Mysterious Crop Circles: Real or Falsified?

Some scientists believe that they appear as a result of an atmospheric phenomenon

In the 1980s there were about 500 circles and pictograms registered on wheat fields in England. In 1989 Paul Fuller and Jenny Randles published a book that was called "Crop Circles: A Mystery Solved." Researchers sent copies of the book to respectable media outlets and then organized a seminar in London. That was the time, when the science to study crop circles was born.

Various ufologists set forth different suggestions to explain the mystery of crop circles: circles appeared as a result of an unknown atmospheric phenomenon, or they were of the extraterrestrial origin. Researchers Fuller and Randles backed up the atmospheric theory, although they noted that some of the circles were fake. A falsification was unveiled in 1989, when it became known that a newspaper paid good money to a farmer for making a mysterious pictogram on his field. However, that was just a little thing to happen in comparison with a great number of occasions like that, when fake mystification became too frequent. English people are fond of mysticism, so if there is nothing mystical, they make it all up.

According to Jenny Randles's data, a rather considerable damage was caused to the science of crop circles in September of 1991, when two unemployed artists from Southampton acknowledged that they falsified mysterious circles. The two artists proved that with photographs and said that they simply had a wish to prove people's naivety and to get some attention. A lot of other confessions like that happened afterwards, although the majority of circle-makers turned out to be impostors. They could not make any circles, when they were asked to do so.

People have tried to explain the origin of crop circles with a lot of various reasons - from meteorological to divine ones. Russian physicist A.Olkhovatov believes the crop circles represent a certain form of energy exchange between the Earth's crust and the atmosphere. Yet, the scientist does not know, what they exactly exchange.

Other reasons to explain mysterious circles include: whirlwinds, mini-tornadoes,  phantom activities, UFO landings. Eyewitnesses are more drawn to stick to the UFO landing version. Nighttime wanderers and watchmen saw strange glowing and even UFOs themselves above agricultural fields sometimes. Crop circles were usually found there in the morning. In 1998 a phenomenon like that took place in Russia, in the Krasnodar region. In June 1999 local residents of the village of Zorka saw an UFO flying above their fields, and in the morning they found strange circles on the fields.

English scientist Miden believed that crop circles were made with electrified whirlwinds. This point of view is considered to be the most reasonable one now. At least, the majority of scientists of the  Russian Academy of Sciences mention this version in the first place. Most likely, this version is not exotic as others about aliens, the extraterrestrial mind and  others unexplainable notions. Nevertheless, none of the versions has been officially confirmed or proved yet.

The year 1999 was the year of crop circles records in Russia. All of those events took place in the Kuban region. Drivers found a large circle on a barley field in April of 1999, not far from the town of Novokubansk. Two other circles were found in June around the same area. Just a visual examination of the circles showed that they were not fakes: lines were accurate, stalks were not broken. A more detailed analysis showed that there were no anomalous phenomena found. The year 1999 yielded very good harvest in Britain as well.

Scientists value eyewitnesses a lot - the people, who saw, how a circle was formed and how it actually appeared. For the time being, the ufology has 50 occasions to describe how crop circles were formed on agricultural fields without anyone's participation. Usually, nothing supernatural happed at that - there was just a blow of wind. However, it was in England. In Russia, people usually saw an UFO before they found crop circles. It deems that it is now really hard for British ufologists to distinguish real crop circles from fake ones: they are not likely to unveil a "mystery of the century" as they put it. Russia has not lost a chance yet.

Vadim Chernobrov