COTTAGE GROVE - A Minnesota farmer can't explain a strange phenomenon in one of this fields.
Gene Smallidge found five crop circles that were made sometime July 24 on his Cottage Grove farm. He said he made the discovery the following day, and did not find any evidence that this was a man-made prank.
"There's still grain in the heads," Smallidge said, referring to his flattened crop. "If that had been done by people using a board to drag across they would have pulled a lot of the grain out of the heads and off the stems and it's still there today."
As soon as word spread about Smallidge's discovery, a research company in Massachusetts came calling. Volunteers with BLT Research took samples and offered a scientific explanation for what happened.
"The main one they're looking at is possible plasma vortices that would be formed high in the atmosphere and create and have a different charge than the lower atmosphere," said volunteer Dean Deharpporte. "Somehow this plasma would be transported to the ground like lightning is."
Scientists say hot gasses could form a swirling pattern to create the circles without breaking the stems.
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