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Plate 03 of 11 · cca-1991-ickleton-mandelbrot

Ickleton Mandelbrot

A faithful Mandelbrot set laid in a Cambridgeshire wheat field: main cardioid with its period-2 bulb, ringed by seven detached satellite bulbs and the spike antenna — appearing while the fractal was still a fresh pop-science icon.

Ickleton Mandelbrot — 1991-08-12 (cca-1991-ickleton-mandelbrot) A faithful Mandelbrot set laid in a Cambridgeshire wheat field: main cardioid, period-2 bulb, both period-3 bulbs, a period-4 bulb and the spike antenna — appearing while the fractal was still a fresh pop-science icon. Location: Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, GB (52.073, 0.176). Reported 1991-08-12. Original imagery: https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/177576/view/crop-formation-in-form-of-mandelbrot-set (photo © its photographer, not covered by this file's license). Reconstruction data and rendered images (c) Crop Circle Atlas / Leslie, released under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse and adapt freely, but you must credit the Atlas and share alike. Referenced aerial photographs are NOT part of this work and remain (c) their photographers. Ickleton Mandelbrot cca-1991-ickleton-mandelbrot Leslie / Crop Circle Atlas © 2026 Leslie / Crop Circle Atlas · CC-BY-SA-4.0 2026-08-19 A faithful Mandelbrot set laid in a Cambridgeshire wheat field: main cardioid, period-2 bulb, both period-3 bulbs, a period-4 bulb and the spike antenna — appearing while the fractal was still a fresh pop-science icon. Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, GB (52.073, 0.176) — formation reported 1991-08-12 https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/177576/view/crop-formation-in-form-of-mandelbrot-set https://github.com/crop-circle-atlas Ickleton Mandelbrot · 1991-08-12 · Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, GB cca-1991-ickleton-mandelbrot · © 2026 Leslie / Crop Circle Atlas · CC-BY-SA-4.0

Survey record

Reported
1991-08-12
Location
Ickleton, Cambridgeshire · map
Coordinates
52.073, 0.176 (±1000 m)
Crop
wheat
Span
46 m
Symmetry
1-fold, mirror
Elements
10 rendered from 10 declared
Fidelity
level 3 · confidence medium
Digitized
claude-fable-5, 2026-08-20
mandelbrotfractalmathematicalcambridgeshirefamous1990s

Construction

True Mandelbrot-set anatomy: main cardioid (sampled analytically) with the period-2 bulb attached, then seven detached satellites as the aerials show them — the two period-3 bulbs, two shoulder bulbs near the cusp, two small bulbs atop the period-2 bulb, and the axis bulb with its spike antenna. The cardioid is exact mathematics — scale and satellite gaps estimated from photographs.

Sources