Analysis of The Theories Surrounding The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is a 500,000 square foot section of sea, at the Northern part of The Atlantic. The three corners of the triangle connect Florida, Puerto Rico, and of course Bermuda. It was coined the “Bermuda Triangle” in February 1964, by Vincent Gaddis when she wrote an article called “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle”. Sense the first sighting in 1492 by Christopher Columbus there has been multiple reports of missing planes and ships within this mysterious location known as The Bermuda Triangle. Most likely theories are the following. First, meteorologist have noticed hexagonal shaped clouds, these clouds can cause microburst and knock planes out of the sky. Another theory involves the rare Magnetic fields that are located in the Bermuda Triangle, these Magnetic fields can disrupt the compass on ships and planes causing them to lose course. The most logical theory is the Methane Gas deposit theory, huge deposits of gas are released, and it travels to the surface, when this happens it changes the density of the water, this change in density can swallow ships into the ocean.

Many theories try and support the mysterious disappearances that occur within the Bermuda triangle but often they have little to no evidence to support these claims, but maybe the theory of Hexagonal clouds can lead us to some answers. In 2015 a meteorologist made an interesting discovery “While looking at satellite images of coastal clouds above the North Atlantic Ocean, the meteorologists reportedly noted strange patterns of hexagonal gaps as large as 88 kilometers (55 miles) in the cloud formations.” The hexagonal shaped clouds are rare and mysterious occurrences in nature but they can cause massive damage to ships and planes alike. Dr. Randy from Arizona State University shared his knowledge about these mysterious clouds, “These types of hexagonal shapes in the ocean are, in essence, air bombs,'Dr Randy Cerveny, a meteorologist from Arizona State University, told the Science Channel’s What on Earth show. 'They’re formed by what is called microbursts and they're a blast of air that come down out of the bottom of the cloud and then hit the ocean and then create waves, sometimes massive in size...'(Hale, 2016). These microburst can be very dangerous to passing ships or planes, if a plane is hit by one of these microbursts, it can cause the pilot to lose control and crash into the sea. While sometimes these bursts of air can travel so fast they hit the sea causing massive waves, these waves can sometimes overturn ships causing them to sink as well. Many reports have been done on this strange occurrences and “The scientists believe these “air bombs” could pump winds to move at over 273 kilometers (170 miles) per hour, which could account for a handful of reports of ships going missing in the area.” While this theory is still just a theory this would make sense as to why so many ships and planes have disappeared without a stress signal, in this event the captain or pilot may not have had enough time to react because these microburst can be very sudden and unexpected. But the research and study about this natural occurrences is very low and often the reported numbers of the speed of air are fabricated to make this theory seem more reliable.

Nevertheless, this is all theoretical like the hexagonal clouds and while this theory may seem to hold water, they often are easily debunked using evaluation criteria, but this next theory about the magnetic fields may be harder to debunk. A report was done by astronomer Edmund Halley who reported “Because of the complex shape of the Earth's magnetic field, there are few places where a compass needle will point exactly north. A compass lines up with the horizontal component of the magnetic field in a direction called magnetic north. True north, on the other hand is the direction from a given location to the north geographic pole.” These strange magnetic fields can affect the compass of planes and ships, causing them to lose course and get lost in the vast open sea. “So, ships need to make adjustments for this difference to keep to the right direction. But in Bermuda Triangle, there is a narrow strip where both these North's become the same. Some claim that such Compass Variation could have been the cause for fatal accidents as ships failed to determine the correct direction.” (Anderson, 2019) Generally skilled pilots and ship captains can account for this variation, but in the instance that it isn’t, this mistake can be fatal and report in a crash or the loss of fuel due to the mis-calculation. Although nowadays planes and ships have multiple high tech instruments that can detect the change in magnetic field and account for it without the captain or pilot even knowing, so the likelihood of this problem actually occurring is low.

While both the Hexagonal cloud and the Magnetic field theory may be hard to believe, the theory of the Methane Gas deposits may explain the reason for ships disappearing with no signs of damage or struggle, and no distress call either. Could this be the true explanation for the disappearing ships in the Bermuda Triangle? “Subsequently through many researches it was understood that methane hydrates do exist hundreds of meters below the ocean floor in the Bermuda Triangle area in a frozen state at subzero temperatures. Methane gas remainі trapped in them.” There have been multiple reports of this occurrence happening in other parts of the world, for example, “Recently three large craters have been discovered in Siberia - one in Taymyr peninsula and two in Yamal. The second crater has a diameter of about 15 meters. The scientists and researchers of Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Gas Geology and Geophysics in Russia tend to believe that these craters have been caused by huge underground explosion which took place as a result of large methane hydrate gas release. This can have a close correlation with Bermuda Triangle ocean area where too such methane hydrates are known to exist below the ocean floor. Such explosions can create large craters under the ocean as well destroying and sucking ships into them.” These explosions from the release of methane can be catastrophic and if a ship happens to be passing over the exact spot when this occurrence takes place then, “the water density in that area and right up to the surface can get so low that it can make a ship drop like a rock. And since the gas is highly combustible, an eruption can also cause a plane flying above it to catch fire and completely get destroyed.” This theory could explain two mysterious things. First this sudden eruption can happen so quickly that ships and planes don’t have time to react or send a distress signal, and two, the ships that happen to be in this area suffer little to no damage, explaining why ships are often found with no crew or signs that damage occurred.

In conclusion the theory of Hexagonal Clouds, Magnetic Fields, and Methane Gas all may serve as possible theories to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, they are still just that, theories, they may have some truth behind them but they also have many plot holes and don’t tend to hold a lot of water. The Bermuda Triangle is and always has been a great world mystery, sense a child I have read about the mysterious location in the Northern Atlantic Ocean and was always intrigued by the Bermuda Triangle. But as I research more and more the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle seems less like a mystery and a myth built up by those conspiracy theorists. The likely answer to the mystery behind the Bermuda Triangle is no answer at all. The theories that have been made are still just theories, and while this part of the ocean may have deposits of Methane gas, weird magnetic fields, and the occasional hurricane these traits aren't specific to the Bermuda Triangle and it is likely the location is purely coincidental. As I study the Bermuda Triangle and the disappearances of planes and ships that have shrouded this location in mystery over the years can be a fun story to tell to your kids at night, this isn’t something I would recommend putting a lot of time and energy into. Because as I did the research, I began to notice the evidence of missing planes and ships is very minimal and filled with dead ends. So, while these theories are fun and interesting the real danger of the Bermuda Triangle truly doesn’t exist.

Works Cited:

• Hale, Tom. “These Scientists Think 'Hexagonal Clouds' Could Explain The Bermuda Triangle.” IFLScience, IFLScience, 2 Nov. 2019, https://www.iflscience.com/environment/these-scientists-think-hexagonal-clouds-could-explain-the-bermuda-triangle/.
• Anderson, Claire. “Bermuda Triangle SHOCK: Magnetic Forces Cause Compass Malfunctions Claim Scientists.” Express.co.uk, Express.co.uk, 4 June 2019, https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1135932/bermuda-triangle-mystery-news-theory-devil-sea-news-magnetic-field-agonic-line-science.
• Admin. “Methane Gas in Bermuda Triangle.” Bermuda Attractions, https://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_0000a1.htm.
• Physics.smu.edu, https://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/BermudaTriangle/vincentgaddis.txt.