In European folklore, when one found a ring of mushrooms growing in the forest, it was believed to mark the entrance to a secret fairy realm; hence the given term for this naturally occurring ring formation, the “Fairy Ring.” Though the conditions for the formation of these rings aren’t fully understood even today, scientists presume that it is likely the result of a large, coenocytic (single-celled) fungi being present beneath the earth. Though the manifestation is understood to be one large cellular formation, it is dispersed with multiple nuclei throughout.

Fairy Rings are also often associated with the growth of necrotic circles of grass, a circular area where plant life withers or dies altogether. Especially when present in large fields, these circles have been associated with crop circle activity in the past.

SHALL WE DANCE? : A man saves his friend from mischievous little folk in the 1860 painting “Plucked from the Fairy Circle” by T.H. Thomas.

Meanwhile, a similar phenomenon has been occurring over for years in Canada, referred to as the “Forest Rings of Ontario,’ which describe the thousands of large circular formations in forested areas of the boreal landscape of northern Ontario. First photographed in the 1950s, the odd circles have been likened to crop circles in that aliens and UFOs are often called as a common culprit.

Stew Hamilton, a geochemist with Ontario’s Geological Survey, has worked to discover the cause of the bizarre rings for over a decade. As described to the Canadian CBC News, Hamilton’s theory as to how the circles are formed is fascinating:

According to Hamilton, the forest rings are caused by giant, naturally occurring electrochemical cells — big centres of negative charges (called reduced chimneys) that are frequently situated over metal or mineral deposits or methane (a natural gas source).

Think of them as huge natural electrical batteries with a negative charge in carbonate soil and surrounded by oxygen that carries a positive charge. The current from the batteries — the negative charge — travels outward and where it meets the positive charge, acidic conditions are created that eat away at the carbonate soil, causing it to drop in a circular depression around the natural battery.

No matter what the circumstances, it is always interesting to see the many places and ways that circular formations like this appear in nature; and the trouble we go to in order to find out what causes them!