Strange lines
 

Hi,

Just under a year ago I flew to Japan for a holiday. On the way back to Europe I saw some strange sights out of the window (probably somewhere over Russia) - I had my digital camera to hand, and grabbed some pictures.

Does anyone have any idea what I saw?

A strange diamond:
http://www.cus.org.uk/~timeless/japa...3/DSCF0043.jpg

Lines:
http://www.cus.org.uk/~timeless/japa...3/DSCF0045.jpg

A grid:
http://www.cus.org.uk/~timeless/japa...3/DSCF0047.jpg

A river and road (to compare):
http://www.cus.org.uk/~timeless/japa...3/DSCF0048.jpg

Pictures were taken from about 10,000 metres.

I have better quality higher resolution pictures if anyone is really interested? They are quite large though...

-- Pete.

Re: Strange lines
 

I'd guess the lines are roads and/or railroads and the grid is perhaps farm-related (cleared areas between fields). The diamond is sure odd.

Not quite fields...if you look in the earlier pictures, you can see long straight lines in them vanishing into the distance.

I grabbed the camera after seeing just one of these lines, it looked VERY strange, it was far too straight, and seemed to almost ignore the terrain. It was also all alone.

Then I started seeing more lines, then the diamond came into view. Then the lines became more dense until they became that grid, then they started to become less and less again, until they stopped entirely.

The best theory I've heard so far is that maybe they are firebreaks cut into the landscape to prevent massive fires, and maybe that diamond shape is the result of a large fire, cut sharply at the edges where there may have been firebreaks...the grid seems a bit too fine for it to be firebreaks though I'd have thought...

Besides that, I've heard nothing that quite seems to fit...

Anyone else have ideas?

-- Pete.

Initially, I was thinking that the grids were for some kind of military exercise, for locating and targeting... the grids could be pretty old, even WWII vintage. Russotto might be right, it could also be part of one of the Soviet Unions large scale agricultural stupidities. That would fit with ignoring terrain. Each plot could be assigned a crop and the layout might facilitate an irrigation network. The lines extending out might mean that its just unfinished...In other words, I haven't a clue.

Maybe it was a shortlived plan to breakup one of the old farm co-ops around the time of the USSRs collapse.... still no clue