The Mystery of The Bermuda Triangle and What Things Go Missing There

The Bermuda triangle or devils triangle is a large triangular area covering from the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where there has been multiple mysterious disappearances. Over the past century, more than 1,000 ships and planes have disappeared in the area of the triangle without a trace. There are many theories to why this happens such as large Methane gas bubbles coming from the sea, strong magnetic forces causing compass malfunctions, and lastly the theory that it's no mystery or conspiracy but that it is Rogue waves that are caused from poor weather. Many scientists and theorists want to know why it happens and what are the things that go missing in the vast area of the Bermuda Triangle. 

The first theory covers the conspiracy of flammable pockets of methane gas that can be stored deep in the earth's crust and leak from cracks in the sea floor is known as methane seeps, which can cause large eruptions, this can then lower the water density which causes ships to sink to the bottom of the floor like a rock. Even planes passing and flying over it, could easily catch on fire and get completely destroyed. In the coast of Norway, scientists found a series of huge craters in the seabed that measure half a mile wide and 150 ft. deep and are believed to form bubbles from leaked oil deposits and leftover gas buried deep in the floor. The gases reach a critical mass before they burst up to the surface and erupt. This mainly affects ships as the gas comes up from the seabeds and can easily hit a passing by ship causing it to blow up. A famous disappearance is the Marine Sulphur Queen which disappeared off the coast of Florida on the 4th of February 1963 with 39 of its crew on board was ever seen or found again, although some debris from the ship was found and shown that the Molten sulfur carry tank broke in half, many believe this is caused from the eruption of methane gas pockets from the ocean floor as this large 524 ft ship could not just snap in half and disappear with all 39 crew on board with no survivors or large remains of wreckage.  

Another theory is that the earth's magnetic forces are causing compass malfunction, therefore, causing planes and ships to lose direction and become lost. An explanation behind this theory is that the Magnetic north pole is constantly shifting and is located 1,200 miles south from the static geographic North Pole. An Astronomer Edmund Halley found the agonic line was shifting towards westward, which created magnetic declination. 

With Bermuda being one of the two only places on earth where the compass points to true north (the geographic north pole) instead of magnetic north (shifting magnetic north pole) that causes true north and magnetic north to become perfectly aligned which is why pilots find there compasses failed to work properly and veered off course. Many famous stories of mysterious plane disappearances thought to be the result of the faulty compasses are Fight DC-3 -The aircraft disappeared when it was only 50 miles south of Florida and about to land in Miami. Flight 441 - A Super Constellation Naval Airliner disappeared in October 1954 and one of the more famous ones was The Avenger planes of Flight-19. This aircraft took off from the U.S Naval Base of Florida for a routine training session on the 5th December 1945 at 2:10 pm. The crew was made up from marines and navy men with more than 300 hours logged hours meaning they knew what they were doing so could not of been from lack of experience. During their second leg of their journey, one-crew member Taylor became convinced that his compass was malfunctioning and they were heading in the opposite direction. One of the pilots contacted over radio and explained 'I don’t know where we are, we must of got lost on that last turn' Throughout the flight he began changing directions determined to find a way back but just kept getting further lost. It was around 6:30 pm at this point and all crew was lost and still had the malfunctioning compasses, they slowly ran out of petrol and crash-landed at sea. The navy dispatched more than 300 boats and planes and had a 5-day search party but the flights were never found or any of the crew. Many other incidences such as this one has occurred with accounts of compass malfunctioning causing planes to forever vanish. 

The third and last theory is that all these mysteries and disappearances are not have anything to do with supernatural, methane gas eruptions, or compass malfunctions but are to do with poor weather that form massive Rogue waves. The body of water in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean stretches 700,000 km between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Karl Kruszelnicki claimed the high number of ships and plane disappearances comes down to Bad weather and a high concentration of ships in the area. These types of waves can be up to 100 ft. tall which would be the same as the height of the tsunami triggered by landslides and earthquakes in Alaska's ligula bay in 1958, this just shows how deadly they can become. Rogue waves are where storms in the south and north come together and if there are additional ones in Florida it can form a potentially deadly rogue wave. These types of waves were first spotted by satellites in 1997 off the coast of South Africa, A research team built a model of the USS Cyclops, a huge vessel which went missing in the triangle in 1918 claiming 300 lives because of its sheer size and flat base, it does not take long before the model is overcome with water during the simulation. Source oceanservice.noaa.gov began to say, 'Environmental considerations could explain many, if not most, of the disappearances. The majority of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes pass through the Bermuda Triangle, and in the days prior to improved weather forecasting, these dangerous storms claimed many ships' This just shows how much the weather can change and become dangerous for passing by ships and planes and can help explain the conspiracy of the Triangle.

Many plausible theories and conspiracies have been made to explain the phenomenon of the Bermuda Triangle, some more popular to scientists and the public as others such as the malfunctioning of the compasses or the formation of huge Rogue Waves. Others believe strongly that it’s caused by the earth’s core of natural methane gases rising to the top to create eruptions. So far there is no clear answer and who knows if there will be one anytime soon but for now all we can do is keep researching and finding out more about this mystery.