There are many groups of people the world over who are renowned for unique adaptations to their environment. These range from the tribal groups of the deep Amazon, whose hunter-gathering way of life has remained primarily unchanged for thousands of years, to the enigmatic Sherpas, whose genetics allow them to traverse the steep Himalayan slopes without suffering the effects of the thin air at those altitudes.

Similar feats are achieved almost daily by the Bajau of Southeast Asia, especially where oxygen is concerned. These “sea nomads”, as they are often called, have the unique ability to hold their breath for minutes at a time, ranking them among the world’s most unparalleled divers (and hence their unique nickname).

Some of the Bajau divers are able to operate underwater with such ease that it led to speculation as to whether they had adapted genetically over time, similar to people who thrive in higher altitudes. Last spring, evolutionary geneticist Melissa Ilardo led a study that proposed such adaptations might involve the unusually large spleens found among the Bajau, outlined in a paper published in the journal Cell. Similar adaptations have been observed in ocean-dwelling mammals, such as sperm whales which are able to hold their breaths for up to 90 minutes thanks to a substance in their bloodstream called myoglobin, which binds oxygen in their blood and becomes electrically-charged when the whales go underwater. 

The Bajau perform their incredible diving feats completely naturally, although the current record for a human holding their breath underwater is held by 47-year-old Peter Colat, a diver from Zurich, Switzerland, who managed to hold his breath for an astounding 19 minutes and 21 seconds in 2010.

Colat, who was 38-year-old at the time, managed to achieve this through oxygen-assisted static apnea, where one breathes pure oxygen for 10 minutes prior to diving, according to rules set by the Guinness Book of World Records. His record ousted the previous record holder, Nicola Putignano of Italy, by just 19 seconds.

It begs the question, just how long could a person or animal survive underwater with the help of a little extra added oxygen? More specifically, what if rather than holding their breath, the mammals in question were able to breathe oxygen from the water itself?

Perhaps the earliest study looking into this goes all the way back to 1964, as reported in the journal Sea Frontiers by Johannes A. Kylstra, which discussed experiments with mice that involved such processes. The experiments were conducted in chambers partially filled with water, where the air was replaced with compressed oxygen and pressurized equivalent to that of eight atmospheres, allowing for an artificially oxygen-enriched liquid environment below it. Finally, salts which are similar to those that appear naturally in the blood of mammals were added to the water.

The study found that mice introduced into the liquid environment were actually able to “breathe for several minutes and, in some cases, hours.” Temperature was also a factor in survival, with mice surviving the longest at a temperature of 68°F. The mice, despite being within a liquid environment, were found to be “active and alert,” and “did not appear to be in severe distress” while submerged in the oxygenated water.

Most of the mice began to lose consciousness within half an hour of entering the liquid environment. Subsequent experiments involved the introduction of a chemical buffer into the water, which helped preserve a constant acidity in the liquid solution, whereafter some of the mice responded to stimuli such as shaking or tapping the outside of the tank for up to six hours while submerged.

These initial studies led to further experiments with perfluorinated hydrocarbons, which unlike the oxygenated water from the earlier studies, could more effectively remove carbon dioxide from the lungs. The most effective substance of this variety, called perflubron, has roughly double the density of water, and can also carry as much as twice the amount of oxygen as air (this substance is most often referenced as “radiopaque perfluorocarbon solution for lung lavage,” and is sold under the name “LiquiVent” in the United States and other countries, generally only for research purposes).

If all of this sounds a lot like the famous liquid breathing apparatus used by Ed Harris during the climax of the sci-fi film The Abyss, you wouldn’t be the only one who thinks so. In fact, several years ago during a revolutionary medical procedure that was used to save Adrianna Mancini–a child born five months premature–Dr. Jay Greenspan at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Dr. Thomas Shaffer of Temple University in Philadelphia employed the then-experimental process of liquid ventilation in order to save the child’s life, after comparing it to the liquid featured in the famous film. 

“I knew that I was watching medical history being made,” Mancini later told Reader’s Digest. Shafer and Greenspan’s procedure went on to be used to save other premature infants in the years that followed. 

