50-YEAR-OLD EXPERIMENT CREATES A MYSTERIOUS JAPANESE 'CROP CIRCLE' FOREST

A mysterious forest in Japan has generated quite a stir with its unique shapes in the Miyazaki Prefecture of southern Japan. The group of Japanese cedar trees stretches to the sky, creating mysterious concentric circles. 

People were left wondering how these mysterious shapes were made after an aerial photo snapped these "crop circles". This was the creation of a well thought out plan which took nearly 50 years to execute. 

A document, written by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, explains the mysteriously shaped forest was due to a project on growth and tree spacing which started in 1973. Back then, the area of forest was designated as "experimental forestry". One of the experiments included researchers planting trees in 10-degree radial increments to form 10 concentric circles. This experiment showed that specific spacing does deliver unexpected results on growth. The trees also grew in a convex shape, fanning out into the forest.

The original plan called for the trees to be harvested in five years. But it was thought best by officials that the circular forest would be spared.