Do you believe in fairies? These barren circles in the dry grasslands in the Namib Desert in Namibia, Africa have long been called "fairy circles" because no one could explain how they got there. Locals believed they were created by fairies dancing in circles during the night.
For a long time, it was thought that this was the only place these circles existed. But two years ago, researchers discovered similar circles in another dry landscape — the remote outback of Australia. Locals there thought the circular gaps were made by dragon's fire and some believed they were UFO landing spots.
But scientists are a tenacious lot when they get curious. So researchers started looking into these fairy-dragon-UFO spots. They came up with three plausible explanations:
- Carbon monoxide gas was rising upward from underground, killing all the vegetation.
- Insects were feeding on the roots of the grasses.
- The grasses organized themselves in the mysterious patterns to obtain water, which is scarce in the region.
After finding similar patterns in other dry and remote areas, such as trees that organize themselves into stripes on mountainsides, they were able to settle on theory #3. Which is all very interesting, but sort of takes the fun out of it, right? Me? I like to think the circles might still turn out to be something mystical and magical — like fairy dances at night.
Your "I Believe In Magic" Gift Guru,
Linda
