Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Crop circle

A crop circle is a large-scale geometric pattern formed by flattening crops such as wheat, barley, or canola in agricultural fields, typically appearing as intricate designs including circles, spirals, and fractals.^[1] These formations have been reported worldwide but are most commonly associated with southern England, where they emerged as a notable phenomenon in the late 20th century.^[2] The earliest documented reference to a crop circle dates to 1678 in England, depicted in a woodcut pamphlet titled The Mowing-Devil, which described a farmer's oat field trampled into a circular pattern overnight and attributed it to supernatural forces.^[3] Modern crop circles trace their origins to the 1960s in Australia, where circular impressions in reeds were linked to UFO sightings, though the phenomenon gained widespread attention in the 1970s and 1980s in Wiltshire, England.^[1] In 1991, two British men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, publicly confessed to creating over 200 such patterns since 1978 using simple tools like wooden planks, ropes, and garden rollers, inspired by earlier UFO reports and aiming to perpetrate hoaxes.^[1] Their admission sparked a surge in copycat creations, with designs growing in complexity through the 1990s, peaking at hundreds reported annually in the UK alone.^[1] Scientific consensus holds that nearly all crop circles are man-made, crafted by artists or pranksters employing increasingly sophisticated techniques, including GPS for precision and sometimes microwaves to bend stalks without breaking them.^[3] While some early formations were attributed to natural causes like wind vortices or animal activity—such as wallabies creating circles in Tasmanian opium fields in 2009 due to disorientation from the crop—supernatural or extraterrestrial explanations lack empirical support and are dismissed by experts.^[1] As of the early 2020s, crop circles persist as a form of land art, environmental messaging, or commercial promotion, with around 30 appearing yearly in the UK, drawing tourists and inspiring cultural fascination despite their proven artificial origins.^[4]

Definition and Characteristics

Physical Features

Crop circles consist of large, geometrically organized patterns formed by the flattening of cereal crops such as wheat and barley, creating intricate designs visible from above.^[5] These formations typically appear in fields, most commonly in southern England.^[6] The affected crops exhibit smooth, swirled layouts where stems are laid flat in a radial or vortex-like manner, often spanning diameters from 2 to 80 meters.^[5] A distinguishing physical characteristic is the bending of plant stems at the internodal joints, or nodes, rather than outright breakage. This bending typically occurs at angles of 45° to 90° at the second, third, or fourth nodes from the base, with stems curving near the soil surface to form complex swirls.^[7] At the edges of formations, the flattened crops are frequently interwoven or layered in braided patterns, contributing to the structural integrity and aesthetic precision of the design.^[8]

Patterns and Variations

Crop circles have evolved significantly in design complexity since their initial reports. Early formations in the 1970s and early 1980s consisted primarily of simple, single flattened circles, typically 10 to 30 feet in diameter, appearing in cereal crops such as wheat.^[9] By the late 1980s, patterns had progressed to more intricate "crop glyphs," incorporating multiple circles connected by lines and geometric shapes, marking a clear shift toward elaborate compositions.^[9] This progression continued into the 1990s and 2000s, with formations featuring fractal geometries, symmetrical mandalas, and symbolic motifs that spanned hundreds of feet across fields.^[10] Notable examples include symbolic representations that mimic scientific diagrams, such as the 2001 Chilbolton formation near the Chilbolton radio telescope in Hampshire, England, which replicated the structure of the 1974 Arecibo message—a binary-encoded interstellar transmission depicting human DNA, the solar system, and atomic elements.^[11] Certain designs integrate mathematical concepts, like the 2008 Barbury Castle formation in Wiltshire, England, which encoded the first ten digits of π (pi) through a series of angular segments in a ratcheted spiral pattern, where each arc's angle corresponded to a digit (e.g., 108° for 3, 36° for 1).^[12] Similarly, select patterns have incorporated binary code, as seen in the 2002 Chilbolton "face and code" formation, featuring a grid of 8-bit binary sequences alongside an abstract humanoid figure.^[13] Regional variations in patterns are evident, with the United Kingdom—particularly Wiltshire—hosting the majority of intricate designs, including Celtic knot motifs that interweave symmetric loops and crosses, as observed in formations near Stonehenge.^[10] In contrast, reports from other areas, such as the United States and continental Europe, tend to feature simpler rings or basic geometric arrangements rather than elaborate symbolic or fractal elements. Patterns also adapt to seasonal crop growth, emerging primarily during summer months when stalks are mature enough for bending without breakage, enhancing aerial visibility.^[14] While most occur in cereal fields like wheat and barley, formations have been documented in non-cereal crops, including rice paddies in Asia and maize in North America, though these are less common and often smaller in scale.^[15]