Quite obviously, the futuristic deep-sea breathing apparatus featured in The Abyss was partially inspired by the real-life science described here (in fact, one scene in the film actually depicts a rat being submerged in a perfluorinated hydrocarbon-like liquid; an obvious a nod to the 1960s studies that introduced the idea). But what began with experiments aimed at helping mice breathe in special liquid environments did more than just inspire the world of sci-fi, and now, the real-world applications of these studies can even help save lives.

It’s not a great plot for a horror movie – they’re not eating brains (yet) – but it’s real. Plants that were once alive hundreds of years ago, then frozen during the Little Ice Age and buried under a hundred feet of ice the Canadian tundra, are being exposed to light once again due to (no surprise here) climate change and not just rising up as the ice melts again but growing and even thriving. If they need some help getting reestablished, some worms found in Siberia (where else?) that were frozen 40,000 years ago have warmed up and are alive again. Aspiring screenwriters want to know … has anyone offered them brains yet?

“You wouldn’t assume that anything buried for hundreds of years would be viable. The material had always been considered dead. But by seeing green tissue, “I thought, ‘Well, that’s pretty unusual.’ We were pretty blown away.”

The model for Indiana Jones in this movie might be evolutionary biologist Catherine La Farge (Indiannette Jones?), who recently went to the Trardrop Glacier on Canada’s Ellesmere Island intending to study what she expected to be decaying ancient plants being exposed by climate change. As reported in The National Post, when she scraped up the moss Aulacomnium turgidum, La Farge was shocked to see something green … shocked because this moss last saw light somewhere between 1550 and 1850 when The Little Ice Age hit North America, severely dropping temperatures for centuries and growing its glaciers in both area and depth. The moss La Farge found was indeed rising back to life on its own. She brought samples back to her lab in Edmonton and gave them a little help in the form of warmth and nutrients, and they not only arose but grew into seemingly normal (a Rip Van Winkle kind of normal) plants.

Aulacomnium turgidum

La Farge may have some competition in getting a Frozen Frankenstein Flora movie based on her discovery. There’s news from Antarctica of the discovery of mossfrozen 1500 years ago that was also growing again. Peter Convey, an ecologist with the British Antarctic Survey, wasn’t quite as surprised because he believes ice protects plant cells from the stresses of surface life – freeze-thaw cycles and radiation are two big ones. As the ice permanently melts, the first plants exposed have the best chance to arise and take over before anything else thaws, which “really accelerates the recolonization process” and allows the ground frozen and buried for centuries to quickly become green once again.

If these ‘new’ ancient plants need help growing, they can open a can of worms from Siberia, where University of Tennessee microbiologist Tatiana Vishnivetskaya has been drilling deep into the Siberian permafrost and recently discovered frozen 40,000-year-old segmented worms (nematodes) that began wiggling once again when thawed.

“Of course we were surprised and very excited.”

Soybean cyst nematode and egg

That probably applies to the worms too, especially if they know they might be moving to slightly warmer dirt where they can eat, poop and fertilize centuries-old plants. It might also be good news for life on other planets, and even life forms on spaceships or asteroids traveling around the galaxy looking for a place to land/crash, thaw and live long and prosper.

Not a great movie plot but definitely a glimmer of hope of the continuation of life on Earth and possibility of life on other planets.

There’s no doubt that the defining date on which the UFO phenomenon was born was June 24, 1947. That was the date on which pilot Kenneth Arnold had a close encounter of the very weird kind. The location was near Mt. Rainier, Washington State. As for Arnold’s experience, it involved nothing less than an entire squadron of strange-looking aircraft.The terms “UFO” and “Unidentified Flying Objects” were not around way back then. Such craft were referred to as “Flying Saucers” and “Flying Disks.” There’s a reason why I bring all of this up today. While lecturing on the UFO subject recently for a regional group, I brought up the matter of the Arnold affair. What surprised me was the distinct lack of knowledge – on the part of many of the attendees – regarding the specific nature of Arnold’s sighting. So, I thought, why not share with you today the story of Arnold – in the man’s very own words, and for one and all to understand and appreciate.

