There are some mysterious circles, otherwise known as fairy rings, on the floor of the Baltic Ocean. However, conspiracy theorists will be disaapointed as, according to biologists, they are not caused by either aliens or fairies. The Danish scientists claim this phenomenon is just poison and nothing more.
Rings of green eelgrass, some of them up to 49 feet wide, can be seen at times below the clear waters off the coast of Denmark's island of Mn. The first images of these fairy rings were taken back in 2008 by tourists, and again in 2011. Since then, people have tried to explain what these rings represent, even spawning speculations that they were placed there by aliens and or fairies.
However, researchers at the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Copenhagen, had a different take on the matter, one that is far from superstition, supernatural or anything that is not of this world.
"It has nothing to do with either bomb craters or landing marks for aliens," said biologists Marianne Holmer from the University of Southern Denmark and Jens Borum from the University of Copenhagen. "Nor with fairies, who in the old days got the blame for similar phenomena on land, the fairy rings in lawns being a well known example."
Studies have shown that the mud in the water contains a substance that is toxic, which is the reason why the plants known as eelgrass are forming circles. Apparently, the mud is toxic to eelgrass plants, so whenever they collide, the eelgrass gets in contact with the sulfide toxic inside the mud, which poisons the eelgrass and cause it to form a circle.
Furthermore, it is understood that sulfide toxic is strong enough to weaken both new and old eelgrass plants, but not potent enough to harm the adults. Eelgrass spreads radially, and the oldest and the weakest plants are located in the center of the fold.
"The result is an exceptional circular shape, where only the rim of the circle survives like fairy rings in a lawn," Holmer and Borum added.
This is a better explanation than the ones that were floating around. People made reference to aliens because of crop circles, and it is likely they made reference to fairies because the eelgrass is also known as fairy grass. Anyways, all these theories can now be put to rest.