History

Pre-20th Century Reports

One of the earliest documented accounts of a crop circle-like phenomenon appears in the 1678 English pamphlet The Mowing-Devil: Or, Strange News out of Hartford-shire, which describes a farmer in Hertfordshire hiring laborers to mow his oat field, only for the crop to be mysteriously flattened overnight in circular patterns by a devilish figure.^[16] The accompanying woodcut illustrates a horned, impish entity wielding a scythe amid swirled, circular formations in the field, reflecting 17th-century folklore that attributed such anomalies to supernatural intervention, such as demonic mischief or witchcraft.^[17] This pamphlet, printed as a sensational broadside, relied on textual narrative and crude illustration rather than visual evidence, highlighting the era's dependence on oral traditions and printed ephemera for recording unusual events.^[16] By the 19th century, reports of unexplained flattened circles in rural European fields persisted, often intertwined with local superstitions. In 1880, amateur scientist John Rand Capron documented circular patches of flattened wheat near Guildford, Surrey, England, in a letter to Nature, attributing them to cyclonic wind action that bent the stems without breaking them, creating swirled patterns with standing centers. While broader rural European folklore attributed natural circular patterns in grass, such as fungal fairy rings, to supernatural causes like fairies or witches, reports of flattened crop circles like Capron's were rarer and typically explained by weather.^[18] These accounts, drawn from oral histories and occasional newspaper mentions, lacked photographic verification, as photography was still emerging and rarely applied to agricultural oddities, emphasizing reliance on eyewitness testimonies amid pre-industrial agrarian life.^[18] Analogous phenomena appear in non-Western traditions, such as the "fairy circles" observed in the arid grasslands of central Australia, where Indigenous peoples have long recognized these bare, circular patches—up to 15 meters in diameter—as natural features linked to spiritual or ecological lore, including associations with ancestral beings and termite activity.^[19] These ground markings, documented through Indigenous oral knowledge and later scientific study, parallel European reports in their circular form but reflect distinct cultural interpretations tied to Dreamtime stories rather than European fairy or witchcraft motifs.^[20] Such pre-20th-century accounts laid the groundwork for later aerial observations in the 1900s, transitioning from folklore to more systematic documentation.

20th Century Emergence

The modern phenomenon of crop circles began to emerge in southern England during the late 1970s, with the first reported formations appearing near Wiltshire in 1978. These initial simple circular patterns, often described as "saucer nests" due to their resemblance to UFO landing sites, were initially few in number but quickly captured local attention amid growing interest in unidentified flying objects.^[1] Throughout the 1980s, reports of these formations surged in southern England, particularly in Wiltshire and Hampshire, where they were frequently associated with UFO sightings by investigators such as astronomer George Wingfield, who argued for an extraterrestrial connection based on their sudden appearance and geometric precision. Media coverage in the UK intensified during this decade, transforming the anomalies from rural curiosities into national news stories, with newspapers and television outlets documenting dozens of cases each summer. By the late 1980s, the annual tally of reported formations exceeded 100, reflecting a rapid escalation that fueled public fascination and debate over their origins.^[21]^[22] This period saw increasingly complex designs, exemplified by the Julia Set formation near Stonehenge in 1996, featuring a spiral of 151 circles spanning 915 feet and drawing widespread media scrutiny as one of the largest and most intricate formations to date.^[23] Early investigations often leaned toward paranormal explanations, with the founding of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies in April 1990 by Michael Green and Ralph Noyes providing a formal platform for researchers to catalog and analyze the patterns as potential messages from otherworldly sources. In 1991, British artists Doug Bower and Dave Chorley confessed to creating over 200 formations since 1978 using basic tools like planks and ropes, though this revelation did little to quell ongoing speculation.^[24]^[2]

21st Century Developments

In the early 2000s, crop circle reports expanded beyond the United Kingdom to international locations, including several formations in California during 2003 in Solano County wheat fields and a notable 2009 human butterfly design in the Netherlands near Goes, Zeeland.^[25]^[26] The phenomenon reached a peak in the UK around this period, with over 80 formations documented in 2001 alone, including the massive 409-circle spiral at Milk Hill in Wiltshire measuring 900 feet across.^[4] Following this surge, the frequency of UK reports declined significantly after 2010, dropping from hundreds annually in the prior decades to an average of 20-30 per year by 2024.^[4]^[27] The 2024 season exemplified this trend with fewer occurrences, such as a complex seven-fold design at Marten near Marlborough in July and a formation at Etchilhampton Hill in August.^[28]^[29] In 2025, activity remained sparse but included a prominent Celtic knot formation reported on May 15 near Sutton Veny in Wiltshire, approximately 20 minutes from Stonehenge, a joker-faced design appearing in June just meters from the monument, and further sparse appearances through July, such as a formation at Beech Clump near Ludwell on July 12; as of November 2025, around 10-15 formations were reported in the UK for the year.^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33] These Wiltshire sites, long associated with UFO sightings, have fueled ongoing speculation linking the patterns to extraterrestrial lore.^[33] The advent of social media platforms has transformed the documentation and perception of crop circles, enabling rapid sharing of images and eyewitness accounts that often lead to swift public analysis and debunking.^[4] Drone photography, in particular, has enhanced aerial surveillance, providing high-resolution footage that facilitates immediate verification of formations like those in 2024 and 2025, while highlighting human access paths and tools in many cases.^[34] This digital scrutiny has contributed to a more skeptical public view, though artistic hoaxes persist as a creative outlet.^[35]

Known Creators and Hoaxes

Bower and Chorley Case

In 1978, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, two artists from Southampton, England, began creating crop circles in the Wiltshire countryside as a prank, inspired by reports of "saucer nests" in Australian sugarcane fields from the 1960s.^[36]^[37] Over the next 13 years, they claimed responsibility for more than 200 formations across southern England, using simple tools including wooden planks attached to ropes for flattening crops and garden rollers for smoothing edges.^[38]^[2] Their activities remained secret until September 1991, when they confessed in an exclusive interview with the British tabloid The Today newspaper, revealing how they worked at night along tractor lines to avoid detection and mimic mysterious phenomena.^[39] To substantiate their claims, Bower and Chorley staged a live demonstration for journalists in a field in Warminster, Wiltshire, constructing a basic formation in under an hour using their signature methods.^[40] The confession ignited a global media frenzy, with coverage in outlets like The New York Times and Los Angeles Times highlighting the hoax's scale and embarrassing UFO enthusiasts and researchers who had attributed the circles to extraterrestrial or paranormal causes.^[39]^[38] Although it did not fully dispel all beliefs in non-human origins, the revelation partially demystified the phenomenon and prompted greater public skepticism toward supernatural explanations.^[2] In the long term, Bower and Chorley's actions inspired numerous copycats within the emerging hoaxer community, transforming crop circles from isolated pranks into a widespread artistic and cultural trend that emphasized human ingenuity over otherworldly intervention.^[37]^[40]

