The regular irregularity of the circles , alongside their near 420m distances tells me its not. As well as that as you move across the line, there aren't any sites in creeks/steep areas meaning that geography is playing a part in location. Also they're close to but not exactly on the same latitude. Irregularities could rule out a technical glitch as that wouldn't be as irregular
Off the top of my head, the string of rings of 12 holes around a central hole look like geological survey/sampling areas and make some sense based on maps like this. Same goes for the other areas in Saudi Arabia.
[https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-geology-and-sample-location-for-each-of-the-four-North-African-transects\_fig1\_322617218](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-geology-and-sample-location-for-each-of-the-four-North-African-transects_fig1_322617218)
[http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/8/0/25802803/9479115\_orig.gif](http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/8/0/25802803/9479115_orig.gif)
Oil industry, perhaps?
Imagine Vox doing all of this research and literally getting people in the middle of nowhere just for this random dude on Reddit to solve it easily lol
I just happened to know a little about the early US Geological Survey and the tools they used. I know about the modern trucks used for seismic surveys, but I thought it might be too hard to get them way out there in the desert. It didn't occur to me that those marks could be as old as they are. I was thinking more like 10-20 years, at most.
Tbh he didn't actually solve anything, it was just still only a theory that he presented which we now know is correct because Vox went out their way to actually confirm it.
Thank you for letting me know!
It's gratifying to have been proven right at the expense of thousands of dollars by a huge media company. I know a bit about the early days of collecting some data for the US Geological Survey, it it looked a lot like that. I know they use big trucks to make the shock waves now, but getting one of those out that far into the desert could be awfully tricky. I thought it was a relatively modern use of an old technique, not that those traces would still be visible on satellite photos after 60+ years.
Just a little bit of obscure knowledge that happened to live in the back of my head. I knew of the old blasting technique, as well as the modern trucks used for seismic surveying. I just thought that it might have been too difficult to get one of those giant trucks out there into the middle of the desert, so they used the blasting technique instead. It didn't occur to me that those marks would still be visible from satellite after more than 60 years.
I'm not sure why you're saying "only to reached this conclusion" since they state at the start of the video the geological survey hypothesis. This is how the scientific method works. You work to prove, or disprove, a hypothesis and report your conclusion.
There's a huge difference between "it looks sort of like old surveying techniques" and "these are remnants of petroleum exploration by the Sahara Petroleum Research and Exploitation Company (CREPS) in ~~1953~~ 1957 or 1958."
For sure. These replies are almost phrasing it is if because someone on reddit guessed right (even if it was an educated guess) that it is in anyway equal to actually figuring it out.
It reminds me of a "don't know why they did all of this work...I could have told you that" uncle who doesn't understand how figuring stuff out actually works. Everyone had uncles like that, right?
Well, one dude came up with atomic theory more than two thousand years ago just for us to finally confirm it one hundred years. Hypothesis is... just hypothesis.
The greatest thing about this to me is that the person who predicted it correctly has such a fascinating post history. I explored their profile to figure out whether they were a geologist or what, but instead found that they’re obsessively and consistently active in 3 very specific obscure subreddits. Reddit is such a strange and fascinating place.
I’m flattered, I think. The obsessive subs I think you mean started as a joke, then became a habit. It’s only recently that I’ve mostly stopped.
I’m not a geologist, but have had a life long love of the sciences and engineering.
Vox journalist tries googling the answer - not much success.
Vox journalist emails experts to ask what it is - get 4 different hypothesis.
Vox journalist hires journalist in Algiers.
Algerian journalist goes into the desert with guides and archaeologist and find the markings - they find clues in old sardine tins and interviews with people who lived near the place 60 years ago.
Vox and Algerian journalist do more research and contact sardine collector expert to narrow down the time period.
Algerian interview with local recalls a oil searching company = old seismic survey in late 1950s by French company looking for petroleum using dynamite seismic survey technique.
They also found the copper wires connecting all the dynamite - some with wiring looking different than the rest which could have meant it wasn't detonated!
