The Strange Bermuda

                                                       

Mysterious Bermuda Triangle

For centuries, the mysterious Bermuda Triangle has been blamed for boat, ship and airplane disappearances. The Bermuda Triangle isn't the only place in the world where strange events occur. There are supposedly nine other similar triangles around the world. The strange disappearances and eyewitness accounts of those who've survived inexplicable occurrences such as compass needles whirling about, loss of time and other bizarre, out-of-the-normal seafaring experiences often referred to these experiences as paranormal or supernatural. This is because there's no concrete scientific proof to back up theorized explanations.

Where Is the Bermuda Triangle Located?

The Bermuda Triangle is said to be located between the Straits of Florida, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, an island 300 miles off the coast of North Carolina. This upper corner of the trapezoid is doubly important because of the North Carolina coastline history along the Outer Banks. The waters along this outer band of islands are known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the treacherous rip tide current blamed for countless shipwrecks. If this outer perimeter of the triangle is any indication of the ocean currents and what to expect in this region of the Atlantic Ocean, it might be the first visible extension of the Bermuda Triangle's treacherous waters.

Bermuda Triangle Region: Mega Shipping Lane

This region of the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans is one of the busiest waterways in the world. Understandably, without any scientific proof to substantiate claims of paranormal or supernatural causes, the United States Coast Guard doesn't recognize boat or ship disappearances as anything more than normal seafaring risks.

Possible Causes for the Bermuda Triangle

There are countless theories and speculation surrounding the various losses of ships, boats and airplanes within the perimeters of the Devil's Triangle.

Deep Trench and Whirlpools

The Bermuda Triangle encompasses one of the deepest underwater trenches in the world. This is an important point to consider when examining possible causes for ship and boat disappearances. Deep trenches are notorious for causing whirlpools that can be very dangerous where churning waters can pull a ship underwater. When ocean currents are strong and the seas are warm, vortexes can emerge. Trenches can trap the water and make the whirlpool more powerful and larger.

Methane Gas

Trapped pockets of methane gas that are suddenly released can rush to the surface like huge bubbles bursting and capsize a ship. Scientists have conducted tests in laboratory tanks and demonstrated that this is a strong possible cause for mysterious disappearances of ships.

Pirates

The Caribbean waters were plagued with pirates from the earliest history, so it's not unreasonable for a portion of the unexplained disappearances to be the result of modern day pirates.

Rogue Waves

Don't confuse a rogue wave with a Tsunami, which is caused by an earthquake. The conditions for a rogue wave requires deep water and strong currents. With the introduction of satellite imagery, the scientific community no longer denies the existence of freak waves. In 2000, a British oceanographic research ship encountered a 61-foot rogue wave. It measured individual waves up to 95 feet high. In addition, the European Space Agency satellites have recorded ten rogue waves that were 82 feet high and higher in some instances.

Waterspouts, Tornadoes, Water Cyclones and Hurricanes

Warm water oceans can spawn sudden waterspouts, tornadoes, water cyclones and hurricanes. Before weather monitor satellites and radar, there were very few warnings of such emerging storm fronts. Water sprouts can appear out of nowhere and disappear as quickly as they were created. Many believe that this kind of natural weather conditions is responsible for those disappearances that weren't caused by human error.

Paranormal and Supernatural Causes

The flipside to natural phenomena is paranormal or supernatural phenomena. These theories include everything you can imagine that falls into the category of the unexplained. Some possible causes:

• Electro-magnetic field disturbances
• Blackholes
• Disturbances in gravity, causing reverse gravity

Edgar Cayce's Giant Crystal of Atlantis

Edgar Cayce's reading on the Bermuda Triangle told about a huge laser crystal that was a powerful weapon that was also used as the guiding energy source for Atlantean aircraft. Cayce said the crystal was submerged underneath the water of the Bermuda Triangle. He stated that on clear days when the water was calmer, that the sunlight hit the crystal and activated it. The crystal beam disrupted electronic equipment and was responsible for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.

