Massive networks of stripes appear in Chinese Desert

Talk about your morning weird. Some people studying Google Earth for some reason managed to run across some very weird patterns in the Chinese desert that have a bunch of folks stumped. The patterns look like stripes that were etched or dug over the top of the landscape in the area. Some of the lines appear to be made from a silver/white material.

Considering these can clearly be seen from orbit the formations are raising some eyebrows with geeks trying to figure out what exactly they are for. Are these some sort of alignment or targeting grids for space weapons or what? In one of the photos, you can clearly see a grid of structures with three of them either destroyed or partially standing as if they were for target practice.

The strangest one is the intersecting grids lines; the structure covers 18 miles of space. The other pattern that looks like some sort of targeting grid is set up with concentric rings of what appear to be structures with straight spokes radiating out from the center. There are aircraft placed in the center of this circle. I have no idea what it is, but it reminds me of how the military would test the blast radius of some sort of bomb to see what the damage is like further out from the point of impact. What do you think? Is this a military testing ground or the Chinese equivalent of crop circles?

[via Gizmodo]