Fairy Circles
At this stage, I suppose we could say that fairies are as good an explanation as any.
The Namib, a 1,000-mile desert along Africa’s southwestern coast, is a resplendent sea of sand. Its swaths of towering, classical dunes rival the grandest deserts on the planet.
About a hundred miles from the Atlantic, an odd stretch punctuates the sandy monotony. Viewed from above, this pockmarked region looks like a space-battered moonscape in ochre tones.
Ask the Himba people of northern Namibia, and they’ll tell you the strange circles on the ground are the footprints of Mukuru, the creator god of their worldview. Modern guides tout a different myth, one of a dragon that lives in a deep crack in the crust, who flies around dotting the desert with a cleansing flame.
These tales describe formations in the grasslands of the Namib whose official nomenclature is no less fanciful: fairy circles.
What are a bunch of circles doing in the middle of the African desert? Are they the result of small, winged spirits? Aliens? Or are they the outcome of a well-known natural phenomenon?
Spoiler alert: read the epigraph at the start of the article.
The fairy circles are swatches in the Namib’s grasslands that are devoid of plant life. Typically, a verdant ring of grass comprises the circumference. They’re rather large, usually ranging between seven feet and 40 feet wide (2-12 meters).
In general, Mother Nature abhors clean geometries. Though the circles certainly diverge from perfect versions, collections of circular objects in nature are rare.
Stranger than the existence of a slew of circles in the desert, perhaps, is the mystery that surrounds the reason they exist. Even though they present on the surface, ready to study, scientists have not identified a definitive cause.
Two main theories dominate thinking on the topic.
The first involves termites. In this scenario, termites eat the grasses and make the bare soil their home. Once a circle is established, a feedback loop develops. The lack of vegetation allows water to accumulate underground, forming a reservoir for grasses to survive during dry periods. This region can sustain a succulent grass ring. The termites continue to feast on this coil, which enlarges the fairy circle.
The termitic idea garnered a lot of clout when studies showed that nearly every circle contains the insects.
However, other experts believe termites merely correlate with fairy circles and do not cause them.
Nothing inherent in their nesting or feeding behaviors jives with the creation of fairy circles. If termites caused the phenomenon, why did it happen only in this one stretch of the globe? And could they possibly create such regular structures? Were the termites acting oddly because of the local ecosystem? Certainly, they exist in other arid zones. Where were other fairy circles?
The mystery took a twist in 2014 when the latter question suddenly got an answer.
Researchers discovered fairy circles in Australia!
A region in the western part of the continent, known as the Pilbara, apparently harbors the mischievious fay, as well.
And guess what these versions have?
Ravenous termites.
Were they the cause, after all? Most scientists still lean toward “no.” Though the bugs make domiciles of the circles, they also live in parts of these deserts that don’t have circles.
If not munching cockroach relatives, then what?
The second theory revolves around plant self-organization. In these deserts, resources are scarce. If two species of grass compete against each other in one area, they might both fail. This result can create bare spots. Like the termite theory, this physical reality, when established, creates a feedback loop. Water isn’t consumed in the bare spots, so the grasses that manage to survive around the reservoir tend to thrive. Though an exact mechanism has not emerged, some scientists believe the circles might represent a maximal organization for these grasses. In other words, if the grasses can manage to form circles, they can maximize their resources in an inhospitable zone. Of course, no evidence exists to suggest the plants have any “knowledge” about how to organize, or that they choose to do so. Instead, these circles could represent a reality in the physical universe, an interplay between grass and desert soil.
Some recent studies have put us on the brink of ending the termite theory. Scientists have shown that when the grasses die, they do so because of water stress and not insect ingestion. Studies on the hydrology of the soils display moisture levels that match the pooling of the resource around a dessicated center.
The circles could be the result of evolution, the forms that happen to emerge on Earth’s deserts when populated by specific grasses.
Still, though most researchers today subscribe to this idea, we do not know exactly what is happening.
Perhaps fairies are not as good an explanation as any, as the University of Pretoria’s Gretel van Rooyen opined in 2004, but the mystery persists. Until we have a clear answer, faires, flying saucers, gods, and dragons all sound pretty good.
Further Reading and Exploration
A mystery in the world’s oldest desert – BBC
Fairy rings – enigmatic features of Namibia – The Namibian
‘Fairy circles’ of Africa baffle scientists – The Telegraph
African Circle Mystery Solved? Maybe It’s Chewing – New York Times
First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia – Nature ecology & evolution
Rare ‘fairy circles’ discovered near Newman in Western Australia – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Magical Mathematics Behind ‘Fairy Circles’ – Smithsonian Magazine
