Namibias

Drone image of a car driving through the NamibRand Nature Reserve, one of the fairy-circle regions in Namibia where the researchers undertook grass excavations, soil moisture, and infiltration measurements (April 2022). Credit: Dr. Stephan GetzinInexplicable circles are caused by plant water stress, not termites, according to research from Göttingen University.For almost 50 years, researchers have been perplexed by the origin of Namibia’s fairy circles. It came down to two primary hypotheses: either termites were …

Sprawling across a remote swath of the Namib Desert, rugged grasses eke out a living from the region's meager rainfall.The growth of so much grass in such a harsh environment is impressive, but also mysterious. The grassland is dotted by millions of strange circles, each devoid of grass or other vegetation, that together form an eerie polka-dot pattern of "fairy circles" across the landscape.Located 80 to 140 kilometers (50 to 87 miles) inland from Namibia's coast, this zone of circular gaps in the grassland is visible…