Catania: The city where time doesn't exist

Our world surprises us every day with new facts, beyond those that the human mind could understand. That phrase that says that "the reality surpasses the fiction", every day becomes stronger. Today I would like to present you with an exceptional case all over the world, which has perplexed science for a long time. It has not been noticeably public, but it's worth highlighting. We focus on a quiet city called Catania, located in the east on the island of Sicily, Italy, close to the Ionian Sea; with a great baroque architecture, seat of the oldest university of the whole island and of monuments able to take the breath to anyone, own or strangers.

Catania city

This particular place is the seat of a unique phenomenon. Time does not run in the same way as other parts of the world, and all electronic clocks go forward 15 minutes every day. It does not matter if it's a bracelet, wall or some technological device: all, without exception, suffer this phenomenon. It all started between June and July 2011, when this event was recorded for the first time at the city's airport, which surprised those who were there. Then, this phenomenon began to repeat itself again and again, every day after another, regardless of whether the ruling was corrected immediately, since, the next day, as if each clock had broken down, everyone returned to advance 15 minutes. It is known as "the Catania anomaly".

The time stopped

Some theories...

From the beginning, several hypotheses were handled, which tried to explain the cause of such a rare event. The first one indicated that a series of repairs to the city's underground electrical cables made it depend for a certain time on a hydroelectric power station, which caused a static overload that altered all the electronic systems. But this theory collapses when a simple question arises: why only this point was affected, when that same hydroelectric power station supplies other nearby cities? This event is exclusive to Catania.

Catania-Fontanarossa airport

Another of the most accepted theories has to do with a recognized natural phenomenon, such as the explosion of Mount Etna. Some sensationalist newspapers, such as the Daily Mail (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013145/Mount-Etna-eruption-closes-airports-knocks-clocks-15-minutes-fast.html), indicated that the eruption of the volcano was the cause, due to the proximity of this one with the airport. Although in the investigation, it was not considered that the fifth eruption of the Etna volcano happened almost two months before (May 12) of the beginning of this strange fact.

Mount Etna

This continuous success, was like another curious news of the year 2011, without finding any explanation. That is why, dear friends, I leave this story and I hope you are more interested in the subject. Until another article.