Arnold said:

“The following story of what I observed over the Cascade Mountains, as impossible as it may seem, is positively true. I never asked nor wanted any notoriety for just accidentally being in the right spot at the right time to observe what I did. I reported something that I know any pilot would have reported. I don’t think that in any way my observation was due to any sensitivity of eye sight or judgment than what is considered normal for any pilot. On June 24th, Tuesday, 1947, I had finished my work for the Central Air Service at Chehalis, Washington, and at about two o’clock I took off from Chehalis, Washington, airport with the intention of going to Yakima, Wash. My trip was delayed for an hour to search for a large marine transport that supposedly went down near or around the southwest side of Mt. Rainier in the state of Washington and to date has never been found.”

Kenneth Arnold

Arnold continued: “I flew directly toward Mt. Rainier after reaching an altitude of about 9,500 feet, which is the approximate elevation of the high plateau from which Mt. Rainier rises. I had made one sweep of this high plateau to the westward, searching all of the various ridges for this marine ship and flew to the west down and near the ridge side of the canyon where Ashford, Washington, is located. Unable to see anything that looked like the lost ship, I made a 360 degree turn to the right and above the little city of Mineral, starting again toward Mt. Rainier. I climbed back up to an altitude of approximately 9,200 feet. The air was so smooth that day that it was a real pleasure flying and, as most pilots do when the air is smooth and they are flying at a higher altitude, I trimmed out my airplane in the direction of Yakima, Washington, which was almost directly east of my position and simply sat in my plane observing the sky and the terrain.”

The man himself was about to have the encounter that made him famous: “There was a DC-4 to the left and to the rear of me approximately fifteen miles distance, and I should judge, at 14,000 foot elevation. The sky and air was clear as crystal. I hadn’t flown more than two or three minutes on my course when a bright flash reflected on my airplane. It startled me as I thought I was too close to some other aircraft. I looked every place in the sky and couldn’t find where the reflection had come from until I looked to the left and the north of Mt. Rainier where I observed a chain of nine peculiar looking aircraft flying from north to south at approximately 9,500 foot elevation and going, seemingly, in a definite direction of about 170 degrees. They were approaching Mt. Rainier very rapidly, and I merely assumed they were jet planes. Anyhow, I discovered that this was where the reflection had come from, as two or three of them every few seconds would dip or change their course slightly, just enough for the sun to strike them at an angle that reflected brightly on my plane. These objects being quite far away, I was unable for a few seconds to make out their shape or their formation. Very shortly they approached Mt. Rainier, and I observed their outline against the snow quite plainly.”

Arnold did his very best to figure out what the vehicles were: “I thought it was very peculiar that I couldn’t find their tails but assumed they were some type of jet plane. I was determined to clock their speed, as I had two definite points I could clock them by; the air was so clear that it was very easy to see objects and determine their approximate shape and size at almost fifty miles that day. I remember distinctly that my sweep second hand on my eight day clock, which is located on my instrument panel, read one minute to 3 P.M. as the first object of this formation passed the southern edge of Mt. Rainier. I watched these objects with great interest as I had never before observed airplanes flying so close to the mountain tops, flying directly south to southeast down the hog’s back of a mountain range. I would estimate their elevation could have varied a thousand feet one way or another up or down, but they were pretty much on the horizon to me which would indicate they were near the same elevation as I was.”

It’s very clear from Arnold’s words that he was struggling to understand what was afoot in the skies over Washington State: “They flew like many times I have observed geese to fly in a rather diagonal chain-like line as if they were linked together. They seemed to hold a definite direction but rather swerved in and out of the high mountain peaks. Their speed at the time did not impress me particularly, because I knew that our army and air forces had planes that went very fast. What kept bothering me as I watched them flip and flash in the sun right along their path was the fact that I couldn’t make out any tail on them, and I am sure that any pilot would justify more than a second look at such a plane. I observed them quite plainly, and I estimate my distance from them, which was almost at right angles, to be between twenty to twenty-five miles. I knew they must be very large to observe their shape at that distance, even on as clear a day as it was that Tuesday, In fact I compared a zeus [sic: it should be “Dzus”] fastener or cowling tool I had in my pocket with them – holding it up on them and holding it up on the DC-4 – that I could observe at quite a distance to my left, and they seemed smaller than the DC-4; but, I should judge their span would have been as wide as the furtherest [sic] engines on each side of the fuselage of the DC-4.”

