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In many formations, the crop is flattened in complex, flowing spirals and alternating layers, sometimes with elaborate "bird's nests" and other intricate features, with bent or curved, but undamaged plant stalks (not to be confused with natural bending from phototropism). While formations in Canada may be simpler for the most part in terms of shape or design, the ground lay pattern of the flattened crops can sometimes be quite complex, more so than is often thought.

Most formations, at least in England, appear during the night, within a maximum time window of about four or five hours of complete darkness (during summer months). Many circles have also appeared during rainy, stormy or moonless nights. In a few cases, simpler circles have reportedly been seen forming, a process which reportedly takes only a matter of seconds according to similar various accounts over many years from eyewitnesses.

In southern England, which continues to be the focal point of activity, reports generally begin in late April or early May and continue until late August or early September. In North America, formations are reported from spring to late fall; in Canada most circles are found by farmers during harvest in August and September, who often literally stumble across them as it were while harvesting. While Canadian formations have tended not to be as complex as their European counterparts, they are still prolific; they have been reported literally across the country, mainly in the prairie provinces, Saskatchewan in particular, which has long been the Canadian equivalent of Wiltshire in England as the region with the most numerous reports on average each year.

Related Phenomena?

There are also other types of "circular phenomena" found worldwide which may or may not be related to the crop formations, including circular or other geometric formations in crops or other vegetation (burned or missing plants), ice, snow, dirt / soil, sand, gravel, etc.. While these are characteristically different from the usual "classic" types of flattened crop circle formations, and have not yet been proven to have any direct connection, their usually circular or geometric nature certainly makes them of interest for comparison studies, and it is in this sense only that they are referred to as “related phenomena.”

The ice circles are a now much-debated phenomenon themselves; most found in Canada and other countries in recent years have been on small ponds and lakes. Like crop circles, most have appeared overnight, although there are various theories as to how these may be natural in origin, involving underwater vents or currents affecting the surface ice, in particular those rings with diffused edges or "splash patterns" (the most likely explanation). In some cases though, the rings have been almost perfect circles, cleanly incised into the ice with smooth, sharp edges, such as Sudbury, Ontario in 2005 and Delta, Ontario in 2000. Most of these have been in thin surface ice, too thin for a person to have walked on. There are currently 13 known reports in Canada since the 1970s.

Other miscellaneous circles have also been found in crops or other vegetation (burned or missing plants), snow, dirt / soil, sand, gravel, etc. They are usually, but not always, circles or rings. A number of such formations have been classified over the years in older research archives as possible UFO "landing traces," the Ted Phillips' Physical Trace Catalogue being a good example. There are currently 41 known reports since 1880.

Also of note are the randomly downed areas (RDAs), usually in field crops or grasses, non-circular or non-geometric flattenings (and thus not categorized as either crop circle formations or even related phenomena per se), given that in most cases their appearance is completely random, and usually explained by simple lodging or wind damage. In some cases, however, more complex lay patterns and physical deformities to the plants involved have been documented, similar to those found in "standard" crop circle formations. This suggests that the same "energy" may possibly be responsible for both. Indeed in some cases, both geometric and non-geometric patterns have been found in the same field, sometimes known to have occurred the same night or within a short time span of each other. The appearance of the RDAs is similar to ordinary lodging or wind damage, although the physical characteristics would seem to indicate that what may appear to be ordinary random lodging or wind damage in some cases may in fact be classified as RDAs upon closer examination.

See also reports from the BLT Research Team, Inc. and Crop Circle Quest for further information.

