These landscapes are real!

The blog io9 has such cool stuff. This article has a series of unusual landscape photos that (to me!) look like they could be from Minecraft.

http://io9.com/satellite-images-of-agricultural-fields-make-the-earth-1637547151

 

io9 article 1

 

io9 article 2

io9 article 3

 

io9 article 4

These crazy circular patterns are because of something called “center pivot irrigation”. From Wiki —

Center-pivot irrigation (sometimes called central pivot irrigation), also called waterwheel and circle irrigation, is a method of crop irrigation in which equipment rotates around a pivot and crops are watered with sprinklers. A circular area centered on the pivot is irrigated, often creating a circular pattern in crops when viewed from above.

 

center pivot irrigation

 

If you would like to make your own variation, here is a template for making circles in Minecraft…

http://forums.arresteddevelopmentclan.com/download/file.php?id=523

If you click on the link, you will get a much larger version of this.

Minecraft circle chart