Ipuaçu crop formations
Since 2008 or 2009, geometric figures have appeared in wheat fields at Ipuaçu, western Santa Catarina, almost every October or November. The town calls itself Brazil's 'crop circle capital'.
2008 CE · -26.63, -52.45 · status: disputed
The account
A 44-metre figure appeared in 2009, several circles of 1.5 to 24 metres in 2011, a pentagon-and-triangle design in 2022, and another formation on 3 November 2025. Some residents report lights in the sky in the days before.
The sceptical view
An astronomer at the Federal University of Santa Catarina says the designs are man-made with the plank-and-rope technique used in England since the 1980s. Specialists judged the October 2024 figure not authentic even by ufologists' standards.
The researched reading
Seasonal geometric figures in wheat in a town that celebrates them: human-made, as crop circles elsewhere have proven to be.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 73% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 15% | The figures appear every year at the same season in the same town, which promotes itself as a crop-circle capital. University astronomers identify the plank-and-rope methods used in England since the 1980s, and even ufologists rejected the 2024 figure. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 3% | Reports of lights beforehand are anecdotal and unrecorded. |
| Something known, misidentified | 2% | Lights reported in the sky are likely aircraft or lanterns. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 2% | Wind and rain flatten wheat, but not into geometric designs. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 2% | Plasma-vortex theories cannot produce complex geometry. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 2% | Expectation colours the reports of lights. |
| Secret human technology | 1% | Not applicable. |
Official position: No official investigation; local scientists attribute the figures to human makers.