Methods of Formation

Human-Made Techniques

Human-made crop circles are intentionally created patterns formed by flattening crops using simple mechanical tools and, in more recent cases, advanced technology. Pioneering hoaxers Doug Bower and Dave Chorley confessed in 1991 to producing over 200 such formations in southern England since 1978, demonstrating their methods publicly to reveal the hoax's mechanics.^[42] Their techniques involved basic equipment to achieve precise geometric designs without leaving obvious traces.^[43] The primary tools include wooden planks—typically 4 to 6 feet long—attached to ropes or strings for flattening crop stems. One person anchors a string at the center of the intended circle, while others walk around it, pressing the plank down at knee height to bend the stems clockwise without breaking them.^[42] A wire attached to a baseball cap serves as a sighting device for maintaining straight lines and accurate measurements during layout. Surveying tools, such as measuring tapes, ensure geometric precision in more complex patterns. Operations occur at night in teams of two to six people to avoid detection, often during the crop growing season from April to October, targeting fields of wheat, barley, or canola.^[2] Teams scout locations beforehand and work swiftly, with simple circular designs completable in about 20 minutes by two individuals.^[43] Since the early 2000s, hoaxers have incorporated global positioning system (GPS) devices to translate computer-generated designs into field coordinates, enabling larger and more intricate formations spanning up to 2,000 individual shapes. Lasers assist in aligning straight edges between GPS-marked points, while handheld microwave devices—adapted from oven magnetrons powered by 12-volt batteries—superheat crop stalks to cause them to expand and bend at the nodes without snapping, replicating observed anomalies like node elongation.^[44] This selective pressure from stamping or microwave application allows stems to fall horizontally and cool in place, mimicking natural bending while preserving plant viability. Complex designs may take several hours or multiple nights for teams to complete, leveraging symmetrical patterns for efficiency.^[45]

Natural Phenomena

Natural phenomena can produce simple flattenings in crops that occasionally resemble basic crop circles, though these are distinct from the elaborate geometric designs typically associated with human activity. Whirlwinds, including dust devils, form when hot ground air rises rapidly, creating rotating columns of air that swirl and flatten vegetation in circular patterns, particularly in dry conditions. In the US Midwest, such events have been documented flattening crops like wheat into circular swirls, as observed in agricultural reports from the late 20th century.^[46] Similarly, in the Australian outback, willy-willies—local terms for dust devils—have been linked to circular depressions in reeds and crops, such as those reported near Tully, Queensland, in 1966, where vortices during the wet season created nested swirls up to several meters across.^[47]^[1] Animal activity contributes to localized crop flattening that may appear circular on a small scale. For instance, deer mating rituals or bedding areas can trample crops into rough circles, with white-tailed deer accounting for significant damage in soybean and corn fields across the Midwest, often creating clustered or rounded patches of bent stems.^[48] In the UK, badgers foraging for earthworms disturb soil and flatten cereals like wheat in irregular but sometimes circular depressions, with surveys indicating direct crop damage in up to 20% of affected fields during summer months.^[49] Hedgehogs, through nesting or movement, have been proposed as causing minor swirled flattenings in grassy crops, though evidence remains anecdotal and tied to early investigations in the 1980s.^[50] Severe weather events, particularly downbursts and microbursts from thunderstorms, can bend crops uniformly over larger areas, mimicking simple circular patterns. These downdrafts, studied by meteorologists in the 1990s, involve intense vertical winds exceeding 50 knots that diverge outward upon hitting the ground, flattening crops in radial or ring-like formations, as seen in damage surveys from Midwestern storms.^[46]^[51] Such events are short-lived but powerful, often leaving crops intact at the base rather than broken, and have been analyzed through dual-Doppler radar to confirm their role in non-tornadic wind damage.^[52] Scientifically verified natural formations are rare and confined to simple rings or swirls typically under 10 meters in diameter, lacking the precision and complexity of reported crop circles. Investigations from the early 1990s emphasize that while whirlwinds or animal paths produce these basic shapes, no empirical evidence supports natural processes creating intricate, multi-element designs exceeding this scale.^[53]^[1]

