Physicist Finally Solves the Mystery Behind Strange Polka-Dot Patterns Found in the Grand Canyon
The Earth is experiencing dramatic changes due to environmental issues and humans seem to have made peace with it. Moreover, with the rapid advancement of technology, scientists have enhanced strategies to collect data and keep track of natural phenomena across the globe– from satellite imagery to underwater vehicles (AUVs) exploring great depths of the oceans. By the same token, a physicist studying the dimensions of the Grand Canyon rim on Google Earth was perplexed by the discovery of mysterious polka-dot patterns on the North rim of the monumental rocks, per Live Science.
The mysterious dirt circles, large enough to be observed from the orbit, are irregularly spread across a valley near Vulcan’s Throne, a cinder cone volcano and the location is informally being called "the Las Vegas of ants." Physicist Amelia Carolina Sparavigna first spotted the northern rim riddled with strange, barren circles amidst the scrubby desert vegetation in Arizona. She speculated that the pattern was caused by an army of red harvester ants, thousands of them nesting in the area resulting in patterned vegetation. Sparavigna is a specialist in image processing and satellite imagery analysis at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy.
"I knew that patterned vegetation can be created by competition between plants and animals, and that, in Namibia, there is a patterned vegetation created by colonies of insects," the physicist explained. According to Conservation Namibia, the fairy circles have been extensively researched for over 50 years with several hypotheses emerging over time. One such theory suggests that the formation of vegetation rings is based on the centrifugal expansion of a single individual grass plant and die-back in the center, per Nature. Another theory suggests that it is the work of sand termites or ants.
Referring to the polka-dot patterns near the Grand Canyon in a similar context, Sparavigna attempted to explain the unusual occurrence to be the work of the red harvester ants, scientifically called Pogonomyrmex barbatus. These ant species can build nesting mounds of about 47 inches in diameter and 108 square feet of bare ground typically surround these mounds, as stated in Saparavigna’s paper published online in 2016. However, her observation has not been formally acknowledged by other researchers as her study is yet to be peer-reviewed.
Sparavigna is confident that additional research and on-field investigation are required to unravel the mystery behind the polka-dots visible from space, and likely confirm the ants as the true culprit. Interestingly, the barren circles were not visible in 2008 satellite images, which further adds to the mystery. Hence, she noted, "It is quite probable that the observed patterned vegetation can have its origin from the interaction of vegetation and ants, but an on-site investigation is necessary to be sure of it.”
Google Earth has been a phenomenal tool in discovering unexplored regions of the planet. Similar to the Grand Canyon patterns, a team of researchers with the Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East (APAAME) has been studying the wheel-shaped geometric structures that date back to about 8,500 years ago, through the satellite imagery available via Google Earth, per another Live Science report. Images of a swastika-shaped design in Kazakhstan and an unexcavated pyramid in Egypt are some other examples observed on Google Earth. However, there are still some discrepancies reported with the satellite images extracted from the site in the past, and have a long way to go as a reputed source.