He continued to remain puzzled; in fact, very much so: “The more I observed these objects the more upset I became, as I am accustomed and familiar with most all objects flying whether I am close to the ground or at higher altitudes. I observed the chain of these objects passing another high snow-covered ridge in between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams and as, the first one was passing the south crest of this ridge the last object was entering the northern crest of the ridge. As I was flying in the direction of this particular ridge, I measured it and found it to be approximately five miles so I could safely assume that the chain of these saucer like objects were at least five miles long. I could quite accurately determine their pathway due to the fact that there were several high peaks that were a little this side of them as well as higher peaks on the other side of their pathway.”

The story got even more amazing: “As the last unit of this formation passed the southern-most high snow-covered crest of Mt. Adams, I looked at my sweep second hand and it showed that they had traveled the distance in one minute and forty-two seconds. Even at the time this timing did not upset me as I felt confident after I would land there would be some explanation of what I saw. A number of news men and experts suggested that I might have been seeing reflections or even a mirage. This I know to be absolutely false, as I observed these objects not only through the glass of my airplane but turned my airplane sideways where I could open my window and observe them with a completely unobstructed view. (Without sun glasses.) Even though two minutes seems like a very short time to one on the ground, in the air in two minutes time a pilot can observe a great many things and anything within his sight of vision probably as many as fifty or sixty times.”

As Arnold told it, “I continued my search for the marine plane for another fifteen or twenty minutes and while searching for this marine plane, what I had just observed kept going through my mind. I became more disturbed, so after taking a last look at Tieton Reservoir I headed for Yakima. I might add that my complete observation of these objects, which I could even follow by their flashes as they passed Mt. Adams, was around two and one-half or three minutes — although, by the time they reached Mt. Adams they were out of my range of vision as far as determining shape or form. Of course, when the sun reflected from one or two or three of these units, they appeared to be completely round; but, I am making a drawing to the best of my ability, which I am including, as to the shape I observed these objects to be as they passed the snow covered ridges as well as Mt. Rainier. When these objects were flying approximately straight and level, they were just a black thin line and when they flipped was the only time I could get a judgment as to their size. These objects were holding an almost constant elevation; they did not seem to be going up or coming down, such as would be the case of rockets or artillery shells.”

An opinion then came from Arnold: “I am convinced in my own mind that they were some type of airplane, even though they didn’t conform with the many aspects of the conventional type of planes that I know. Although these objects have been reported by many other observers throughout the United States, there have been six or seven other accounts written by some of these observers that I can truthfully say must have observed the same thing that I did; particularly, the descriptions of the three Western [Cedar City, Utah] Air Lines employees, the gentleman [pilot] from Oklahoma City and the locomotive engineer from Illinois, plus Capt. Smith and Co-Pilot Stevens of United Air Lines. Some descriptions could not be very accurate taken from the ground unless these saucer-like disks were at a great height and there is a possibility that all of the people who observed peculiar objects could have seen the same thing I did, but, it would have been very difficult from the ground to observe these for more than four or five seconds, and there is always the possibility of atmospheric moisture and dust near the ground which could distort one’s vision.”

There was more to come: “I have in my possession letters from all over the Unites States and people who profess that these objects have been observed over other portions of the world, principally Sweden, Bermuda, and California. I would have given almost anything that day to have had a movie camera with a telephoto lens and from now on I will never be without one – but, to continue further with my story. When I landed at Yakima, Wash., airport I described what I had seen to my very good friend, Al Baxter, who listened patiently and was very courteous but in a joking way didn’t believe me. I did not accurately measure the distance between these two mountains until I landed at Pendleton, Oregon, that same day where I told a number of pilot friends of mine what I had observed and they did not scoff or laugh but suggested they might be guided missiles or something new. In fact several former Army pilots informed me that they had been briefed before going into combat overseas that they might see objects of similar shape and design as I described and assured me that I wasn’t dreaming or going crazy.”