Fringe and Paranormal Theories

Fringe theories propose that crop circles originate from extraterrestrial sources, with proponents claiming that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) employ microwave energy to flatten crops, resulting in observed stem anomalies such as elongated nodes and cellular changes. In the 1990s, the BLT Research Team, led by biophysicist W.C. Levengood, analyzed plant samples from various formations and reported these anomalies as evidence of non-mechanical forces, attributing them to brief, intense bursts of microwave radiation potentially linked to UFO activity.^[54]^[55]^[56] Other paranormal explanations connect crop circles to terrestrial earth energies, particularly along ley lines—hypothetical alignments of ancient monuments believed to channel subtle energies. Dowsers and earth mystery enthusiasts assert that these formations manifest at intersections of ley lines near sacred sites, such as those in Wiltshire, England, where the patterns are said to interact with geomagnetic or spiritual forces.^[4]^[57]^[58] Interpretations of crop circles as spiritual messages suggest they serve as symbolic communications from higher intelligences, conveying warnings or cosmic insights. For instance, the 2008 Barbury Castle formation, a complex spiral encoding the first ten digits of pi, has been viewed by paranormal groups as a deliberate symbol representing universal mathematics and a "cosmic code" for human enlightenment.^[4]^[59] In the 2020s, persistent claims among fringe communities link Wiltshire crop circles to prophecies, portraying intricate designs as symbolic communications. These interpretations, often shared in paranormal forums, posit the formations as messages from higher intelligences.^[4]^[60]^[30]

Artistic and Commercial Aspects

Crop circles have evolved from mysterious formations into recognized forms of land art, often created by artists who view them as large-scale, ephemeral installations that engage with landscape, geometry, and cultural symbolism.^[2] In the late 20th century, inspired by early hoaxers like Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, collectives such as the UK-based Circlemakers—founded in the early 1990s by Rod Dickinson, John Lundberg, and others—began treating crop circle creation as conceptual performance art, blending ritualistic processes with anonymous authorship to provoke public interpretation and debate.^[35]^[61] These artists emphasize the collaborative and site-specific nature of the work, using tools like planks, ropes, and surveying equipment to craft intricate designs in fields, often under cover of night, transforming agricultural spaces into temporary galleries.^[2] Commercially, crop circles have been leveraged for advertising campaigns, with artists commissioned to produce formations that promote brands through their visual intrigue and media appeal. For instance, members of the Circlemakers collective created a large circle in an Italian wheat field to advertise a sports shoe manufacturer, highlighting the designs' ability to generate widespread publicity.^[2] In Wiltshire, the epicenter of crop circle activity, tourism centered on viewing these formations contributes significantly to the local economy, drawing thousands of visitors annually for guided tours, helicopter flights, and walking expeditions that support businesses in the region.^[10] Artist groups like Temporary Temples further capitalize on this interest by selling annual yearbooks featuring high-quality photography and diagrams of designs, alongside merchandise such as prints and apparel, while offering paid access to archives and interpretive materials.^[62]^[63] The creation of crop circles for artistic or commercial purposes has sparked ethical debates, particularly regarding unauthorized access to private farmland. Many creators and enthusiasts advocate obtaining farmers' permission in advance and offering compensation for any crop damage, estimated at hundreds of pounds per formation, to respect landowners' rights and minimize economic harm.^[64] However, instances of unpermitted work persist, leading to criticisms that such actions constitute trespass and environmental disruption, even as some farmers tolerate or encourage circles to attract tourists and offset losses.^[65] These tensions underscore the balance between artistic expression and agricultural integrity in the practice.^[66]

Folklore and Media Influence

Crop circles have deep roots in European folklore, often linked to natural phenomena like fairy rings—circular patterns formed by fungal mycelium growth in grasslands. In English and Celtic traditions, these rings were believed to mark sites where fairies or elves danced at night, and entering one could lead to enchantment or abduction by supernatural beings.^[67] Over time, such lore evolved into darker associations, with circles viewed as the work of witches or the devil, especially in 17th-century tales where they symbolized malevolent interference in human affairs. A seminal example is the 1678 pamphlet The Mowing-Devil: Or, Strange News out of Hartford-shire, which describes a farmer's oat field mowed overnight into circular patterns by a fiery devil figure, complete with a woodcut illustration depicting the entity scything crops in rings.^[16]^[18]^[17] Media portrayals have significantly amplified the mystique surrounding crop circles, transforming them from rural curiosities into symbols of extraterrestrial or paranormal intrigue. The 2002 film Signs, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, features crop circles as ominous warnings from invading aliens, discovered on a Pennsylvania farm by a former priest played by Mel Gibson, which grossed over $408 million worldwide and popularized the phenomenon in mainstream cinema.^[68] Documentaries have further fueled speculation; for instance, the 1990 Operation Blackbird—a high-profile surveillance effort funded by the BBC and Japan's Nippon Television, involving the British Army to capture circle formation in real-time—ended in embarrassment when hoaxers created patterns under watch, yet media coverage heightened public fascination with the unexplained.^[69]^[70] The cultural footprint of crop circles extends to social repercussions, particularly for UK farmers facing trespassing and crop damage. In Wiltshire, a hotspot for formations, aggrieved landowners have protested the financial toll, with circles destroying up to tens of thousands of pounds in wheat and barley annually through flattened crops and unauthorized access by enthusiasts.^[71] To mitigate losses, initiatives like a 2013 visitor access pass scheme in Wiltshire encouraged fees for viewing sites, directly compensating affected farmers and reducing further trampling.^[72] Between 2018 and 2022, over 92 circles impacted more than 40 football pitches' worth of arable land in England, leading to £30,000 in lost revenue and prompting calls for stricter enforcement against trespassers.^[73] In the 2020s, social media has reignited public interest, with platforms like TikTok driving virality around alleged 2025 formations despite scientific consensus on human origins. Videos of intricate patterns in Dorset and Wiltshire, such as a July spider-motif circle, garnered millions of views and spawned theories of alien communication or symbolic warnings, often blending genuine reports with AI-generated fakes.^[30]^[74] This digital buzz has increased fascination, echoing folklore's enduring allure while exacerbating farmer frustrations over uninvited crowds.^[75]

