3. The Bermuda Triangle
Learn more about the Bermuda Triangle mystery with our
interesting facts, secrets, history and theories. Are the reported
ship and aircraft incidents and disappearances related to some
kind of supernatural force or have the mysterious stories been
exaggerated?
Perhaps science can offer some answers, maybe the Bermuda
Triangle is actually no different from other parts of the ocean.
Enjoy our facts and information and decide for yourself.
4.
5. The Bermuda Triangle, also known as
the Devil's Triangle, is an undefined
region in the western part of the
North Atlantic Oceanwhere a number
of aircraft and ships are said to have
disappeared under mysterious
circumstances. The triangle does not exist
according to the US Navy and the
name is not recognized by the US
Board on Geographic Names. Popular
culture has attributed various
disappearances to the paranormal or
activity by extraterrestrial beings.
6. The sinister reputation of the Bermuda Triangle may be
traceable to reports made in the late 15th century by
navigator Christopher Columbus concerning the Sargasso
Sea, in which floating masses of gulfweed were regarded as
uncanny and perilous by early sailors; others date the
notoriety of the area to the mid-19th century, when a
number of reports were made of unexplained disappearances
and mysteriously abandoned ships. The earliest recorded
disappearance of a United States vessel in the area
occurred in March 1918, when the USS Cyclops
vanished.
7.
8. The incident that consolidated the
reputation of the Bermuda
Triangle was the disappearance in
December 1945 of Flight 19, a
training squadron of five U.S.
Navy torpedo bombers. The
squadron left Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, with 14 crewmen and
disappeared after radioing a series
of distress messages; a seaplane
sent in search of the squadron
also disappeared.
9.
10. Aircraft that have disappeared in the area since this incident
include a DC-3 carrying 27 passengers in 1948 and a C-124
Globemaster with 53 passengers in 1951. Among the ships that
have disappeared was the tanker ship Marine Sulphur Queen,
which vanished with 39 men aboard in 1963. Books, articles,
and television broadcasts investigating the Bermuda Triangle
emphasize that, in the case of most of the disappearances, the
weather was favorable, the disappearances occurred in daylight
after a sudden break in radio contact, and the vessels vanished
without a trace. However, skeptics point out that many
supposed mysteries result from careless or biased consideration of
data.
11.
12. For example, some losses
attributed to the
Bermuda Triangle
actually occurred outside
the area of the triangle
in inclement weather
conditions or in darkness,
and some can be traced to
known mechanical
problems or inadequate
equipment.
13. Documented evidence indicates that a significant percentage of th
incidents were spurious, inaccurately reported, or embellished by later
authors. In a 2013 study the World Wide Fund for Nature identifie
the world’s 10 most dangerous waters for shipping, but the Bermuda
Triangle was not among them.Contrary to popular belief, insurance
companies do not charge higher premiums for shipping in this area.
14.
15. .
Paranormal associations with the Bermuda Triangle persist in
the public mind, however Sargasso Sea, oval region of the
western North Atlantic Ocean, between the West Indies and the
Azores. The Sargasso Sea is the only sea in the world bordered
by ocean currents rather than by land. The four great North
Atlantic currents—the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic
Current, the Canary Current, and the North Equatorial
Current—flow in a clockwise direction around the Sargasso Sea.
Although its limits are indefinite, the name Sargasso Sea is
most commonly applied to the area between longitude 35° and
70° west and latitude 25° and 32° north.
16.
17. The Sargasso Sea is noted for its
large expanses of comparatively still
water; this phenomenon is primarily
due to the fact that the North
Atlantic currents rotate around the
margins of the region. The Sargasso
Sea is named for one of the abundant
varieties of seaweed that float on its
surface, Sargassum natans, or brown
gulfweed. Brown gulfweed thrives in
this ocean region and creates beds that
support a number of life forms.
18. Because the sea has weak
currents, low precipitation, and high
evaporation, its waters are saltier than
those of other seas, making them
inhospitable to many species. However,
eels choose to spawn in the Sargasso
Sea, swimming across the Atlantic from
Europe and North America. After
laying their eggs deep in the sea, they
die. The young eels, or elvers, spend a
year or more in the Sargasso Sea, then
migrate back to Europe and North
America.
19.
20. The Sargasso Sea has been associated with many maritime
myths, including that of the lost continent of Atlantis and the
Devil’s Triangle, where a number of ships have disappeared or
been abandoned.The discovery of Bermuda is attributed to a
Spanish navigator, Juan de Bermúdez, who was shipwrecked here
in about 1503. No settlement was established, however, until
1609, when a party of English colonists under the mariner Sir
George Somers sailing for Virginia, was also shipwrecked here.
In 1612 the island group, known as Somers Islands, was
included in the third charter of the Virginia Company, and a
second group of English colonists arrived. This charter was revoked
in 1684, however, and the islands then became a crown colony.
21.