The phenomenon in its simplest form - two circles in oats at Drayton Valley,

Alberta, August 18, 2001; such basic formations, the "core" of the phenomenon,

are still relatively common in the Canadian prairies as well as other countries

© Paul Scott Anderson (CCCRN)

Ice circle at Delta, Ontario, December 2, 2000

© Cathie Whittaker (The Mural)

Crop Circles 101

The Phenomenon, Related Phenomena?, The Scientific Evidence, The Historical Evidence

Milk Hill, Wiltshire, England, 2001

© Lucy Pringle

The Scientific Evidence

Some of the most pronounced physical anomalies found in crop formations worldwide have been deformities to the nodes, in all types of crops including wheat, barley, canary seed and even cattle corn. These deformities include varying degrees of swelling, elongation and rupture-type holes, often referred to as "expulsion cavities." The leading current hypothesis as to their cause relates to the rapid heating of internal moisture inside the plant stalks, which tries to escape at the nodes. Interestingly, the only semi-successful attempts at duplicating these effects manually so far have involved microwaves.

They have not been reproduced yet by conventional hoaxing methods (ie. stomping boards, rope, etc.), and have been found in simple circles as well as some of the more complex patterns. Test circles made by researchers for comparison purposes, including by CCCRN teams, and known man-made formations have not shown these kinds of pronounced changes. Slight swelling and elongation can be caused by these mechanical methods, but so far these methods have never been demonstrated to cause the degree of change seen in some formations (up to 200-300% node elongation in some cases!).

It should also be noted that the node deformities are sometimes found on still-standing stalks of crop inside a formation or around its perimeter that were never flattened to begin with (such as at Matsqui, British Columbia in 2004 for example, see below), and are therefore not simply the result of mechanical flattening of the plants with boards or the plants bending at the nodes back up to the sun (phototropism, a natural response of flattened plants to start growing upwards back toward the sunlight, often observed in crop formations or any region of flattened crop).

See also the Corn Formations Growth Study below, a good case example and research project which includes these kinds of anomalies in hybrid cattle corn from formations at Abbotsford and Agassiz, British Columbia in 2003.

Samples of large expulsion cavities in cattle corn stalk nodes inside the Abbotsford formation in 2003

© Paul Scott Anderson (CCCRN)

Sample of normal cattle corn stalk node outside the Abbotsford formation in 2003

© Paul Scott Anderson (CCCRN)

Sample of expulsion cavities in barley stalk nodes inside the Edmonton #2 formation in 1999

© Judy Arndt (CCCRN Alberta / Crop Circle Quest)

Another research project by the BLT Research Team, Inc. / CCCRN features growth studies being done with samples of hybrid cattle corn (maize) from the two large formations at Abbotsford and Agassiz, British Columbia in 2003. Both formations exhibited significant physical anomalies including multiple expulsion cavities (sometimes in single nodes), often with up to seven or eight affected nodes on one stalk (entire length of stalk), something never seen before. Both of the large, geometric formations, 91 metres (300 feet) and 45 metres (147 feet) long respectively, were in 2.75-3.05 metre (9-10 foot) tall cattle corn. Similar anomalies were also later found in the cattle corn formation at Matsqui, British Columbia in 2004. A full BLT / CCCRN report documenting these findings will be published soon.

An update on the BLT Research Team website provides a good case example of objectively studying the available evidence at hand; regarding an examination of blackened cattle corn stalks from the larger of the two formations at Mission, British Columbia in 2002, which analysis showed to be a common opportunistic fungus called Ustilago, not charring as had been speculated. While a "negative" result, it underscores the need for serious and objective scientific studies of all possible anomalies.

A comprehensive X-ray diffraction study was published by the BLT Research Team in 2004, an examination of clay minerals in soil from the Edmonton, Alberta formation in 1999, showing evidence of an increase in crystallization similar to that seen before only in sedimentary rock; the effects found would normally require exposure of the soil to a minimum of 600-800 degrees C for many hours... significant node length increases and expulsion cavities were also found in this formation.

Other anomalies sometimes found in crop formations include twisting of stems below seed heads, dehydrated / shrunken seeds and significant changes in seed germination and growth rate (either faster or slower than normal). In some cases, otherwise normal seed pods are found to be empty (no seed development at all). In 1998, several formations in England were found to contain dead flies adhered to the plant stalks, which were dehydrated as if they had been "baked," consistent again with the possible involvement of some form of microwave-type energy. Smaller insects inside the seed pods were also dead. Flies and other insects outside of the formations were normal.