Large Fish or Sea Monsters

Seafaring stories talk about monstrous sea creatures capsizing boats. Large sea creatures have been proven to be a scientific fact. In 2007, a 265 lbs. carp was caught in Thailand.

Time Warp

There have a few reports of loss of time. In one such case, Bruce Gernon was flying from Andros Island to Ft. Lauderdale. He encountered bad weather and flew into what he described as a tunnel. He claimed to time travel since he arrived in Ft. Lauderdale nearly 30 minutes early, having used nine gallons less fuel than normal. The pilot co-authored a book about his experience, The Fog

UFOs and USOs

Christopher Columbus described seeing strange dancing lights along the horizon of the area referred to now as the Bermuda Triangle. He later saw a round glowing object submerge into the ocean. In addition, Columbus reported how on two occasions the compass reading was NW at night, but by daybreak it corrected itself to align with the North Star again. There are many similar stories about people seeing UFOs and USOs (Unidentified Submerged Objects) within the Bermuda Triangle. Some theorize that UFOs are using vortexes or wormholes to enter and exit our world, and somehow ships and planes also go through these passages.

Many Theories

Whatever you decide to believe, one thing is certain; there are many theories surrounding the disappearances and their causes for the Bermuda Triangle.

The Truth About the Bermuda Triangle

EMILY UPTON 19

The Bermuda Triangle is a large area of ocean between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. Over the last few centuries, it’s thought that dozens of ships and planes have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the area, earning it the nickname “The Devil’s Triangle.” People have even gone so far as to speculate that it’s an area of extra-terrestrial activity or that there is some bizarre natural scientific cause for the region to be hazardous; but most likely, it’s simply an area in which people have experienced a lot of bad luck—the idea of it being a “vortex of doom” is no more real than Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster (seeThe Origin of the Bigfoot Legend and The Origin of the Loch Ness Monster).

The Bermuda Triangle’s bad reputation started with Christopher Columbus. According to his log, on October 8, 1492, Columbus looked down at his compass and noticed that it was giving weird readings. He didn’t alert his crew at first, because having a compass that didn’t point to magnetic north may have sent the already on edge crew into a panic. This was probably a good decision considering three days later when Columbus simply spotted a strange light, the crew threatened to return to Spain.

This and other reported compass issues in the region gave rise to the myth that compasses will all be off in the Triangle, which isn’t correct, or at least is an exaggeration of what is actually happening as you’ll see.  Despite this, in 1970 the U.S. Coast Guard, attempting to explain the reasons for disappearances in the Triangle, stated:

First, the “Devil’s Triangle” is one of the two places on earth that a magnetic compass does point towards true north. Normally it points toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as 20 degrees as one circumnavigates the earth. If this compass variation or error is not compensated for, a navigator could find himself far off course and in deep trouble.

Of course, despite this now being repeated as an explanation for disappearances in the Triangle on numerous documentaries and articles since then, it turns out magnetic variation is something ship captains (and other explorers) have known about and had to deal with pretty much as long as there have been ships and compasses. Dealing with magnetic declination is really just “Navigation by Compass” 101 and nothing to be concerned about, nor anything that would seriously throw off any experienced navigator.

In 2005, the Coast Guard revisited the issue after a TV producer in London inquired about it for a program he was working on.  In this case, they correctly changed their tune about the magnetic field bit stating,

Many explanations have cited unusual magnetic properties within the boundaries of the Triangle. Although the world’s magnetic fields are in constant flux, the “Bermuda Triangle” has remained relatively undisturbed.  It is true that some exceptional magnetic values have been reported within the Triangle, but none to make the Triangle more unusual than any other place on Earth.

The modern Bermuda Triangle legend didn’t get started until 1950 when an article written by Edward Van Winkle Jones was published by the Associated Press. Jones reported several incidences of disappearing ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle, including five US Navy torpedo bombers that vanished on December 5, 1945, and the commercial airliners “Star Tiger” and “Star Ariel” which disappeared on January 30, 1948 and January 17, 1949 respectively. All told, about 135 individuals were unaccounted for, and they all went missing around the Bermuda Triangle. As Jones said, “they were swallowed without a trace.”

