The Bermuda Triangle is something that scientists have been trying to explain for years. There are arguments that this mysterious triangle in all of its vast glory is something that is controlled by supernatural beings, particularly, aliens residing in UFOs.
Others think that there are purely scientific and natural reasons why so many planes and boats go missing when they enter from any of the sides of the Bermuda Triangle. No matter what perspective you look at it from.
This special triangle has all sorts of mysteries that have drawn all sorts of attention and research to understand them and share them with the masses. Here are the top facts about the Bermuda Triangle, its myths and history.
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Fact #1 Bermuda Triangle Demystified?
The Bermuda Triangle is also known as the Devil’s Triangle or Hurricane Alley. It has been given some other names like Limbo of the Lost, the Twilight Zone, and Hoodoo Sea.
Vincent Gaddis, in 1964 wrote in the pulp magazine Argosy about the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle.
Its apexes are most commonly defined as Bermuda, the southernmost tip of Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, although some place a boundary closer to the Chesapeake Bay than to Miami.
Columbus also noted some strange things in his logbook during his voyage through this area. He reported a great flame of fire (probably a meteor) crashed into the sea. He also wrote about incorrect compass reading. Other seamen have also experienced similar incidents.
Some scholars believe that William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” is based on a real-life Bermuda shipwreck. This further strengthened the mysteries and misconceptions around the Devil’s Triangle.
Fact #2 The Triangle doesn’t have a Fixed Location
There are no lines in the watermarking where the Triangles start and finish, though many maps will draw them in so that those unfamiliar with it and interested can find it. That being said, the Triangle doesn’t have a fixed location. There are no actual lines because you can’t fix a mystery in place.
Some coordinates are thought to mark the beginning and end of the zone, but no one knows for sure where it starts. There are mysterious events that are said to have had effect miles outside of the “known barriers” of the Triangle.
Fact #3 Devil’s Triangle is Big
The Bermuda Triangle is big. Like, really big. Those who have only seen the information on TV (like most of us) will be surprised to know that the Triangle is over 500, 000 square miles. Some writers have given different boundaries and vertices to the triangle, with the total area varying from 500,000 to 1,510,000 sq mi (1,300,000 to 3,900,000 km2)
So, the dare to simply fly over that location as fast as possible, won’t be quite as “quick and painless” as you might think. So, the Triangle doesn’t really have any fixed boundaries, and it’s huge.
Fact #4 Supernatural Theories Around Bermuda Triangle
As mentioned, many people with many different backgrounds feel as though they in particular know what causes the strange and scary events that occur within the Bermuda Triangle. The truth is, everyone who says that is valid in their own way cannot be proved wrong or right. That’s part of the mystery itself.
Natural Causes
Some feel as though the damage and disappearance of the Triangle is due to pure geological and natural matters including terrible weather that leads to technology failing which leads to crashes and shipwrecks, leading to the debris getting dispersed all over the ocean from the Gulf Stream that is nearby. Everything can be explained by natural causes.
Aliens and UFO
Others believe that every event and disappearance within the Triangle is due to aliens that are hovering above this “chosen” spot and abducting or killing the people who dare to venture within the realms of their area.
Atlantis – The Lost City
Still, another theory is that the events are caused by Atlantis, the hidden and lost underwater city that is said to be located in the centre of this triangle. No one knows the true history surrounding this mysterious city but seems to think that the Triangle is its defence for keeping their hidden city a secret from the world.
Fact #5 Explanations for Bermuda Triangle Mysteries
Compass Variations
Compasses don’t work properly within the “lines” of the Triangle. They are designed to point North, but within the Triangle, compasses automatically change to point to what is referred to as the “true North”, making it confusing and spooky for everyone relying on technological equipment to guide their way.
Many people give theories of unusual local magnetic anomalies. But nothing of that sort of anomaly has been found.
Magnetic compass north and geographic true north are exactly not same for most of the places. It is a very well-known fact that compasses have natural magnetic variations in relation to the magnetic poles. Many navigators have known this fact for centuries. So ships make adjustments to be in the right direction.
The public may not be as informed, and they start thinking that there is something mysterious about a compass changing in the Bermuda Triangle and consider these variations as the cause of fatal accidents in the region; as ships failed to determine the correct direction and path.
Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream is an ocean current driven by thermohaline circulation, it originates in the Gulf of Mexico flows through the Straits of Florida into the North Atlantic and passes through the Bermuda Triangle.
It is like a river in the ocean, it can and does carry floating objects down its flow. It has a maximum surface velocity of about 2 m/s (6.6 ft/s). It can easily carry away a small plane landing on the ocean or a boat having trouble with its engine.
Such an incident happened with Cabin Cruiser Witchcraft on Dec 22, 1967, when it reported trouble in its engine, but was not there when the coast guard arrived.
Human error
Human error and mistake is one of the most cited explanations in official inquiries. So such error can not be ruled out in this area. Businessman Harvey Conover lost his sailing yacht, Revonoc, as he sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958.
Violent weather
At times, many violent storms occur in the Devil’s Triangle or Hurricane Alley. The storms in the triangle are very strong and intense; they build up very fast and go away. Sometimes even satellites fail to detect and report them properly. But these powerful storms are strong enough to destroy ships and planes completely.
Hurricanes are extremely violent storms that form in the tropical waters. They usually originate from the southeastern Atlantic and pass through the Bermuda Triangle area towards the southeastern coast of the US. Such hurricanes have historically cost thousands of lives and caused billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla‘s Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane.
