History & Mystery
Real events that shouldn't have been possible — narrated and written for the curious.
For a century, the fair-haired mummies of a Chinese desert were proof that travelers had come from the West. In 2021, their own DNA told a stranger story.
Read Natural Disaster · 1964 The 1964 Quake That Sloshed Lakes 3,000 Miles AwayOn Good Friday, 1964, the ground under Alaska tore loose for four and a half minutes. A magnitude 9.2 megathrust, the most powerful quake ever recorded in North America, dropped whole Anchorage neighborhoods into the sea, sent landslide-waves through the fjords, and sloshed water out of lakes in 47 states. It also handed a USGS geologist the evidence that proved plate tectonics.
Read Solar Event · 1859 The Night the Sky Caught FireIn September 1859, a solar storm gave telegraph operators electric shocks from disconnected equipment. Some kept working — powered by the aurora alone. The same storm today would collapse the global power grid. In 2012, one of equal strength missed Earth by nine days.
ReadOn Good Friday, 1964, the ground under Alaska tore loose for four and a half minutes. A magnitude 9.2 megathrust, the most powerful quake ever recorded in North America, dropped whole Anchorage neighborhoods into the sea, sent landslide-waves through the fjords, and sloshed water out of lakes in 47 states. It also handed a USGS geologist the evidence that proved plate tectonics.
Read Ancient Mystery · c. 2000 BCE The Tarim Mummies: The Faces That Looked WrongFor a century, the fair-haired mummies of a Chinese desert were proof that travelers had come from the West. In 2021, their own DNA told a stranger story.
Read Ancient World · 373 BC Helike: The Greek City That Sank in a Single NightIn 373 BC, a Greek city dedicated to the god of earthquakes was destroyed by an earthquake and swallowed by the sea in one night. It may have inspired Atlantis. It was lost for 2,000 years.
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