The Mystery of Bermuda Triangle
Mystery Present since 1492.
Bermuda Triangle Location:
The Bermuda Triangle also known Devil's Triangle is located in a 500,000-square-mile open space in the Atlantic Ocean west of the Florida coastline between Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda.
The exact boundaries of the triangle-shaped area are disputed, making it difficult to verify the precise number of unusual incidents occurring in the Bermuda Triangle.
EXPLORE BERMUDA TRIANGLE
ABOUT THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE MYSTERY:
The Devil's Triangle, or Bermuda Triangle, is a mysterious pocket of open water where perfectly functioning airplanes and ships appear to vanish without a trace. Over the past 35 years some 120 aircraft and 700 ships have inexplicably disappeared there in the midst of fine weather, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives.
The first unusual incident in the Triangle was reported by Christopher Columbus himself when in 1492 he experienced unusual compass readings and saw strange lights in the sky while sailing through the area. The first recorded ship to disappear there was a 542-foot-long U.S. Navy Cargo ship, the USS Cyclops, en route from Brazil to Baltimore in 1918. The ship was last sighted near Barbados on March 5, and the Cyclops and its more than 300 crewmen were never seen again. President Woodrow Wilson reportedly said of the Cyclops, "only God and the sea know where the great ship has gone." Renowned aviator Charles Lindbergh reported that in 1928 he became disoriented in the Triangle for several hours; he eventually emerged unscathed but with no explanation for his malfunctioning compass and the heavy haze he encountered. But the most famous incident occurred in the Devil's Triangle in 1945 when five U.S. Navy bombers flying to the Bahamas, known as "Flight 19," disappeared. Manned by experienced pilots, all five planes reported malfunctioning compasses, then went off course, lost radio contact and vanished.
The enigmatic Triangle has been known by a number of other names, including the Triangle of Death, the Sea of Doom and the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
BERMUDA TRIANGLE THEORIES:
Many of the theories surrounding the mysteries of Devil's Triangle involve the supernatural. Some place the blame for the disappearances of aircraft and ships on the presence of UFOs. Many UFO sightings have been reported in the area, and in 1980 a pilot radioed in that an unidentified object was approaching his plane. The plane then lost radio contact and was never seen again. The UFO theory is even featured in the Stephen Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which aliens abduct the lost pilots of Flight 19. Some maintain that a U.S. Navy facility called AUTEC (Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center), which is located on Andros Island in the Bahamas, is involved in UFO research and that its activity is behind the strange disappearances in the Devil's Triangle. Others believe that deep beneath the Devil's Triangle lies the lost island of Atlantis, which emits unusual energy rays that affect vessels' ability to navigate. Still others have postulated that the Triangle is some kind of black hole.
More scientific explanations include one that holds that giant gaseous bubbles of methane erupt out of solid deposits on the sea floor in the area. Experiments have shown that if ships collide with these massive bubbles, they will sink. If the methane rises into the air it could even ignite and explode passing aircraft. Another theory posits that enormous "rogue waves" generating as much as 20,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, suddenly overcome and sink ships traversing the Triangle. An even more plausible theory involves the Gulf Stream, which can produce sudden, turbulent waters that may not only sink ships, but sweep away all evidence of wrecks.
Some say that the mystery of Devil's Triangle is actually not a mystery at all, but a legend based on a few coincidental and unusual accidents. These theorists point to the fact that the statistical frequency of unexplained incidents is no greater in the Devil's Triangle than in other parts of the world.
BERMUDA TRIANGLE NEW EVIDENCE:
After a young pilot named "Bruce Gernon" flew his Beachcraft Baron into the Devil's Triangle in 1970 and lived to tell the tale, a new theory emerged about the triangle, involving "electronic fog."
The theory holds that the combination of thunderstorm activity and solar energy creates rare conditions that disrupt equipment and engulf vessels. This has yet to proved, but some believe it may be the most convincing theory to date.
Source: http://www.history.com/interactives/mysteryquest-case-files#2
