When you fly over the USA you often see strange patterns, little white circles or squares all connected by little white lines in a large maze. What are these? I just flew over Texas by way of Dallas, and the countryside there is littered with them. What am I looking at, fracking maybe? Or missile silos?
Tom
Ft. Lauderdale
Like these? They mostly seem to have tanks, something to do with oil? Looking on Street View one of them has a sign saying “Well Services”.
Others just seem to be truck lots. There are lots of trucking companies around there by the look of it!
Irrigated fields?
They mostly seem to be cleared lots, with a fenced enclosure containing a tank or tanks. Any Texas locals?
If you look at the entrances there are lots of warning signs. I’m going to guess they are oil or gas storage areas, where tankers load and unload?
They are almost certainly irrigated fields, especially if you saw them in a dry part of the country.
See a Google image search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=irrigated+fields+aerial&tbm=isch
Those aren’t white areas, though, they are green areas in desert.
If you look at aerial imagery of the Dallas area, the prominent white dots are these things: Google Maps
A Facebook friend who lives in Dallas tells me they are gas wells. The Barnett Shale area has loads of them.
Yes. Gas, oil, or both, depending on where exactly the OP was flying. I usually notice them over southeastern NM. Look east or Carlsbad.
They certainly look like fracking operations. Especially the second. You can see three well heads, three gas separators and associated storage tanks, all inside a berm. The tanks will store liquids separated from the gas I would guess. Water and possibly a little oil.
Gas would be piped away, and the storage tanks emptied as needed. I doubt the tanks hold anything of value, but the contents probably need careful treatment.
The size of the lots reflects the space needed when fracking is done - you get a dozen or so fracking trucks all connected up to the well. https://angolafieldgroup.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/fracking-6.jpg
Colophon’s google link in post #6 is definitely oil and/or gas wells. There has long been lots of wells in west Texas, but in the last 10 years it’s spread all over half of Texas & NM.
Wind farms have also spread all over the place in the Midwest, plains, and southwest, but they lack the prominent concrete pads. It’s usually easy to see the windmills themselves.