Interestingly, many formations, including in England, Canada and other countries, have been found to occur over areas of underground limestone deposits and aquifers. The reason for this apparent geological correlation remains as-yet unclear.

The BLT Research Team, Inc. was founded in 1992 by Nancy Talbott, John Burke and biophysicist W.C. Levengood (Pinelandia Labs, Michigan, USA) to coordinate the laboratory analysis work of plant samples from crop circle formations worldwide, started by Levengood in 1989; it became a formally incorporated non-profit research organization in 1999 and now involves the work of a growing number of other scientists and labs in the USA (although Levengood is now working independently).

A comprehensive preliminary report entitled "Anatomical Anomalies in Crop Formation Plants" was published in October, 1994 by Levengood, in Physiologia Plantarum 92, a respected international scientific journal published in Denmark.

An in-depth overview of the scientific evidence is also on the BLT Research Team, Inc. web site.

CCCRN also now has it's own scientific consultants (continually under development) as well as working with the other consultants via the BLT Research Team, Inc.. This is a listing of professional consultants, in a variety of scientific disciplines. As more scientists offer their expertise to the research efforts, they will be added to the list.

The Historical Evidence

Often still regarded by most of the public and media as a "new" phenomenon (since the 1970s), findings by a number of researchers, including with CCCRN, continue to find cases which pre-date this time period, by decades or even possibly centuries, in various countries. In Canada, one such report is of typical small flattened circles in wheat at Leeshore, Alberta in 1925, a firsthand account from a still-surviving great-grandfather who used to farm in that area, as well as many others from the 1940s to 1970s.

One well-documented account of earlier formations, from the highly respected science magazine Nature, describes flattened circles with standing centres of stalks in wheat, a characteristic still often seen today, in Surrey, England in 1880, a good century before crop circles became the publicly-known phenomenon they are today. In the July 29, 1880 issue, a short letter to the editor was published, written by a respected scientist of the time, spectroscopist J. Rand Capron, describing circular flattenings in a wheat field in Surrey, England.

The description given is very similar to many other cases of crop circles of the simpler variety, both current and older, with circular flattened areas, standing centres of stalks and untouched walls of standing crop around the outside perimeters of the circles. This case was first discovered by Peter Van Doorn as a reprint in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Meteorology. (For anyone who may not have seen this report yet or is interested in a copy, CCCRN has obtained a print copy from the microfilm archives in the Vancouver library. This is the original letter in Nature, not the 2000 reprint. The copy also includes the volume cover page, Volume XXII, May 1880 - October 1880, as there is not a separate copy of the cover available for that specific issue of July 29, 1880. The mentioned sketch was not published with the letter unfortunately).

The July 29, 1880 issue of Nature magazine contains a letter from a respected scientist

of the time, J. Rand Capron, describing circles with standing centres of stalks

in a wheat field in Surrey, England; one of the earliest documented accounts on record

© Nature

In Canada, another early possible report is from a native Indian legend, "The Daughters of the Star," in the book Thirty Indian Legends of Canada (first published in 1912), of a hunter finding a flattened ring in prairie grass. The symbolism surrounding the account may of course indicate the entire story to be fanciful, but as is often the case, such stories are often based on actual events or observations, and the description of a "flattened ring" in the prairies from such an old source is interesting given it's similarity to the same kind of simpler circles and rings which continue to be found in the prairies and across the country until today. It is also similar to other old accounts in legends and folklore from the US and Europe, a further piece of evidence that crop circles, at least simple ones, may have been around for a long time...

A native Indian legend, "The Daughters of the Star," from the book

Thirty Indian Legends of Canada (first published in 1912) includes the mention of a hunter

finding a flattened ring in prairie grass - a very early crop circle account?

© Douglas & McIntyre