Photograph by Sankei News
Photos of a mysterious crop circle-like pattern of trees recently made the rounds online and people had all kinds of bizarre explanations.
It turns out the mesmerizing patterns were the result of some experimental forestry by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries nearly 50 years ago. The ministry was researching growth and tree spacing and planted this particular crop in 1973.
To achieve this effect, researchers planted trees in 10 degree radial increments to form 10 concentric circles. The ‘crop circle’ forest can still be seen today and is located in the Miyazaki Prefecture of southern Japan. In fact, you can check it out on Google Maps right now!
[via designboom]
Photograph via FNN
Photograph via Google Earth