According to Arnold: “I quote Sonny Robinson, a former Army Air Forces pilot who is now operating dusting operations at Pendleton, Oregon, ‘that what you observed, I am convinced, is some type of jet or rocket propelled ship that is in the process of being tested by our government or even it could possibly be by some foreign government.’ Anyhow, the news that I had observed these spread very rapidly and before the night was over I was receiving telephone calls from all parts of the world; and, to date, I have not received one telephone call or one letter of scoffing or disbelief. The only disbelief that I know of was what was printed in the papers.”

In conclusion, there are these words from Arnold: “I look at this whole ordeal as not something funny as some people have made it out to be. To me it is mighty serious and since I evidently did observe something that at least Mr. John Doe on the street corner or Pete Andrews on the ranch has never heard about, is no reason that it does not exist. Even though I openly invited an investigation by the Army and the FBI as to the authenticity of my story or a mental or a physical examination as to my capabilities, I have received no interest from these two important protective forces of our country; I will go so far as to assume that any report I gave to the United and Associated Press and over the radio on two different occasions which apparently set the nation buzzing, if our Military intelligence was not aware of what I observed, they would be the very first people that I could expect as visitors. I have received lots of requests from people who told me to make a lot of wild guesses. I have based what I have written here in this article on positive facts and as far as guessing what it was I observed, it is just as much a mystery to me as it is to the rest of the world.”

So, in case you didn’t know the story, you do now!

Chile has one of the highest concentrations of large telescope observatories in the world, mostly in the Atacama Desert in the northern part. It could be due to the dry air, its isolation from city lights or its 330 clear nights per year on average. Those conditions could also be why Chile also has such a large number of UFO sightings. It could also be due to its multitude of mines, where ‘alien’ ships might conceivably pick up parts or fuel. The city of Concepcion in particular has a place in UFO lore for its ‘tiny alien skeleton’, which for decades fascinated and baffled many before DNA tests proved it to be a human fetus. That’s why a recent UFO sighting in Chile deserves more than a cursory view.

“UFOs, or strange lights captured in Concepción in front of the Catholic university.”

That was the caption on July 6, 2019, under a YouTube video taken the day before by a security camera which showed two unidentified flying objects quickly crossing the sky and changing directions multiple times. (Watch it here.) There are obvious trails behind them, suggesting they could be meteors or skydivers, but their speed and their drastic directional changes seem to negate both of those possibilities. The video was reported by the local media source Pagina 7 (Page 7), which identified the location – over the Catholic University of the Most Holy Conception – and asked local meteorologist Eduardo Sáez for his opinion.

“Indeed, at first sight it is difficult to know what it is. If it were a thermal image, it could be the motor temperature, but I do not know what kind of image it is. For a plane, but if we think of meteorites, of course. But I already say that there is no meteorological phenomenon that generates that kind of light.”

Since this is Chile, there are plenty of UFO investigators around, so Pagina 7 then asked local paranormal investigator Hugo Mazuela for his analysis of the video.

“I find it very interesting. I have two theories about it, the first is that they can be objects called ‘Foo Fighters’ or moving lights, which are a kind of UFO with voluntary movements as we see in the video. Sometimes these UFOs are usually so fast that it is difficult to see them, they are characterized by being alive or not being manned.”

Foo Fighters? What about a camera anomaly? These security cameras aren’t high quality, but Pagina 7 says no other anomalies were seen on other footage from it. Yes, there’s one more possibility we haven’t addressed – the ubiquitous drones – but Mazuela says the same thing applies to them as to meteors or skydivers … the movements were too fast and sharp to be a drone, so he’s sticking with Foo Fighters.

No other reports of these UFOs come up in searches, but another one allegedly occurred on July 7, also over Concepcion, that was captured on a cellphone video. (Watch it here.) This sighting looks more like a drone, plane or possibly one of those experimental triangular crafts that keep appearing more frequently. In fact, some comments on the video say this is actually an older sighting from December 2018 of exactly that, but it’s Chile so one should never jump to conclusions.

Chile has been called the best place in the world to see UFOs,and these videos add to that sentiment. While many can be blamed on the military or drones, that doesn’t apply to all. And we haven’t even brought in the fact that Chile has a chain of over 2,000 active and inactive volcanoes (second-longest next to Indonesia) and there have been many UFO sightings near volcanoes that lead to speculation that they may be ports or refueling stations. Or they could just be anomalies.

