What causes the Marfa lights?

Question

I have gone to the Marfa lights festival before..and it just kills me to wonder what the hell is causing those lights..and nobody seems to know people from all over have gone to investigate it, and seem to have no answers...if I could ask God questions that would be one of the first ones!!

Answer 1

Some things in world are too mysterious to be explained....though....
The dominant skeptical explanation seems to be that the lights are a sort of mirage caused by sharp temperature gradients between cold and warm layers of air. Marfa is located at an altitude of 4,688 feet above sea level, and temperature differentials of 50-60 degrees between high and low temperature are quite common. Proponents of this explanation reject the close-range accounts of the phenomenon, which they regard as invariably anecdotal.

Some contend that the lights are the result of a naturally occurring phenomenon, the piezoelectric effect, discovered by Pierre Curie in 1883. In this case, critics contend that the mountainous region is made up of mostly rocks containing quartz that expand during the day and contract at night, due to thermal expansion. This expansion and contraction creates stress on the quartz crystals which in turn is converted into voltage that is accumulated over time until it is then discharged into the atmosphere creating a ball lightning effect.

Answer 2

I don't know. There is also a place in Missouri just off Highway 44 called The Spook Light of the Ozarks. You drive down a deserted roads and lights appear. There used to be an old museum that had pictures and folk lore. I sat out all of one night and as we left, I swear I saw a yellow orb of light up in a tree. I'm looking for a place to go to give my new car a bit of a run and that sounds interesting. Think I'll look the festival up on the internet.