Scientific Investigations

Debunking Efforts

In 1991, British artists Douglas Bower and David Chorley confessed to creating hundreds of crop circles since the late 1970s using basic tools such as wooden planks attached to ropes, garden rollers, and surveying equipment, and they demonstrated the technique by producing a formation in a field under media observation, including by the BBC, which filmed the process to verify the human method's efficiency and simplicity.^[76]^[38] Investigator Joe Nickell, affiliated with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP), conducted detailed examinations of crop circle sites in 2002, identifying clear signs of human intervention such as irregular footprints around the perimeters, tool marks from planks and wires on bent stalks, and broken rather than gently swirled crop stems inconsistent with claimed non-human forces.^[77] These findings were supplemented by Nickell's own nighttime demonstration in an English field, where he and assistants replicated a complex pattern in under four hours using similar tools, further illustrating the practicality of hoaxing.^[77] Aerial photography and ground-based surveys of crop circle locations have repeatedly revealed human access paths—trampled trails leading from roads or field edges to the formations—as well as inconsistencies with "overnight appearance" narratives, such as gradual stalk breakage patterns suggesting multi-hour labor rather than instantaneous events.^[77]^[1] Scientific consensus holds that more than 95% of documented crop circles are human-made, with critiques of groups like the BLT Research Team emphasizing methodological flaws in their anomalous claims, such as unverified samples and failure to rule out hoaxing effects; natural causes, like wind or animal activity, account for fewer than 5% of cases.^[77]^[1] Fringe counterclaims of non-human origins persist but lack empirical support beyond anecdotal reports.^[77]

Anomalous Claims Analysis

In the 1990s, biophysicist W.C. Levengood and colleagues at BLT Research Institute claimed that plants collected from crop circles displayed anomalous physical and biological effects, including node elongation, expulsion cavities in stems, and exposure to electromagnetic radiation or microwave bursts that allegedly heated plant tissues without combustion.^[5] These alterations, they argued, could not result from mechanical flattening by humans and pointed to an unknown energy source, such as plasma vortices or extraterrestrial intervention.^[6] Such claims faced rigorous skeptical scrutiny through replication experiments and controlled tests. A notable 2010 blind test organized by crop circle investigator Colin Andrews submitted plant samples from both documented "genuine" formations and deliberately hoaxed ones to BLT for analysis; the team incorrectly classified several hoaxed samples as anomalous and failed to detect differences, undermining the reliability of their detection methods.^[78] Additionally, a 2005 critique by physicists Paolo Grassi and Giuseppe Cocheo examined Levengood's published data and methodology, revealing methodological flaws, selective sampling, and the ability to replicate reported effects—like magnetic particles and structural changes—using simple mechanical trampling or environmental factors, without any need for electromagnetic anomalies. Levengood's group also reported changes in seed germination from crop circle plants, such as accelerated growth rates or developmental abnormalities, attributing these to residual radiation effects on cellular processes.^[5] However, subsequent studies have demonstrated no statistical significance in these variations beyond those induced by physical stress, such as bending or compression during human creation of the formations. Replication experiments, including a 2014 study recreating conditions from a 1999 Dutch crop circle, successfully produced similar germination shifts using steam irons and mechanical flattening, confirming that mundane trauma accounts for the observations without paranormal involvement.^[79] Modern analyses of crop circles continue to find no empirical evidence supporting anomalous biochemical markers or radiation residues, with structural changes consistently attributed to mechanical bending. For example, a crop circle reported in Dorset, England, in July 2025 was investigated by local authorities and farmers as criminal damage, with no anomalous features noted.^[80] A key factor perpetuating these anomalous claims is confirmation bias, where proponents of paranormal origins prioritize ambiguous or inconclusive data—such as variable plant stress responses—while dismissing evidence of human artistry, leading to overstated interpretations of routine biological effects.^[2]

