After hydration, the substance changed shape. After three hours it looked like this:
The BLT Research Team described the substance as "highly unusual in its form, not conform any crystalline basic form known to us".
The research team had only seen this kind of material once before, in 1996, in Oregon (USA) in an oat formation. Remarkable detail: this oat formation appeared at a spot famous for its UFO sightings...
Then, in 1998 (one year after the Dutch formation with its white powder), the BLT Research Team studied a similar case in Michigan. A woman there who claimed to be an 'abductee' (someone who is abducted by aliens) had a strange experience when she was lying in bed caught by the flue. She saw grey dust spiraling down form the ceiling towards her. Instinctively she tried to hold it off by hitting it with her hand, as if it were a troublesome insect. She felt a strong electrical pulse which startled her. She jumped out of bed and called for hus husband. When they entered the bedroom only seconds later, everything was covered with white powder...
An EDS-test showed a silicon compound with a high aluminium peak.
Back to the Dutch crop formation at Hooghalen in 1997. As if all of the above wasn't enough, the germination tests (carried out by the BLT Research Team) showed some peculiarities. On the first photograph below you can see that the crop circle seeds (red arrow) germinated and grew much faster than the controls. But... the crop circle seeds from the two anti-clockwise circles (where the powder was found) germinated and grew much slower than the controls (last photograph). Somehow the powder seemed to have effected the seeds one way or the other...
