are able to absorb up to 30% of their dry weight in gases such as nitrogen and ammonia, over 70% in water, and up to 90% of certain hydrocarbons," states John Shaw, president and owner of National Zeolite Industries, Inc., in Arlington [Texas]. "Zeolites also have the ability to exchange cations, which are positively charged ions.

The next step:Searching for Zeolites

CLINOPTILOLITE

HEULANDITE

New TheoryThe existence of these zeolites in Mitchell Flat could be germane to MLs because zeolites are positively charged metallic crystalline structures with unusual absorption properties for cations, water and gases.  One concept we have been working on is that these zeolites are absorbing some appropriate noble gas (maybe radon, xenon, neon or krypton) and then periodically releasing the gas in response to surges in underground (telluric) currents.  The released gas would potentially be short an electron (striped off by the positively charged zeolite container) resulting in light emitting cold plasma that then bubbles to the surface and becomes a Marfa Light (ML).   At this point all of this is just so much theory but plausible enough to be worthy of investigation.  With this thought in mind it would be desirable to find examples of zeolites in Mitchell Flat.  Dr. Rolong's current samples are all microscopic but we know that larger formations of these zeolites do occur.  There are dozens of zeolite types but Dr. Rolong specially identified two: Heulandite and Clinoptilolite.  If we could locate such rocks in Mitchell Flat it would open the door to investigating what gases, if any, they might contain. 

Best regards, Jim Bunnell