References

[1]
Crop circles: Myth, theories and history - Live Science
Nov 15, 2022 · Crop circles are large-scale patterns made by flattening crops such as wheat, barley or canola. Crop circle artists still use boards of wood to ...<|separator|>
[2]
Crop Circles: The Art of the Hoax - Smithsonian Magazine
Dec 15, 2009 · Crop circles are a lens through which we can explore the nature and appeal of hoaxes. Fakes, counterfeits and forgeries are all around us in the ...
[3]
Crop Circles Explained - Campus Writing Program
Aug 22, 2015 · The crops in his field were trampled or cut down in the shape of a circle. The circle was recorded on a wood engraving. However, different ...Missing: definition | Show results with:definition
[4]
Anatomical anomalies in crop formation plants - Levengood - 1994
Anatomical anomalies in crop formation plants. W. C. Levengood,. W. C. ... Download PDF. back. Additional links. About Wiley Online Library. Privacy Policy ...
[5]
Dispersion of energies in worldwide crop formations - ResearchGate
Aug 6, 2025 · ... expulsion cavities in plant stem pulvini, as well as significant changes in seedling development. Here we demonstrated that, in a number of ...
[6]
BLT Research -- Plant Abnormalities
4. Expulsion cavities (holes blown out at one or several of the plant stem nodes) are most often found in the 2nd node beneath the seed ...
[7]
[PDF] An Instrumented Study of the Physical Materials of Crop Circles
... stem nodes and the cell structure of internal tissues without producing ... again by bending at the nodes) also displayed distortions of cell pits.
[8]
An Experimental Study for Reproduction of Biological Anomalies ...
Aug 7, 2025 · This paper revisits the controversial case of a “crop circle,” a circular imprint of flattened crop, which appeared in the summer of 1999 in The Netherlands.
[9]
BBC - Southampton - Features - The history of crop circles - BBC
Jan 7, 2004 · We had a definite evolution happening with the Crop Circle Formations or Crop Glyphs as they were called and lots of theories being put forward ...Missing: definition | Show results with:definition
[10]
Pictures of crop circle tourism in England | National Geographic
Oct 19, 2018 · Reports of the circular designs date back hundreds of years in Europe, but the recent wave of tourism to Wiltshire started in the 1970s and has ...Missing: countries | Show results with:countries
[11]
What is the Arecibo Message? - Universe Today
Jan 10, 2022 · The message contained information on mathematics, humanity, the Solar System, DNA, and the Observatory itself.Missing: Pi | Show results with:Pi
[12]
Pi appears in crop circle | plus.maths.org
Jul 1, 2008 · The location of the new Pi crop circle is 51.488258 degrees north, 1.771964 west, but unfortunately it has not yet appeared on Google maps. ...
[13]
Crop Circles: A Not-So-Convincing Case | Skeptical Inquirer
... Arecibo radiotelescope in 1974 was intercepted by an ET civilization which then sent to us their reply via the Chilbolton Crop Circle in 2001—27 years later!
[14]
How Crop Circles Work - Science | HowStuffWorks
Sep 6, 2023 · Crop circles are patterns that appear in fields. The pattern is the result of certain areas of flattened crops while others are left intact.
[15]
Crop Circles - The Robert Beer Blog
Sep 9, 2010 · Circles now commonly appear in many other countries across the world, and may manifest in rice or maize field crops, snow and ice, and reputedly ...<|separator|>
[16]
*The Mowing-Devil* (1678), or, the Earliest Known Depiction of a ...
Jul 3, 2025 · Dating to August 22, 1678, The Mowing-Devil: Or, Strange News out of Hartford-shire opens with an impish woodcut. The small, plump figure of the ...Missing: Hertfordshire | Show results with:Hertfordshire
[17]
Legend of the Mowing Devil - Skeptical Inquirer
The woodcut actually illustrates what in folklore is called a “mowing devil” legend, in which an English farmer told a worker with whom he was feuding that he ...Missing: 17th | Show results with:17th
[18]
How fungi form 'fairy rings' and inspire superstitions
May 1, 2024 · Stories about fairy rings date back centuries in Europe, Africa, and North America. They're also referred to as fairy circles, witches' rings, ...
[19]
First Peoples' knowledge of 'mysterious fairy circles' in Australian ...
Apr 3, 2023 · What are “fairy circles”? They are polka dots of bare earth, regularly scattered across arid grasslands. Scientists first described fairy ...
[20]
First Peoples' knowledge leads scientists to reveal 'fairy circles' and ...
Apr 3, 2023 · We established unambiguous evidence that the fairy circles we surveyed were indeed linyji occupied by manyjurr (harvester termites), as ...Missing: crops | Show results with:crops
[21]
Crop Circles - Signs of Contact Malestrom | PDF - Scribd
Rating 5.0 (1) ing Cheesefoot Head in Southern England, of crop circles and the existence of un- ... The circles were about 10 known as “saucer's nests” because of the
[22]
Crop Circles Symbols and Meanings - Symbolikon
The very first mention of the crop circles dates back to 1678 – an English brochure called “The Mowing-Devil” depicted a circle of lodged wheat.
[23]
1996 Crop Circles - Temporary Temples
Welcome to the 1996 Image Gallery. 1996 was a major year for the crop circles, with several seminal formations occurring that summer.
[24]
Centre for Crop Circle Studies - SourceWatch
Jun 12, 2014 · C.C.C.S COUNCIL FOR 1998-1999. Accessed September 2013: The CCCS was founded by Michael Green and the late Ralph Noyes in April 1990. [2].
[25]
Crop circles called out of teens' league / Paranormal SWAT team ...
Dec 4, 2003 · First came the dozen crop circles mysteriously cut into a Solano County farmer's wheat field in June. Then came the paranormal pilgrims, ...
[26]
The Human Butterfly Crop Circle, August 7th 2009, The Netherlands
Jul 28, 2020 · An immaculate gigantic Human Butterfly crop formation was found in the Netherlands on August 7th 2009 nearby the town of Goes, Zeeland.Missing: 2000s | Show results with:2000s