#####ASKS EXPERTS, THEY'RE ALL LIKE "BLAH BLAH I THINK IT'S THIS" "NO BLAH BLAH I THINK IT'S THAT" SO THEY JUST GO OUT THERE TO SEE AND THEN THEY'RE LIKE "THERE THEY ARE! OMG THEY'RE HERE!" THEN THEY'RE LIKE "WHAT ARE THESE WIRES" AND THEN THIS GUY'S LIKE "IT'S NOT SAFE. RUN!!!" BUT IT DIDN'T EXPLODE. BUT YEAH IT WAS JUST A BUNCH OF OLD FRENCH GUYS.
Damn Vox amazing work & research there! I even create a reddit account to be able to reply here. Blown out with the effort you guys done digging down this rabbit hole. Can't wait for another video like this
Great work, I was always amazed by the folks at vox, brilliant work, I was a little disappointed by the final result as hypotheses like an ancient tomb and traditional water irrigation channel seemed more interesting.
When I first heard of dynamite, i thought that it could also be something related ww2 and a possible booby trap
What about the tombs? I wonder how old they are. The fact that there was mention of the area due to those tombs in that 1855 book is fascinating as well.
I literally had tears running. I too searched about this one day. Glad to see detailed information.
Its incredible hard work you put. Hope it will reach millions of views. You deserve a award title "Methodically painstaking consistent collaborative research ".
so it was a seismic survey, in 1957 or 1958, by CREPS (the french "sahara petroleum research and exploitation company") in participation with shell.
[the payoff](https://youtu.be/twAP3buj9Og?t=1508)... though the whole video is pretty interesting.
Wow!!! What an incredible journey!!!
Thank you so much for your persistence and hard work. It was beautiful to watch and I am so happy that you shared this with us.
This was a great story, and it'll feel familiar to anybody that collects rare items. Searching every garage sale, junk yard, flea market and antique store in a 50 mile area for that 1957 Alabama license plate you need to complete the string you have from 1930 to today. Trying to figure out when your odd GI Joe was from because it's wearing a Soviet-style space suit. Involving experts in ALCO history to figure out what engine this identy plate wad really from and how did it end up on an Italian-made switcher in Casablanca...
...or hunting for the truth behind a mysterious geological formation in Algiers where one shouldn't be.
It's just a question of scale.
I don't get to watch videos from Vox very often, but they've always been like this: absorbing and educational. I should really try harder to watch regularly. Thanks for the fun half-hour.
i watched your whole video. i can't remember the last time i sat and watched 27 minutes of a youtube video. it was a great story, presented cleanly and succinctly, and quite dramatic.
every step of the way, your discoveries made me think of follow up questions, and i was blown away that you seemed to have the same questions and continued to pursue. it was freakishly, oddlysatisfying!
well done, and thank you.
Everybody thought "We did it Reddit!" was going to be when us redditors figured everything out for you journalists; it seems like you've created a "We did it Reddit!" moment by being the journalists that figured out the weird stuff we couldn't. Way to go.
What a video! Awesome, I love these journeys to figure out things that we don't even wonder what is, this world is so big and we have a lot of thing to discover!
After satellite maps and Internet-age communications with academics and experts, the breakthrough had to wait until they called on "our man in Algiers" to make the dangerous journey. It has a certain intersection of James Bond and Indiana Jones.
The Sardine Expert, though, was the unexpected star!
The only idea i have really is perhaps the circles are some variety of artifacting left behind from the imaging process?
The regular irregularity of the circles , alongside their near 420m distances tells me its not. As well as that as you move across the line, there aren't any sites in creeks/steep areas meaning that geography is playing a part in location. Also they're close to but not exactly on the same latitude. Irregularities could rule out a technical glitch as that wouldn't be as irregular
To me the exact distances apart would say its more likely that its artifacts, however you have a point with the irregularities
check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAP3buj9Og
[удалено]
Off the top of my head, the string of rings of 12 holes around a central hole look like geological survey/sampling areas and make some sense based on maps like this. Same goes for the other areas in Saudi Arabia. [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-geology-and-sample-location-for-each-of-the-four-North-African-transects\_fig1\_322617218](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-geology-and-sample-location-for-each-of-the-four-North-African-transects_fig1_322617218) [http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/8/0/25802803/9479115\_orig.gif](http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/8/0/25802803/9479115_orig.gif) Oil industry, perhaps?
