Anomaly
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Nick Cutter describes them being somewhat like an earthquake in time which occur along temporal fault lines. They resemble glowing shattered pieces of glass floating in mid-air, through which people, animals and objects can travel. It is guessed that this could be a 'fracture' in the time continuum. It is also stated in Episode 1.2, 1.3 and 2.2 that atmospheric gases and liquid can also pass through.
The anomalies are highly magnetic, they can draw ferrous objects — for example keys, and pens — into them, they also render compasses useless near them. Connor Temple proved this multiple times by throwing metal objects into the anomalies (once accidentally throwing his front door key into the first one that was found). However it is shown in Episode 1.4 that the magnetic field is not strong enough to penetrate through the metal of a stainless steel fridge door. The anomalies also produce radio interference on the frequency 87.6FM as demonstrated by the shopping center anomaly. (Episode 2.1)
An anomaly can either have a fixed location at both "ends" of the anomaly or one end may be unstable and thus move location, for example the present end of an anomaly moves in the 3rd while the past location of the anomaly was fixed.(Episode 1.3)
It is also possible to enter only partway into an anomaly without being sucked in, for example a person can take a look through an anomaly simply by poking their face through without travelling all the way through. (Episode 1.1)
They can cut across distance as well as time, as creatures which were never native to Great Britain, nor the area which Britain has passed through in its geological past, have passed through the anomalies into modern Britain. For example the Dodo was only found on tropical islands around Mauritius, and Scutosaurus were located in Russia and parts of Europe.
Also the team encountered Dodos at one anomaly, a bird which did not evolve until well after the time of the dinosaurs ended (the dinosaurs became extinct at the end of Cretaceous period 65 million years ago whereas the Dodo had not separated from its common ancestor with the Rodrigues Solitaire until around 25 million years ago). This would indicate that the anomalies can be linked to any period in the earth's history.
In Episode 1.6 it's demonstrated that interference with the past can alter the future in unspecified ways. Also, the ending of the sixth episode ended with a cliffhanger where the anomaly appeared to start to expand and brighten for reasons unknown, although Episode 2.1 showed this was just the anomaly closing. It has not yet been established how many time anomalies have occurred nor where they originate from, though the capture of an extinct form of Sarcopterygian suggests that there have been others before the Forest of Dean anomaly seen in Episode 1.1.
The strength of the anomalies weaken over time. They slowly lose their magnetic power, shrink in size, and eventually collapse in on themselves. Although they can be re-opened such as the Permian anomaly, which has closed and reopened at least three times, and the Carboniferous anomaly which never closed at all. When an anomaly closes, any object caught halfway through the anomaly will be severed, with each piece in a different time zone, as seen with the Deinonychus in Episode 2.1 .
In the spin-off novels "Shadow of the Jaguar" and "Extinction Event", an anomaly opens in the Peruvian Jungle and Russian Tundra (respectively), proving that anomalies exist outside the UK. However, the canonicity of the books has yet to be determined.
[edit] Spaghetti Junction
Main article: Spaghetti Junction
[edit] Prediction and Control
Helen Cutter has claimed she knows the locations of the anomalies before they open and has hinted that she can control them. Yet the evidence she's provided for her claims has proved contradictory.
At the end of the first episode, Helen — who is presumed to be trapped in Permian era after having passed through an anomaly — is seen from a distance and leaves Nick Cutter a living specimen of an Ammonite, while in the second she is encountered by Stephen Hart.
Also there is a theory that using the Anomaly Locking Mechanism it could be used to make the outer shell (the temporal shards) of the an anomly more powerful than the inside which could force it to collapse onto its self causing the hole in the space-time continum to be "filled in" so it closes. This implies that she can create them as there is no other explanation as to how she can get from period to period. This is underlined in the fifth episode, where she appears and disappears, presumably through another anomaly, as she clearly couldn't have come through the sky anomaly.
However, in Episode 1.6, she 'used' the team to find the Permian anomaly that leads to the future, suggesting that she can't control them or locate them after all (although it is stated later in Series 2 that she was eventually able to reach the future via an anomaly). In the opening scene of Episode 2.2, one can briefly see a device in her bag that resembles the handheld anomaly trackers later made by Connor Temple. And at the end of season 2, she is shown in command of multiple versions of the same man, perhaps hinting that she has gained sufficient control of the anomalies to use time travel to create multiples of people. It is eventually revealed in Series 3 that this cloning is not a function of the anomalies themselves, but that Helen used the anomalies to steal cloning technology from the future.
In Episode 2.1, Nick Cutter correctly theorized that the anomalies cause radio interference on the 87.6FM wavelength. He passed this knowledge on to Connor Temple, who creates the Anomaly Detection Device sometime before the beginning of Episode 2.3. This new equipment allows the home agency to track any new anomalies within seconds of them opening. Connor also created handheld anomaly trackers to be used by the team in the field. He also mentions he is working on making them more compact. Both these devices show great accuracy; allowing the ARC to track the anomalies much more efficiently.
Early in season 3, Nick Cutter constructs a physical 3D model which allows him to predict the location (though not the time) at which some anomalies can be expected to occur. This "matrix" appears to work, since it accurately predicts the abandoned house anomaly in Episode 3.2; however Cutter is the only person who understands it, so his death (as well as the fact that the model itself was damaged in the ARC explosions) effectively renders it useless.
It is possible to contain and even move anomalies using magnetic fields (e.g. by surrounding an anomaly with a "cage" constructed of magnetite), even when the anomaly is closed. It is also possible to temporarily prevent the passage of objects through an anomaly by the application of an electric current. Connor Temple uses this discovery to create a device which "locks" anomalies by "reversing their polarity". Repeating the process returns the anomaly to its natural unlocked state. A "locked" anomaly appears as a glowing sphere, in contrast to the "frozen explosion" an unlocked anomaly appears as.
In Episode 3.9, it was revealed Helen Cutter had some sort of remote control that could open and close anomalies. The origins of the anomaly remote are unkown. It's also unkown at what point in the series Helen began using it. However, it seems anomalies couldn't be opened to any place or time, as Helen needed to go to the Late Cretaceous where she could then go through a "natural" anomaly to the 333 site. Although the 333 Anomaly closed, the remote was dropped in the Cretaceous, so it's possible Connor and Abby could reopen the anomaly to get Danny back.
