The circles are very new and relates to the area being used to set up land speed records, or testing fast cars. This was posted by Tony Lockhart on July 14, 2012 3:04, on the website PMhttp://forums.naimaudio.com/topic/strange-patterns-in-south-africa-on-google-earth?reply=17476120013605872 "I know this area quite well although I have never been to the verneukpan. These patterns are new, I have an aerial photo from 2009 that shows only the triangle shape. The spirals are about 60 metres across, the smaller ones about 20m. Also apart from the triangle, there are some older looking straight line marks all over. The yellow line thru the triangle shape is the only "road" that traverses the pan, so I would guess that this is some form of grading or preparation work for making a hard standing, maybe for the record attempt base camp." Reply NewsKnowledgeJuly 16, 2013 at 3:04 AMAccording to friend of the farmer: If you look at Google Earth pictures of 2006 and prior, you will notice that there are no ditches present, only a few dams. The farmer that owns the land on which the spirals that you see is situated, took a tractor and used a plough to make deep spiralshape ditches with the intention of catching the water run-off. These ditches work very well and had a significant effect of improvement on the grazing on that farm. I wonder why, and does this work catching the water run-off? I mean running water would just flatten it all out again?
The farmer and his tractor immediately reminded me of the two old men who supposedly made the crop circles in England with a stick and a long piece of string. Thousands of them.
If you are interested, may I suggest you follow the patterns on Google Earth, and when you have covered enough territory way beyond that one salt pan, and you find that the patterns change shape and go on forever...you’ll forget all about the farmer and his tractor.