SOUTHWEST
LEGENDS & Mysteries
The Marfa lights
The deserts of the southwest are filled with mysterious stories of unusual sights and sounds. Most people never get to witness alleged spaceship sightings, but out in West Texas people regularly see the unusual phenomenon called the Marfa Lights. For hundreds of years, people have gazed in awe at the glowing orbs of light on Mitchell Flat, east of Marfa, Texas. Although you are more likely to spot these orbs than you are to witness a spaceship, there's still only an 8% chance that you will see them on any given night.
Of course, car headlights, airplanes, and ranch lights are visible on Mitchell Flat, but the mysterious orbs that dance across the desert sky cannot be explained. Scientific research indicates that the lights are not caused by solar activity, but they do occur more frequently during the last half of the lunar cycle. Long before car headlights and even settlers, the Native Americans gave accounts of unusual lights on Mitchell Flat. There are similarities between Marfa Lights and Ball Lightning, but some key characteristics are not found in both. Marfa Lights are often observed when there is no storm
15 Southwest Highways & Fields
Marfa Lights
-Marfa Chamber of Commerce
activity, and they appear to "turn on and off" in their lifespan. Most reports of Marfa Lights that are not airplanes, cars, trains, or ranch lights are probably just mirages caused by the variation in air temperature in Mitchell Flat, which is surrounded by mountains. But researchers say that the majority of Marfa Light sightings cannot be explained by mirages. Mitchell Flat is on a geological uplift, and it is beleived that magma is close to the surface there. This leads to another theory: the lights are plasma bubbles or phosphorescent gases generated deep underground, and