Mapimí Silent Zone

The Mapimí Silent Zone (Spanish: La Zona del Silencio) is the popular name for a desert patch near the Bolsón de Mapimí in Mexico overlapping the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve that is the subject of an urban myth that claims it is an area where radio signals cannot be received.

On July 11, 1970, an Athena missile launched from White Sands Missile Range lost control and fell in the region. The rocket was carrying two small containers of cobalt 57, a radioactive element. Immediately, a team of specialists arrived to find the fallen rocket. The aerial search lasted three weeks. Finally, when the rocket was found, a road was built to transport the wreckage, along with a small amount of contaminated top soil. As a result of the US Air Force recovery operations there, a number of myths and stories relating to the area arose, including "strange magnetic anomalies that prevent radio transmission", mutations of flora and fauna, and extraterrestrial visitations.