[27]
England's crop circle controversy - BBC
Aug 23, 2021 · Reports of mysterious patterns appearing in wheat, barley and corn fields in the area began to circulate in the 1970s, but it was in the late ' ...Missing: non- | Show results with:non-
[28]
Around 80% of UK crop circles are found in Wiltshire when ... - Quora
Oct 8, 2022 · 80% of UK crop circles are found in Wiltshire when hours of darkness are at their shortest. Why not employ human and technological surveillance to catch those ...
[29]
2024 Crop Circles - Temporary Temples
The 2024 crop circle season in the UK has now ended. We will continue to update this page with any new information about the circles of 2024.
[30]
2024 Crop Circle Occurrences
2024 Crop Circle Occurrences ; Marten-23/07/24 (Wiltshire) ; Complex seven-fold design incorporating a central seven-pointed star within a flattened outer ring.
[31]
Mystery as crop circles appear in world-famous UFO hotspot
May 22, 2025 · ... May 15, making it the first reported crop circle of 2025. On May 19, a second crop circle was spotted 30 miles from the Celtic knot. +5. View ...
[32]
Mystery crop circle with Joker face appears in field near Stonehenge
Jun 22, 2025 · A mystery crop circle has appeared just metres from Stonehenge with the giant design featuring a clown's face.<|separator|>
[33]
Every Crop Circle Reported In The UK In 2025 | Higgypop Paranormal
Aug 2, 2025 · ... Wiltshire - a region long associated with crop circle activity and UFO lore. Measuring approximately 75 metres across, the formation is ...
[34]
Crop circles - the 2024 Season - Photos by Drone
Mar 25, 2025 · Images below are from the circles at Marten, Wilton, Normanton Down (next to Stone Henge), Etchilhampton and Banbury Rings (just over the border in Dorset).
[35]
Crop Circles Were Made by Supernatural Forces. Named Doug and ...
Jun 12, 2022 · Named Doug and Dave. Intricate patterns carved in fields across England in the 1980s were a viral phenomenon long before the internet fed us ...Missing: definition | Show results with:definition
[36]
Saucer hysteria: The case of the Tully crop circle
Sep 21, 2020 · ... Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, who confessed that, inspired by the 1966 Tully nests, they had faked hundreds of crop circles. Despite this ...
[37]
Pssst, Crop Circles Were a Hoax - JSTOR Daily
Aug 21, 2019 · In the late 1990s, two farmers, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, confessed to single-handedly starting the entire crop circle phenomenon in 1978 ...Missing: Centre Studies founded
[38]
'Crop Circles' Their Prank, 2 Britons Say : Hoax: The scientific puzzle ...
Sep 10, 1991 · British painters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, 62, claimed that for 13 years, they have been responsible for the circles that first appeared in southern England.
[39]
2 'Jovial Con Men' Demystify Those Crop Circles in Britain
Sep 10, 1991 · "We've always known some of the circles were hoaxes, but I find it hard to believe two men could have created hundreds of these circles, which ...
[40]
The Summer of '91 - All you need to know about crop circles
Aug 5, 2025 · And George Wingfield, member of CCCS, launched charges of a government cover-up, aimed at discrediting crop circles in the eyes of the public.Missing: Saucer Nest
[41]
Crop Circles
A new scientific discipline, cereology, emerged. It is practiced by members of the Circles Effect Research Unit, a privately funded group headed by ...Missing: consensus | Show results with:consensus
[42]
What Do Crop Circles Tell Us About Ourselves? - ABC News
Aug 2, 2002 · In fact, two hoaxers came forward in 1991. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed that after a night of drinking in a pub, they began making ...Missing: demonstration | Show results with:demonstration
[43]
Physics could be behind the secrets of crop-circle artists - EurekAlert!
Jul 31, 2011 · According to Taylor, physics could potentially hold the answer, with crop-circle artists possibly using the Global Positioning System (GPS) as ...Missing: modern elongation<|control11|><|separator|>
[44]
Creating Crop Circles With Lasers and Microwaves - Popular Science
Aug 24, 2011 · Circlemakers, as they're known, are using some advanced technology, from microwaves to GPS, to make their increasingly complicated designs.Missing: teams elongation
[45]
More unexplained crop circles are discovered - Post Bulletin
Sep 27, 1990 · ... dust devils. Both are caused by temperature differences in the upper and lower atmospheres that cause swirling winds or powerful downdrafts.
[46]
How Tully became Queensland's answer to Roswell | The Cairns Post
The discovery of mysterious "saucer nests" catapulted the Far North onto the world stage and announced Tully as Australia's answer to Roswell in 1966.A Strange Noise · Strange Swirl · The Aftermath
[47]
[PDF] Corn and Soybean Crop Depredation by Wildlife - FNR-265-W
Farmers indicated losses of 2 percent of total crop value for deer and raccoon. In soybeans, crop value losses to deer and groundhogs were 2.8 percent and 1.7 ...Missing: hedgehogs flattening
[48]
Survey of badger Meles meles damage to agriculture in England ...
Dec 25, 2001 · These are primarily burrowing damage and direct crop damage to wheat, maize, vines, fruit and vegetables. The region suffering the most intense ...
[49]
[PDF] Crop Circles Explained
Sep 21, 2015 · The “Mowing Devil” was the first reported incident of a crop circle, and the farmer who found the circle said that there was a devilish entity ...
[50]
High-Resolution Observations of a Destructive Macroburst in
Downburst damage patterns often resemble those produced by tornadoes (Forbes and Wakimoto 1983), with vegetation flattened in a circular or starburst pattern ( ...
[51]
Downbursts and microbursts - An aviation hazard
Downburst and microburst phenomena occurring since 1975 are studied, based on meteorological analyses of aircraft accidents, aerial surveys of wind effects ...Missing: crop flattening 1990s<|separator|>
