The Bermuda Triangle: From Myth To Science 

The Bermuda Triangle, popularly known as the Devil’s Triangle, is located on the western part of the North Atlantic ocean. This area is frequently traversed by ships and airplanes. This is one of the places on Earth shrowded with mystery. This area covers about 1.3 square kilometers of the North Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Puerto Rico and finally to Bermuda. Although the perfect boundary is highly controversial. The inexplicable outcomes make it a highly studied and yet enigmatic component of the earth’s surface. This triangular region is mysterious for its notorious phenomena. Since the 18th century, there have been a thousand reported incidents of people mysteriously disappearing in this area. The term “Bermuda Triangle” was first used by Vincent Gaddis in 1964 in his article published in Argosy magazine.

The Missing Reports

The stories around the Bermuda triangle began at the time of Christopher Columbus when he reportedly saw a flame of fire crashing into the sea in the triangle during his first voyage to the New World. However, the mysterious behavior of the region came into the public attention only in the 20th century when the Navy cargo ship, USS Cyclops, with more than 300 people on board, went missing in the Bermuda triangle. The latest such incident in the region is the disappearance of a small twin-engine plane in May 2018. The plane, with four people on board, suddenly disappeared from the radar when it was flying from Puerto Rico to Florida, and the debris appeared to be from the missing plane was found later.

Image credits: The Indian Express

Scientists have put forward several theories to explain such mysterious events encircling the Bermuda Triangle. Apart from the scientific explanation, several stories existed before this area became a concern for scientists and Physicists. This phenomenon of disappearances of Cargo ships, Airplanes had several mind-boggling explanations. Some of these explanations may sound sensible and interesting, while others are a bit stupid from the  Scientific point of view.

This area of Bermuda Triangle has evidence of several mythical vanishings under unexplained circumstances. The ships and aircraft that disappeared from this area have never been found. Reports go back to 1945 when 5 American Torpedo Bombers and a plane sent out to find them vanished without a trace. Flight 19 was the designation of a group of five Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945, after losing contact during a United States Navy overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Since then 75 aircraft and several 100 ships were lost without any evidence.

Whether downed by collision or clash, planes will leave behind some debris, but no trace of any of the vanished flights was ever found.

The latest tragedy in 2015, a Cargo Ship ‘ El Faro’ disappeared in this region from Florida to Puerto Rico. It disappeared from the radar on 1st October 2015 and was found wrecked at the bottom of the ocean on 31st October.

On 20th June 2005, the first Piper-PA disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. There were 3 people on board. A similar incident took place on 10th April 2007 on Berry island which had only one pilot on board. Many stories have been whirling around in this area.

A Scientific Approach

The name “Bermuda Triangle” was not coined until 1964 when Vincent Gaddis used it in a magazine called Argosy where he penned an article about Flight 19’s disappearance. The author laid out the mysterious area in which the planes had disappeared for his readers. “Draw a line from Florida to Bermuda,” he instructed, “another from Bermuda to Puerto Rico, and a third line back to Florida through the Bahamas,” Gaddis said that “Taylor and his crew were far from the first people to have vanished in the triangle, claiming that in just 20 years the Bermuda Triangle had claimed over 1,000 lives.”

Gaddis’ article about Flight 19 propelled the Bermuda Triangle legend to public attention. Hundreds of theories have since been proposed to explain the strange disappearance, the most outlandish ranging from alien abductions to a dangerous sea monster. Of course, many more mundane theories have also been proposed.

The explanation for this area and started with the existence of supernatural powers confined to that region, starting from aliens,  to sea monsters, and then followed by water spouts. These are all incredible stories far from the truth. These theories were followed by a plausible theory that predicted the cause of the disappearance at the Bermuda Triangle is due to the Methane explosion. It is believed that these methane explosions come up from the ocean floor and erupt so violently that can damage even massive ships. After this theory’s proposal, many Physicists and Ocean experts rejected this idea as they thought there could not be such an explosion that can topple over huge Cargo ships and Airplanes. Moreover, ships are built in such a way that they can survive massive changes in water including methane bubbles.

A team of American Scientists from the University of Colorado analyzed the satellite weather images of this mysterious area and noticed a series of hexagonal clouds on them. The Meteorologists theorized that these clouds act like ‘ Air Bombs’. They are the main cause of the deadly blasts of air, which can easily exceed the speed of 170 miles per hour. These hurricane forced winds literally can blow the air and generate waves as high as 45 feet. Judging by satellite images, the clouds over the Bermuda Triangle are exceptional. The announcement of this theory has motivated lots of Scientists to work further on it. What makes the clouds exceptional? Why is the phenomenon only concentrated in that region? are some of the questions that need further research. Scientists all over the world are trying to find out reasons for such anomalies.