by 1 Cylivers
Crop circles are patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat, barley, rapeseed (also called "canola"), rye, corn, linseed and soy.
The term was first used by researcher Colin Andrews to describe simple circles he was researching. Although, since 1990, the circles have evolved into complex geometries, the term circle has stuck.
Many crop circles are known to be man-made. For non-hoaxing crop circles, various hypotheses have been offered to explain the formation of crop circles of unknown origin, ranging from the naturalistic to the paranormal.
The main naturalistic explanation is that all crop circles are man-made, primarily as a hoax. Paranormal explanations suggest that, while some crop circles are man-made, others are the product of alien visitors or supernatural processes.