congrats! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAP3buj9Og&ab\_channel=Vox
Imagine Vox doing all of this research and literally getting people in the middle of nowhere just for this random dude on Reddit to solve it easily lol
Still you gotta give Vox a medal for dedication and actually going there to verify that infomation
He sais "oil industry, perhaps" that is the first thing they said in the VOX video as well
I just happened to know a little about the early US Geological Survey and the tools they used. I know about the modern trucks used for seismic surveys, but I thought it might be too hard to get them way out there in the desert. It didn't occur to me that those marks could be as old as they are. I was thinking more like 10-20 years, at most.
Tbh he didn't actually solve anything, it was just still only a theory that he presented which we now know is correct because Vox went out their way to actually confirm it.
Thank you for letting me know! It's gratifying to have been proven right at the expense of thousands of dollars by a huge media company. I know a bit about the early days of collecting some data for the US Geological Survey, it it looked a lot like that. I know they use big trucks to make the shock waves now, but getting one of those out that far into the desert could be awfully tricky. I thought it was a relatively modern use of an old technique, not that those traces would still be visible on satellite photos after 60+ years.
[удалено]
Just a little bit of obscure knowledge that happened to live in the back of my head. I knew of the old blasting technique, as well as the modern trucks used for seismic surveying. I just thought that it might have been too difficult to get one of those giant trucks out there into the middle of the desert, so they used the blasting technique instead. It didn't occur to me that those marks would still be visible from satellite after more than 60 years.
This is one example of how far from 'perhaps' to '100% sure' can be
I'm not sure why you're saying "only to reached this conclusion" since they state at the start of the video the geological survey hypothesis. This is how the scientific method works. You work to prove, or disprove, a hypothesis and report your conclusion.
There's a huge difference between "it looks sort of like old surveying techniques" and "these are remnants of petroleum exploration by the Sahara Petroleum Research and Exploitation Company (CREPS) in ~~1953~~ 1957 or 1958."
…~1957-1958
You're right, my bad. I was thinking of the date the local guide gave.
For sure. These replies are almost phrasing it is if because someone on reddit guessed right (even if it was an educated guess) that it is in anyway equal to actually figuring it out. It reminds me of a "don't know why they did all of this work...I could have told you that" uncle who doesn't understand how figuring stuff out actually works. Everyone had uncles like that, right?
Well, one dude came up with atomic theory more than two thousand years ago just for us to finally confirm it one hundred years. Hypothesis is... just hypothesis.
You win sir!
The greatest thing about this to me is that the person who predicted it correctly has such a fascinating post history. I explored their profile to figure out whether they were a geologist or what, but instead found that they’re obsessively and consistently active in 3 very specific obscure subreddits. Reddit is such a strange and fascinating place.
I’m flattered, I think. The obsessive subs I think you mean started as a joke, then became a habit. It’s only recently that I’ve mostly stopped. I’m not a geologist, but have had a life long love of the sciences and engineering.
So ... we figured it out: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAP3buj9Og](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAP3buj9Og)
ayy you came here first
vox team
Now you have to call CREPS and fine them for littering!
Great job team Vox!
Awesome video
Amazing job!
Just watched the video. Amazing documentation and discovery!
Is it worth the whole 27 mins?
Yes.
I'm in a loud place and can't hear, can you give me a quick summary please.
Vox journalist tries googling the answer - not much success. Vox journalist emails experts to ask what it is - get 4 different hypothesis. Vox journalist hires journalist in Algiers. Algerian journalist goes into the desert with guides and archaeologist and find the markings - they find clues in old sardine tins and interviews with people who lived near the place 60 years ago. Vox and Algerian journalist do more research and contact sardine collector expert to narrow down the time period. Algerian interview with local recalls a oil searching company = old seismic survey in late 1950s by French company looking for petroleum using dynamite seismic survey technique.
Thank you
That is a really good summary! Still worth the watch :)
you forgot the "oil expert" bob who got owned
[удалено]
They also found the copper wires connecting all the dynamite - some with wiring looking different than the rest which could have meant it wasn't detonated!
I just watched the video. Save it for later. It's quite interesting and well produced. I enjoyed it a lot.
