A debilitating drought drastically depleted the water of a massive lake in China and, in turn, revealed a sizeable series of puzzling patterns that some have likened to crop circles. The curious shapes (seen in the video above) were reportedly spotted in the exposed bed of Dongting Lake, which is located in the province of Hunan. Videos of the curious formations soon spread like wildfire on Chinese social media with many people offering some rather fantastic explanations for the odd patterns. As one might imagine, due to their resemblance to crop circles, many suggested that aliens may have been behind the strange shapes, while one particularly imaginative individual simply declared "don't touch it. It's the door to a secret underground chamber."

In response to the speculation, an official from the group that manages the lake suggested that the patterns are probably the remnants of a type of fishing trap, known as an 'ai wei,' wherein small walls are used to capture the creatures as water levels rise and then fall due to a river that connects to the lake. However, not everyone is convinced of that explanation as one local resident expressed some skepticism due to the sheer size of the shapes, noting that "each block is as big as standard football fields." Whether the patterns were made by humans or aliens, that they could be seen at all is cause for concern among many since the site is the country's second largest freshwater lake and the drought has caused it to lose a staggering 70 percent of its water.