Methane Hydrates
A large amount of methane gas exists below the surface of the ocean in the form of methane hydrates. Explanations of many incidents and disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle have focused on methane hydrates.
Many laboratory experiments have proved that bubbles can sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water and any wreckage rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by the Gulf Stream.
Such methane eruptions or mud volcanoes could sink any ship without warning in no time as these eruptions will make water frothy and there will be no buoyancy for ships. However, according to USGS, no large releases of gas hydrates are believed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 15,000 years.
Fact #6 List of Major Bermuda Triangle Incidents
You’ve heard that aircraft and boats go missing when entering this triangle, which is true (about 20-30 per year), but some people have “survived” going through this spooky area. One pilot reported that the Triangle was a time travel experience. He reports that he lost half an hour and woke up somewhere else entirely, still flying his plane.
All of the events that happen within the Triangle are strange no matter how you look at them. People from all over the world wonder where all of the 1000 people have gone that had disappeared due to the Triangle and its dangerous events. The only ones that know, however, are those that have disappeared.
Some of the Major Notable Incidents at Bermuda Triangle
Ellen Austin
In 1881, Ellen Austin, an American schooner, met another ship which was moving at a good speed but strangely without anyone onboard. To salvage this unnamed ship, the captain of the Ellen Austin sent some of his prize crew on board this ship and ordered the crew to guide the ship together to New York. After two days, the two ships got separated by a huge sea storm and when the storm subsided, the derelict ship had vanished.
On the next day, contact with the missing ship was made, but oddly the prize crew was missing. Another team was sent to the derelict ship to guide it but weirdly the ship disappeared again.
USS Cyclops
During World War I, Cyclops became a key naval asset, transporting troops and coal to fuel other ships all over the world. In March 1918, the Cyclops which was nearly 550 feet long, with a crew of 306 people and around 11,000 tons of manganese aboard simply disappeared without even an SOS message.
There is no strong evidence for any single theory as to why and where the Cyclops vanished. Many independent theories exist, some blaming storms, some capsizing, and some even suggesting that wartime enemy activity was to blame for the loss.
However, overloading with a much denser cargo than designed is considered the most likely cause of sinking.
Read More: 5 Weird Facts about Americans
Carroll A. Deering
On January 31, 1921, Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground and abandoned at Diamond Shoals, near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Deering was a five-masted schooner built in 1919. Rumours indicate that it was a victim of piracy related to illegal rum-running trade during Prohibition
Flight 19
On December 5, 1945 Flight 19 which was a training flight of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers simply vanished while over the Atlantic and never returned to base. Navy investigators said that navigational error led to the aircraft running out of fuel. Even the search and rescue aircraft with a crew of 13 members also disappeared.
Star Tiger and Star Ariel
On January 30, 1948, Star Tiger disappeared on a flight from the Azores to Bermuda and on January 17, 1949, Star Ariel disappeared on a flight from Bermuda to Kingston, Jamaica.
Both were Avro Tudor IV passenger aircraft operated by British South American Airways. Both planes were operating at the very limits of their range and the slightest error or fault in the equipment could keep them from reaching the small island
Douglas DC-3
On December 28, 1948, a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, disappeared while on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. No trace of the aircraft, or the 32 people on board, was ever found. A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation found there was insufficient information available on which to determine probable cause of the disappearance
Fact #7 Most Cruises Head Through The Bermuda Triangle
Many people do not know that if you are travelling on a cruise to the Carribean then you have been in the Bermuda Triangle at least once. Every cruise ship that travels from the east coast of the United States into the Caribbean sails in or through the Bermuda Triangle. Some cruises out of Miami might miss most of the area if they are travelling to the western Caribbean. But they originate at or near one apex of the triangle.
Fact #8 UnderSea Test Center at Bermuda Triangle
The United States has an undersea test centre in the Bermuda Triangle. US Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Centre (AUTEC), is located inside the Bermuda Triangle near Bahamas’ Andros Island.
United States Navy tests all of their new equipment at this facility ranging from weapons to sonars.
Fact #9 Still Destroying Ships And Planes Every Year
It is reported that an average of 4 aircraft and 20 ships go down in the Bermuda Triangle every year. Many claim that the cause of all of these crashes is simply due to the bad weather that this area encounters.
The most recent incident reported was on May 15, 2017, when a private MU-2B aircraft was at 24,000 feet when it vanished from radar and radio contact with air traffic controllers in Miami. The plane wreckage was found later.
Fact #10 Bermuda Triangle existed since records of the New World existed
It’s only fitting that the Bermuda Triangle is as mysterious as time itself, isn’t it? Christopher Columbus himself first reported the strange happenings of the Triangle, stating that it did strange things with his compass.
Perhaps that’s why they found the New World to begin with. There are many questions about how long the Triangle has existed before Columbus discovered it.
Maybe the Triangle belongs to Time itself and is part of the world that we are never meant to see…no one knows for sure, something that makes curious minds all the more attentive to this half-forgotten mystery that has stumped us for many generations.
It’s intriguing and exciting to know that even after all the years that have passed and all of the technology that we have developed, we still can’t see what causes the crazy and mysterious events of the Triangle.
Maybe someday the mystery will be solved, but technology is only as smart as the man who makes it, so unless the man in charge is superhuman, we have a lot of ground to cover before we can understand the Bermuda Triangle once and for all.
