Author
Jeremy Northcote
     Faculty of Business and Law
     Edith Cowan University, 
     100 Joondalup Drive, 
     Joondalup, WA 6027
     AUSTRALIA

   E-mail Jeremy Northcote

Title
Spatial distribution of England's crop circles: Using GIS to 
investigate a geo-spatial mystery.

Abstract
What factors influence the location of crop circles?  What is their 
relationship to various geographical variables such as population 
density, road networks, and cultural heritage sites?  This paper 
examines the spatial distribution of crop circles that appeared in 
the English countryside during 2002 and seeks to understand their 
positioning in terms of various artificial features.  Through Geographic 
Information System (GIS) mapping and spatial analysis, the 
distribution of reported crop circles is shown to be a highly clustered 
one, which centres on certain cultural heritage sites such as Avebury 
and high population density areas across England, particularly in the 
south.  Crop circles are also shown to be aligned with some of 
England's principal motorways.  These findings cast doubt on 
paranormal theories explaining crop circles as the result of natural 
forces such as plasma vortices, indicating instead that some form 
of intelligence (human or otherwise) is the principal agent.    

Key words: crop circle, GIS, spatial analysis, plasma vortex, BLT, Earth mystery, paranormal

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