The inhabitants of the region call them "footprints of the gods" and have a myth to explain their origin: the mysterious circles that can be found in some sectors of the Namibian desert would result from the breath of a dragon.
These "footprints", better known as "fairy circles", were first observed at the beginning of the 20th century, and since then they have been a mystery, which has been complicated by finding Namibian circles also in Australia.
More mystery: now the Namibian circles also in Australia
The “fairy circles” of the Namibian desert, considered the oldest desert in the world, are circular formations without vegetation that They range from 7 to 20 meters in diameter and are grouped in half a dozen adopting a hexagonal pattern.They are between Namibia, Angola and South Africa and from the first time they were observed until the beginning of the current decade, scientists do notThey had found a rational explanation for this apparently unique phenomenon, not until the appearance of two theories proposed in 2013.
The first, from the biologist Norbert Jurgens , from the University of Hamburg, argues that the circles would be caused by sand termites, which attack the root system of the vegetation surrounding the circles; the second, proposed by C.Fernandez-Oto , of the Free University of Brussels, was inspired by the theory of the formation of natural patterns, proposed by the British Alan Turing in 1952, and suggested that the Circles would result from the strategy of a dominant plant species, to meet its water requirements in the desert.
To ensure access to water, each plant would have a broad root system, which would mark the distance with other plants of its kind, and repeating this distance in very dry regions would end up forming circular areas without vegetation.
The question asked to supporters of the second theory was why these rings did not arise in other arid regions of the planet, and the answer has been given by the discovery of the Namibian circles also in Au stralia.The “fairy circles” of Western Australia have diameters between 4 and 7 meters and were first observed in 2014.The area was studied by ecologists Stephan Getzin and Ehud Meron, who concluded that these circles were similar to those of Namibia, located on another continent and 10,000 kilometers away, even if it was a different vegetation.
The "fairy circles" of Australia are on clay soil and there is no termites or ants that attack the root system, which would confirm the theory that it is a plant survival strategy.
However, the biologist Norbert Jurgens insists on his theory of termites and , as is often the case in scientific disciplines, it is a debate that has not concluded and is waiting for new studies that explain why there are circles in Namibia also in Australia.
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Images: Jeremy T.Hezel, Vernon Swanepoel
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