[52]
[PDF] The Crop-Circle Phenomenon - Center for Inquiry
Apr 22, 2021 · Centre for Crop Circle Studies). Winter 1992. 143. Page 9. ulating ... 4-8. Grossman, Wendy. 1990. Crop circles create rounds of confusion.
[53]
Thousands Try to Get a Line on Crop Circles - Los Angeles Times
Sep 8, 1996 · A few opined that they were formed by UFOs. Others said they were created by brief, intense bursts of microwave radiation from outer space. But ...
[54]
Hot clue on crop circle: High heat was involved - Deseret News
Apr 29, 1997 · In recent years, Levengood has advanced the theory that most crop circles are natural phenomena created by swirling waves of heat energy thrust ...
[55]
[PDF] Crop Circles:
The History of Crop Circles. • First recorded in 1647 in. England. • Reoccurrence in 1970's with increased numbers. • Massive increase in intricacy in 1990's.Missing: scientific | Show results with:scientific<|control11|><|separator|>
[56]
Earth Energies & Earth Mysteries - Dr Alan Jones PhD FRSA
Feb 20, 2019 · Dowsers, among others, claim that these lines represent a recognition of earth energies which can be felt by those who are sensitive enough and ...
[57]
Crop Circle Theories And Images - Higher Intellect
Very often crop formations appear where powerful ley lines intersect-- or the Earth's magnetic energy lines. This is often at the same place where megalithic ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[58]
Crop Circles: Windows of Perception by Lucy Pringle | Forty-Five
Jun 24, 2016 · Lucy Pringle is a founding member of the Centre for Crop Circle Studies and is an international authority on the subject and the pioneer ...
[59]
Exploration Mysteries: Crop Circles - Explorersweb »
Feb 16, 2022 · Believers say that extra-dimensional entities or aliens create the circles to convey messages of peace or warning to humanity. Humans. This is ...Missing: spiritual | Show results with:spiritual
[60]
CircleMakers.org
circlemakers: Home of England's crop circle makers. Making the world a more interesting place.Missing: Rod Dickinson Nike 1992
[61]
About Us - Temporary Temples
Many people create artistic reproductions of the crop circle designs ... The Crop Circle Year Book books are beautifully produced and they contain ...
[62]
Crop Circle Year Books Archives - Temporary Temples
The Crop Circle Year Books are carefully considered, beautifully designed books. Filled with stunning photography, including many full-page landscape views.Missing: collectives designs merchandise
[63]
The bizarre revival of crop circles - and advice on how to make your ...
Jun 4, 2009 · Ask permission from a farmer and be prepared to pay compensation. A crop circle can cause hundreds of pounds of damage. Wait for a moonlit ...
[64]
Crop circles - what, why and tips for farmers - CLA
Jun 20, 2024 · Wiltshire has the record for the most recorded crop circles, with over 380 since 2005, with Hampshire a close second, and Oxfordshire in third.Missing: tourism millions
[65]
Crop Circle Etiquette - Temporary Temples
Do not enter a field without permission from the farmer. · Never, ever, smoke cigarettes (or anything else!) in a crop field.
[66]
What is a Fairy Ring and What Causes Them? - Woodland Trust
Aug 26, 2019 · In English and Celtic folklore, fairy rings were caused by fairies or elves dancing in a circle. It was said that if humans joined in the dance ...Missing: crop credible sources
[67]
Crop circles and water allergies: The science behind Signs - SYFY
Aug 11, 2022 · In 'Signs,' aliens create crop circles and are ultimately defeated by water. Is there any scientific plausibility there?
[68]
Signs (2002) - IMDb
Rating 6.8/10 (408,112) A widowed former reverend living with his children and brother on a Pennsylvania farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields.Full cast & crew · Plot · Signs · Signs - Zeichen
[69]
Operation Blackbird (July 1990) - The Museum of Hoaxes
Dec 4, 2005 · A group of researchers, who described themselves as 'cerealogists,' set out to solve the mystery of the circles' formation once and for all.Missing: 1991 documentary
[70]
Farmers say crop circles are destroying business | ITV News
Jul 27, 2017 · Farmers in Wiltshire say crop circles people cut into their fields are damaging their trade and costing them up to tens of thousands of pounds.
[71]
Crop circle visitors to Wiltshire asked to buy access pass - BBC News
Jun 18, 2013 · The pass, which starts on 28 June, is an effort to minimise damage to land and help compensate affected farmers. Under the scheme, farmers who ...Missing: compensation fund
[72]
Invasion of the barley snatchers: crop circles cost farmers thousands ...
Sep 24, 2022 · Farmers lost £30,000 in income between 2018 and 2022 as a result of 92 crop circles of varying sizes.Missing: tourism millions
[73]
Viral crop circle videos created by AI, not aliens - RumorGuard
Sep 25, 2025 · A September 2025 viral video does not feature genuine footage of a crop circle being formed in Kentucky. Yes. This video was created with AI ...Missing: articles | Show results with:articles
[74]
New York Man Baffled After Perfect Circle Suddenly Appears in ...
Aug 9, 2025 · Like Pat's backyard circle, theories about crop circles vary wildly. Many have been revealed as man-made hoaxes. Others remain unsolved, with ...Missing: social | Show results with:social
[75]
Southampton - Features - Crop Circles - Man made or mystery? - BBC
Nov 11, 2002 · In 1991 two landscape painters from Hampshire, David Chorley and Douglas Bower, claimed they started the hoax in 1978, after drinking in a pub.
[76]
Circular Reasoning: The 'Mystery' of Crop Circles and Their 'Orbs' of ...
Joe Nickell, PhD, is senior research fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and “Investigative Files” columnist for Skeptical Inquirer. A former ...
[77]
Crop Circles: Nancy Talbott at BLT got it wrong and should admit it
Aug 24, 2010 · Colin Andrews blind test of BLT and William Levengood crop circles plant analysis and BLT results failed the test.