Circles in the sand dunes
Another afternoon of going down a virtual rabbit hole. Today, triggered by the concept of offroading, I watched more videos. Why? In part because one of the kids now has this on his interest list, and as a parent, I feel obligated to keep up.
What can you see from outer space? Or out a window on the airplane? How about something more virtual, like images from Google Earth. What if you spotted circles on the ground, in the middle of absolutely nowhere (the desert). Would you be interested? Circles! Locally, we get lots of parallel lines, but that is evidence of fields prepared for planting. Hardly mysterious.
Someone spotted circles, in the middle of the Sahara. No roads (the mandatory tie-in to offroading). And the cirlces were large enough to be seen from a satellite. Mysterious! Now I won’t pretend to understand the budget implications, but someone convinced others to take a detour (through the desert) to finds out what was going on. Was it proof of aliens? Ancient tombs? Modern tombs? Irrigation? None of those things, actually.
The patterns dated back to early seismic exploration, during the post-WW2 period. In the desert. I did not know this, but petroleim hides in the most inconvenient areas. In the desert (among others). The circles had been left behind by smaill explosions, from echo research. And now, for anyone who happens on to the sands, you can also find garbage (or course). Old sardine and tuna cans. Actually, the tin can markings were the key to solving the puzzle. Finally, a practical use for sardines.