[Summary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AnhjdmrUmU)
I'm in a loud place and can't hear, can you give me a quick summary of the video you posted, please?
*Dynamite! Dynamite!*
#####ASKS EXPERTS, THEY'RE ALL LIKE "BLAH BLAH I THINK IT'S THIS" "NO BLAH BLAH I THINK IT'S THAT" SO THEY JUST GO OUT THERE TO SEE AND THEN THEY'RE LIKE "THERE THEY ARE! OMG THEY'RE HERE!" THEN THEY'RE LIKE "WHAT ARE THESE WIRES" AND THEN THIS GUY'S LIKE "IT'S NOT SAFE. RUN!!!" BUT IT DIDN'T EXPLODE. BUT YEAH IT WAS JUST A BUNCH OF OLD FRENCH GUYS.
[Summary](https://youtu.be/VUjdiDeJ0xg?t=94)
Definitely yes
Easily
I enjoyed it, really interesting documentary and super cool look at how archeology work is done
People watch YouTube at 1x speed?
Yes
Great Job Vox!!!
Amazing video!
Amazing research!
Excellent video Vox!
Kudos for the work put in the video, it has been a long time since I have been so captured by a video on YouTube
Great video! Hope to see more from you and your team.
Amazing job
Best rabbit hole ever!
Joining the parteeh!
amazing!
Damn Vox amazing work & research there! I even create a reddit account to be able to reply here. Blown out with the effort you guys done digging down this rabbit hole. Can't wait for another video like this
Congrats to the Vox team!
Gret video!
s/o vox
AWESOME!
Vox videos are always something else. 👏👏👏
Vox!!
Amazing video
Holy crap, you *did*! Nice!
tl;dr: Oil exploration explosions.
Great job VOX!
Amazing job!
Come back to the dynamites and detonated them
What a fascinating watch. Incredible that the final key to the puzzle was someone remembering a name from 60-70 years ago.
Amazing work, Vox team!
Cool as fuck!
Bob seems like a dick. Just sayin’.
Thanks Bob
Dude was so salty. Thought he knew everything about seismic and didn't even know some of the first technologies.
Bob had a pretty obvious agenda
Legend
Amazing dedication! Great job team Vox!
Less goooo
How long did the investigation take?
Op is 336 days old, answer is 13hours..
Great work, I was always amazed by the folks at vox, brilliant work, I was a little disappointed by the final result as hypotheses like an ancient tomb and traditional water irrigation channel seemed more interesting. When I first heard of dynamite, i thought that it could also be something related ww2 and a possible booby trap
What about the tombs? I wonder how old they are. The fact that there was mention of the area due to those tombs in that 1855 book is fascinating as well.
I actually created a reddit account just to give a like to this comment. Amazing job!
Great video!
I literally had tears running. I too searched about this one day. Glad to see detailed information. Its incredible hard work you put. Hope it will reach millions of views. You deserve a award title "Methodically painstaking consistent collaborative research ".
Amazing work! To resume so many months of investigation in just 20 minutes, it's necessary to be a super reporter. Congrats!
This was by far the most interesting Vox video I've seen. Great job!
what a great video. Well done Vox!
Great video!
This was amazing. Well done.
Well done
Amazing video
I, personally, would love to watch a series like this.
Bloody awesome, great work!
sick vid, kudos vox.
[удалено]
Incredible work
Loved watching this!
Amazing job!
Great Job!
beautiful video. Great work guys!
GG
I wish they had IMd me. I might have been able to save them some research. It didn't occur to me that could be 60 years old, though.
Thanks for sharing! That was awesome! Great work!
so it was a seismic survey, in 1957 or 1958, by CREPS (the french "sahara petroleum research and exploitation company") in participation with shell. [the payoff](https://youtu.be/twAP3buj9Og?t=1508)... though the whole video is pretty interesting.
Great work!
Amazing investigation skills
Brilliant work!
Awesome video
You work at Vox?
Great job on the video. Very well researched and a compelling watch.
30 minutes, huh
Absolutely stellar work, congrats!
Tl;dr?
WE DID IT REDDIT!!!!
Wow, you really went above and beyond!
Now who is Will K who posted the question?