22. Because of their strategic location, the Bermuda Islands
formerly served as the winter naval station for both the British
North Atlantic and West Indian squadrons. From 1941 to
1995, sites on the islands were leased to the United States for
naval and air bases. Bermuda became a self-governing dependency
in 1968. In 1995 voters in Bermuda soundly rejected a referendum
that would have made the island colony independent of the United
Kingdom. In the late 1990s international business grew into
Bermuda’s most important economic activity. The United
Bermuda Party (UBP) controlled the government from 1968
when Bermuda became self-governing until it lost the 1998
legislative elections.
23. The first written boundaries date from
a 1964 issue of pulp
magazine Argosy, where the triangle's
three vertices are in Miami, Florida
peninsula; in San Juan, Puerto
Rico; and in the mid-Atlantic island
of Bermuda. But subsequent writers
did not follow this definition. Every
writer gives different boundaries and
vertices to the triangle, with the total
area varying from 500,000 to 1.5
million square miles.
24.
25. Consequently, the determination of which accidents have occurred
inside the triangle depends on which writer reports
them.The United States Board on Geographic Names does not
recognize this name, and it is not delimited in any map drawn by
US government agencies.The area is one of the most heavily
traveled shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through
it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean
Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft
regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It
is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft
heading towards Florida, the Caribbean, and South
America from points north.
26.
27. Triangle writers have used a number of supernatural concepts to
explain the events. One explanation pins the blame on leftover
technology from the mythical lost continent ofAtlantis.
Sometimes connected to the Atlantis story is the submerged rock
formation known as the Bimini Road off the island
of Bimini in the Bahamas, which is in the Triangle by some
definitions. Followers of the purported psychic Edgar Cayce take
his prediction that evidence of Atlantis would be found in 1968
as referring to the discovery of the Bimini Road. Believers
describe the formation as a road, wall, or other structure, though
geologists consider it to be of natural origin.
28.
29. Compass problems are one of the cited phrases in many Triangle
incidents. While some have theorized that unusual local magnetic
anomalies may exist in the area, such anomalies have not been
found. Compasses have natural magnetic variations in relation to
the magnetic poles, a fact which navigators have known for
centuries. Magnetic (compass) north and geographic (true)
north are only exactly the same for a small number of places –
for example, as of 2000 in the United States only those places
on a line running from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico. But
the public may not be as informed, and think there is something
mysterious about a compass "changing" across an area as large
as the Triangle, which it naturally will.
30.
31.
32. One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to
the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error. Human
stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover
to lose his sailing yacht, the Revonoc, as he sailed into the
teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958.
Hurricanes are powerful storms, which form in tropical waters
and have historically cost thousands of lives lost 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. These storms have in the
past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle.
33.
34.
35. An explanation for some of the disappearances has focused on the presence of large
fields of methane hydrates (a form of natural gas) on the continental
shelves. Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that bubbles
can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water;any
wreckage consequently rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by theGulf
Stream Unusual features of the area had been noted since Christopher Columbus
sailed through the area on his first voyage to the New World, in which he reported
a great flame of fire (probably a meteor) crashed into the sea one night and that a
strange light appeared in the distance a few weeks later. He also wrote about
inconsistent compass readings, which later believed as natural phenomena happens in
places where True North (geodetics’ north pointing to the North Pole’s geographic
location) and Magnetic North (well-known as Compass North) lined up – the two
north are in fact have different scientific implications.
36.
37.
38. Has the Bermuda Triangle Mystery
been finally solved? According to Mike
Walters, a top researcher in the mystery
who has been exploring the area of the
triangle for more than 20 years, the answer
is yes.
Walter’s theory begins on a dive he took
around 20 miles southwest from the coast of
Bermuda where he claims he found a large
crystal that was mostly buried in the sand
underneath approximately 100 feet of
water. The crystal was very large and
Walters claims he thinks it is the biggest
one piece crystal ever found.
39.
40. As more incidents occurred, the reputation grew and past events were
reanalyzed and added to the legend. In 1964, "Argosy Magazine"
gave the triangle its name in an article titled "The Deadly Bermuda
Triangle" by Vincent Gaddis. Argosy magazine's tagline a
"magazine of master fiction," but that did nothing to halt the spread
of the myth. More articles, books, and movies have appeared,
suggesting theories ranging from alien abductions to a giant octopus.
The myth gained momentum after reporter E.V.W. Jones compiled a list of
"mysterious disappearances" of ships and planes between the Florida coast and
Bermuda. Two years later, George X. Sand wrote an article for "Fate"
magazine, titled "Sea Mystery at our Back Door." The article was about a
"series of strange marine disappearances, each leaving no trace whatever, that
have taken place in the past few years" in a "watery triangle bounded roughly
by Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico."
41.
42. According to Norman Hooke, who
conducted marine casualty studies
for Lloyd's Maritime Information
Services, based in London, "The
Bermuda Triangle does not exist."
He instead says that disappearances
in the Triangle are typically weather-
related. So despite the theories of
why ships and planes disappear in the
area, insurance premiums are no
higher than for any other area of the
ocean.