It was a 1955 book, The Case for the UFO, by M. K. Jessup that started pointing fingers at alien life forms. After all, no bodies or wreckage had yet been discovered. By 1964, Vincent H. Gaddis—who coined the term “Bermuda Triangle”—wrote an article saying over 1000 lives had been claimed by the area. He also agreed that it was a “pattern of strange events.” The Bermuda Triangle obsession hit its peak in the early 1970s with the publication of several paperback books about the topic, including the bestseller by Charles Berlitz, The Bermuda Triangle.

However, critic Larry Kusche, who published The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved in 1975, argued that other authors had exaggerated their numbers and hadn’t done any proper research. They presented some disappearance cases as “mysteries” when they weren’t mysteries at all, and some reported cases hadn’t even happened within the Bermuda Triangle.

After extensively researching the issue, Kusche concluded that the number of disappearances that occurred within the Bermuda Triangle wasn’t actually greater than in any other similarly trafficked area of the ocean, and that other writers presented misinformation—such as not reporting storms that occurred on the same day as disappearances, and sometimes even making it seem as though the conditions had been calm for the purposes of creating a sensational story. In short: previous Bermuda Triangle authors didn’t do their research and either knowingly or unintentionally “made it up.”

The book did such a thorough job of debunking the myth that it effectively ended most of the Bermuda Triangle hype. When authors like Berlitz and others were unable to refute Kusche’s findings, even the most steadfast of believers had difficulty remaining confident in the sensationalized Bermuda Triangle narrative. Nevertheless, many magazine articles, TV shows, and movies have continued to feature the Bermuda Triangle.

Because the number of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is no greater than any other similarly trafficked area of the world’s oceans, they don’t really need an explanation. But if you’re still convinced that the Triangle is a ship graveyard, relative to other regions that get around the same number of travelers, here are some natural explanations from the Coast Guard to combat some of the “alien” and other fantastical theories.

The majority of disappearances can be attributed to the area’s unique features. The Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current flowing from the Gulf of Mexico around the Florida Straits northeastward toward Europe, is extremely swift and turbulent. It can quickly erase any evidence of a disaster.

The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic storms that give birth to waves of great size as well as waterspouts often spell disaster for pilots and mariners. (Not to mention that the area is in “hurricane alley.”) The topography of the ocean floor varies from extensive shoals to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. With the interaction of strong currents over reefs, the topography is in a constant state of flux and breeds development of new navigational hazards.

Not to be underestimated is the human factor. A large number of pleasure boats travel the water between Florida’s Gold Coast (the most densely populated area in the world) and the Bahamas. All to often, crossings are attempted with too small a boat, insufficient knowledge of the area’s hazards and lack of good seamanship.

                                  The  Bermuda Triangle                                                                                                                                                                                      

The mystery of the Bermuda triangle is a mystery. No one is quite sure what exactly makes aircraft and sea vessels disappear there. 
So first, a little about the Bermuda triangle. This is accepted to be the area between Bermuda, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. A couple of factors may contribute to this mystery. The first is that this area is one of two known areas on the earth where a compass points towards 'true' north and not 'magnetic' north as we normally see with compasses. (The second area is a located off the east coast of Japan). The difference between true and magnetic north can be as much as 20 degrees. This difference if not accounted for can really mess up a pilot or sailor's navigation getting them very lost somewhere on the sea. This may seem to be a bigger deal for the aircraft which may run out of fuel as they try to get back on track, leading to a crash into the ocean.
Another factor that can cause trouble in the Bermuda triangle is the patterns of the Gulf Stream.The Gulf meets the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean can cause a rough body of water as well as unpredictable storms causing major problems for boats. 
It is known that more recent disappearances of boats are boats that are just too small to be traveling across this area in the first place. It should be known that there are many boats and aircraft that do travel through the Bermuda triangle safely.