In any case, Chile deserves all of the attention it gets as a UFO hotspot. Hopefully, the experts there will soon explain the unusual sighting on July 5th over Concepcion.

UFO authority Timothy Good stated the following in his 1987 book, Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up: “In 1959 Stan Steers, President of the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau [which was created in 1956] at the time received a phone call from a man requesting a meeting in a large car park in Brisbane, hinting that Seers might learn something to his advantage about UFOs.” Seers, by his own admission, at first thought that this was someone’s idea of a not too amusing practical joke. All thoughts of pranks went quickly out of the window, however, when – after a couple more phone calls with the mysterious man at the other end of the line – Seers was finally able to meet the clandestine character at that aforementioned car park. He was nothing less than an employee of  the Australian Security Intelligence Organization(the ASIO).

“Mr. D,” as Seers tantalizingly termed the man, was seemingly intent on playing a game of “bad-cop”-“good-cop,” but all on his lonesome. The ASIO agent began in somewhat hostile fashion and “dangled the Communist bogey,” as Seers succinctly put it. The man then proceeded to reel off significant background information on both Seers and two of his colleagues in the QFSRB. In an instant, Seers realized something amazing and more than a bit alarming: I’m being watched. Closely. By the Government. Shit. Mr. D’s tone soon changed, though, when he suggested to Seers that perhaps the ASIO could provide significant UFO-themed data to Seers and his friends – if and when the circumstances were deemed to be right; whatever that meant.

The Australian government handing its UFO files over to a group of ufologists? It sounded way too good to be true. No surprise: it turns out that’s exactly what it was. Mr. D carefully, skillfully and ultimately ruthlessly wormed his way into the UFO group, causing major dissention in the ranks, and fracturing friendships as he did so. This is what Seers astutely came to believe was the entire point of the operation: to infiltrate the QFSRB, to weaken it, and to ensure that the ASIO was able to keep a careful watch on it and its members at all times – and particularly so those in the group who had what was referred to as by the ASIO as having “some Communist influence.” A now-declassified ASIO document, titled The Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau, and dated August 4, 1959 – the very same time-frame in which Stan Seers was approached – reveals that the ASIO had undertaken a wealth of background data on the UFO group, as the following extract from an ASIO document shows:

“The Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau is an organization with a present membership of 163 which meets regularly on the second Wednesday of each month in the Canberra Hotel and conducts a discussion group on the first Wednesday of each month in…Elizabeth Street, Brisbane. The members are of great diversity in outlook, politics and religion but all have a common purpose in endeavoring to establish the authenticity of unidentified flying objects which have been sighted throughout the world, including Australia, particularly in the last ten years. There is some Communist influence in the Bureau due to the presence of the Secretary, Gordon Leslie Jamieson and members of the Souwer family of Slacks Creek, to whom he is related by marriage.”

The ASIO continued: “Recently an announcement appeared in the daily papers which stated that a difference of opinion has arisen amongst two groups of eminent Soviet physicists concerning the origin of an explosion which took place in Siberia in 1908 [the controversial “Tunguska” affair] and which has been for the past fifty years accepted as the landing of a giant meteorite. The difference has arisen due to the fact that a small group of scientists have now put forward the theory that due to the unnatural nature of the explosion and the fact that a large number of persons in the area suffered from leukemia the explosion could have been the destruction of some space vehicle, possibly trying to land or in some mechanical trouble.”

There was also this from the ASIO: “At the May meeting of the Bureau, Gordon Leslie Jamison had prepared for dispatch to the Soviet Union a letter asking for any additional information that may be available from the scientists. To date no reply has been received but it is quite possible that with the re-introduction of the Soviet Embassy to Australia this could easily afford an avenue for contact between the V.O.K.S. representative and the Bureau with offers from the Soviet Embassy to assist in the supply of information.”

The ASIO’s concerns about VOKS – Vsesojuznoe obschestvo kul’turnykh svyzei s zagranitsei – liaising with the QFSRB were completely valid and warranted. It was a body that highlighted matters of a cultural nature between the East and the West. It wasn’t widely known outside of the world of intelligence, however, that many of those Russian cultural characters were really Soviet agents seeking information that might have been useful to the KGB. The ASIO was fully aware that VOKS was filled to the absolute brim with agents of the Soviet Union, and not just with cultural representatives. And, although the VOKS program was shut down in 1958, the QFSRB had been in existence since 1956. Two years was an ample amount of time for the UFO group to have cultivated a chain of communication with VOKS, something that the ASIO feared just might already have happened.

