The DHARMA Initiative
At some point in the early 1970s, the DHARMA Initiative founded a tiny community on the Island. The Barracks became the center of operation for the DHARMA Initiative on the Island. Significant quantities of construction materials, electronic equipment and various vehicles and machinery were brought to the Island during the phase of settlement for the construction of the various DHARMA stations. Off the Island, the DHARMA Initiative’s activities were coordinated from Ann Arbor in Michigan. (“Some Like It Hoth”)
The Incident, first mentioned by “Dr. Marvin Candle” in the Swan Orientation film (“Orientation”), was an electromagnetic anomaly that caused a catastrophic event at The Swan construction site. The Incident occurred when a drilling accident at the site of the Swan station unleashed a pocket of electromagnetic energy. While the Swan Station was originally being built to harness this energy, the DHARMA Initiative was forced to change the goal of The Swan and construct it to contain the energy with large amounts of concrete, using the protocol to regulate the anomaly.
However, an electromagnetic anomaly alone was not the cause of The Incident. Daniel Faraday suggested that detonating a nuclear device might prevent the electromagnetic anomaly, beginning a chain of events which would ultimately result in Oceanic Flight 815 not crashing on The Island. His theory contradicted his earlier theory that events of the past cannot be altered. It was briefly suggested by Miles that the survivors’ plan to detonate the core of a hydrogen bomb at The Swan construction site might actually be the cause of The Incident, rather than preventing it.