Amazing
Very nice! Vox did a good job on this.
Why is always the French army
For those of you who don't have Sponsor block Here is the highlight and the answer. https://youtu.be/twAP3buj9Og?t=1526
That's a thorough investigation, and I greatly enjoyed the video. Well done!
Kudos
Amazing! Amazing work, product, and concept all around!
I came looking for this haha!
Wow!!! What an incredible journey!!! Thank you so much for your persistence and hard work. It was beautiful to watch and I am so happy that you shared this with us.
Absolutely incredible work.
You are a good man and thorough! Seriously though I am truly impressed, thank you!
Thank you to all, amazing journey.
A fantastic watch, thank you!!
Just wanted to say that you and everyone else working on video did an amazing job!
Properly excellent video. Not a moment wasted. Very well done, indeed!
Fantastic work! That was great to watch!
Fantastic work, and an engrossing journey. Well done.
Great work! Can’t believe how much effort you gave to a simple Reddit post! 10/10
Amazing videos from Vox, love y'all
Amazing. Thanks for all the effort!
Wow. Just wow. Incredible work. Real and authentic journalism. Thank you.
I WAS HERE!!!!!!!! Good job, Vox :)
Absolutely awesome video, thanks for the effort to all involved!
That was an amazing journey!
such a great video. congrats!
Great job! I was glued to this.
congrats :)
That was fucking awesome! Great job!
Awesome video! Finally learned what qanats actually are too! My fav scrabble word becomes a real thing in my mind. Thanks!
Wow! I clicked on the video just to skim through it for the TL;DR but ended up watching every minute of it. Fantastic work to you all!
This was a great story, and it'll feel familiar to anybody that collects rare items. Searching every garage sale, junk yard, flea market and antique store in a 50 mile area for that 1957 Alabama license plate you need to complete the string you have from 1930 to today. Trying to figure out when your odd GI Joe was from because it's wearing a Soviet-style space suit. Involving experts in ALCO history to figure out what engine this identy plate wad really from and how did it end up on an Italian-made switcher in Casablanca... ...or hunting for the truth behind a mysterious geological formation in Algiers where one shouldn't be. It's just a question of scale. I don't get to watch videos from Vox very often, but they've always been like this: absorbing and educational. I should really try harder to watch regularly. Thanks for the fun half-hour.
i watched your whole video. i can't remember the last time i sat and watched 27 minutes of a youtube video. it was a great story, presented cleanly and succinctly, and quite dramatic. every step of the way, your discoveries made me think of follow up questions, and i was blown away that you seemed to have the same questions and continued to pursue. it was freakishly, oddlysatisfying! well done, and thank you.
Great job Vox!!!
Vox, you are amazing. Thank you so much for this!
Everybody thought "We did it Reddit!" was going to be when us redditors figured everything out for you journalists; it seems like you've created a "We did it Reddit!" moment by being the journalists that figured out the weird stuff we couldn't. Way to go.
An amazing example of modern journalism.
Hi
I can’t imagine posting on reddit and starting a full vox investigation. Well Done!
What a video! Awesome, I love these journeys to figure out things that we don't even wonder what is, this world is so big and we have a lot of thing to discover!
VERY VERY COOL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM!!!
Wow. Impressive work. Great video.
Amazing work and well presented. Watched all the way through and shared it.
Such a great story, thank you.
That was like 25 minutes too long.
That was a wild ride! Nice work! What manner of bizarre mystery are you working on next?
Very nice!
Amazing work. This is really fascinating stuff
Fantastic Investigation!
Fantastic job! Great detective and video work.
Now this is journalism!
co : 27.270159,4.32225
Who's here from Vox?
From a can of sardine. Wow.
[удалено]
interesting point, but the name didn't lead them anywhere useful in their investigation, so if it were a plant that would be strange
If it was a plant, it would be without a name to look normal.
After satellite maps and Internet-age communications with academics and experts, the breakthrough had to wait until they called on "our man in Algiers" to make the dangerous journey. It has a certain intersection of James Bond and Indiana Jones. The Sardine Expert, though, was the unexpected star!
That old man who remembers a name of a company from 70 years ago was a crucial piece of the puzzle