It’s not surprising, then, that the ASIO became very concerned that those same Soviet agents could have tried to “turn” one or more QFSRB members. And, in a worst-case scenario, did turn them. Such a grim picture was seen as being disturbingly all too possible. For example, although Stan Steers was described by the ASIO as being “the most level headed and rational member of the Bureau,” the QFSRB’s secretary, Gordon Jamieson and his family were described by Australian Intelligence  as “pacifists and communists.”

Most people who have lived in Southern California their entire lives would be quick to tell you that earthquakes there are nothing out of the ordinary.

However, with the arrival of the Fourth of July holiday, residents north of Los Angeles had more than just fireworks to shake things up, as a swarm of earthquakes rattled desert communities throughout the region well into the following week.

NBC Los Angeles reported that as of Monday morning, “nearly 3,000 aftershocks [were] recorded in the area since Friday’s magnitude-7.1 main shock and magnitude-6.4 Independence Day quake, the strongest earthquakes to hit Southern California in the last 20 years.” The earthquakes were centered just outside the town of Ridgecrest in the Mojave Desert, approximately 150 miles northbound from Los Angeles.

Although earthquakes aren’t uncommon in the region, that isn’t to say that last week’s wave of holiday tremblors was anything typical, either.

USGS map depicting mainshock and aftershock locations shortly after the M7.1 event, which displays a distinctive “T” pattern, created by the two perpendicular fault zones.

(USGS/Public domain).

Geologists note that there is only around a 5% likelihood that a significant earthquake will be followed by an even larger one; however, this was only one way that initial pair of earthquakes that struck the region seemingly defied the odds. Live Science reported that the Independence Day earthquake occurred on an unmapped fault region along the Little Lake fault zone near Ridgecrest, and involved right angle ruptures, which may be more easily detected today than they were only years ago.

“This is very interesting geologically,” geoscientist Michele Cooke told Live Science. “We don’t have a lot of earthquakes in our record that show simultaneous slip on two perpendicular faults,” she said.

“Many of us are wondering if these complications are actually the norm and that our instruments 10+ years ago were not sensitive enough to pick up these complications,” Cooke also said, suggesting that these “rare” seismic events may not be so unusual after all.

However, geologists weren’t the only ones noticing odd things coinciding with the recent California earthquakes. According to the National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL), disturbances in HF propagation on the west coast appeared to coincide with the July 4 earthquake as well, resulting in a “massive short-wave radio blackout” over the holiday weekend, a phenomenon that was observed by a number of HAM radio operators in the region.

Alex Schwarz, an amateur radio operator out of British Columbia, Canada who operates the RF Seismograph, reported that there were correlations “between earthquake activity and HF band conditions, said the radio disruption began at around 1600 UTC on July 4, and continued into July 5.”

According to the ARRL, “[Schwarz] said that on July 4, the blackout was total except for 20 meters, where conditions were ‘severely attenuated’… The RF Seismograph also detected the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on July 6 in the same vicinity.”

Finally, NASA was also monitoring the quakes, with a little help from the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and one of their satellites, which resulted in colorful imagery of the areas affected by the earthquakes:

Image depicting earthquake elevational displacement following the July 4th seismic events

(Credit: JPL/Caltech/NASA).

According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the space agency’s Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team borrowed data collected by synthetic aperture radar, which was then colorized to reveal minor changes that were visible in the area of the earthquakes.

“Each colour… represents 12 centimetres (about 4.8 inches) of lifting or sinking in the landscape, with evidence of cracks in the lines cutting through the fringes of some colours,” Science Alert reported.

Despite the significant strength of last week’s earthquakes, few injuries were reported since the epicenter of the quakes had been located in a remote area. It is also possible that more earthquakes and aftershocks will continue over the next several weeks, although the unique data being collected in their aftermath may help reshape our understanding of similar seismic phenomena for decades to come.