MYSTERY DECODED- BERMUDA TRIANGLE: FACTS, EVENTS AND MYTHS REVEALED

My greetings to all the mystery seekers across the globe. It has been a long time after you are hearing from me but I promise I would be regular from now on (I really swear!!!). Please leave your feedback on the comments section, it would really help me in improving the content of this blog.

                   

INTRODUCTION 

Bermuda triangle, also known as devil's triangle is a triangular region with its vertices lying in Miami, Florida peninsula; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and in the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda. But most writers do 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 depending upon the activities that takes place in this one of the most shipping lanes across the world.

                                                    THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Bermuda triangle has always been a place of mystery since its discovery. The region has been known for a number of cases flights and freighter ships disappearances and then there reappearances including the most famous ones like flight 19, USS Cyclops, Ellen Austin and many others whose sole reason is still unknown with a cent percent surety. It is quoted that the area has been associated with unusual magnetic anomalies and the presence of methane hydrates which is stated as the biggest cause of the events taking place in this triangle. In my opinion, the mystery has just been a little over cooked which is why till date it is an unknown urban legend.

BERMUDA TRIANGLE- THE FACTS

There are certain facts and figures that cannot be overlooked and denied which still makes Bermuda triangle a living mystery till date.

      1. Methane hydrates has been termed as the most significant cause in the disappearance of the ships. Laboratory experiment have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water; thus  any wreckage consequently rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by the Gulf Stream. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning.

       2. The reports of flights disappearing at one point and reappearing at another can be associated with Gulf  Streams originating in the Gulf  of Mexico, possessing a surface velocity of about 2.5 m/s can easily carry the floating objects.

       3. In most incident the pilots have been known for mentioning an unusual local magnetic field anomalies and a sudden feeling of weightlessness. This area is also known for a lot of tectonic activity associated with it.

      4. Other incidents include loss of aircrafts and ships in the tropical storms and cyclones originating in this belt which has caused thousands of lives and over billions of dollars. Other causes include human error  in handling the ship/aircraft giving rise a number of incidents in this belt.

BERMUDA TRIANGLE- EVENTS

Although The Bermuda Triangle has been associated by a lot of events, but judging on their genuineness and popularity I have listed some of the most famous ones-

       1. On the top of the table sits flight 19. This is must be known to that every mystery seeker who has ever heard of Bermuda triangle. This incident was responsible for the tremendous hype in exploring the mystery of the triangle. Flight 19 was a training flight of five bomber planes which meant missing over the Atlantic on 5 December 1945. The flight 's disappearance is attributed to navigational error leading to the aircraft running out of fuel. No remains of the aircrafts were found during  the rescue operations which may have been drifted away by the Gulf Streams or plausibly would have sunk down the ocean as a result of a methane hydrate explosion.

   

                                                      THE PATH TAKEN BY FLIGHT 19

    2. The USS Cyclops was amongst an important incident occurring in this belt which resulted in the single largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy. USS Cyclops, one of the four Proteus-class coilers built for the US Navy before World War I, which was full of manganese ore  went missing without a trace with 309 crew members on board after 4 March 1918. Although the reason of disappearance still needs citation, but most theories point to tropical storms, gas explosions and capsizing.

                                                              USS CYCLOPS

     3. The Ellen Austin supposedly came across a derelict ship, placed on board a prize crew, and attempted to sail with it to New York in 1881. According to the stories, the derelict disappeared; others elaborating further that the derelict reappeared minus the prize crew, then disappeared again with a second prize crew on board. A check from Lloyd's of London records proved the existence of the Meta, built in 1854 and that in 1880 the Meta was renamed Ellen Austin. There are no casualty listings for this vessel, or any vessel at that time, that would suggest a large number of missing men were placed on board a derelict that later disappeared. 

    4. The Douglas DC-# is also amongst the popular incidents that occurred in the Bermuda Triangle. On December 28, 1948, a Douglas DC-3 aircraft disappeared while on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami. No trace of the aircraft or the 32 people on board was ever found. From the documentation compiled by the Civil Aeronautics Board investigation, a possible key to the plane's disappearance was: the plane's batteries were inspected and found to be low on charge, but ordered back into the plane without a recharge by the pilot while in San Juan. Whether or not this led to complete electrical failure will never be known. However, since piston-engine aircraft rely upon magnetos to provide spark to their cylinders rather than a battery powered ignition coil system, this theory is not strongly convincing.

BERMUDA TRIANGLE- THE MYTHS

Lawrence David Kusche, a research librarian from Arizona State university argued that many claims about the events in Bermuda triangle were often a result of over exaggerated, inaccurate and inconsistent reports.  According to him;

     1. The number of events of the disappearances of ships and aircrafts were significantly much less as compared to the amount of traffic passing through the area frequented by tropical storms.

     2. The numbers themselves had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A boat's disappearance, for example, would be reported, but its eventual (if belated) return to port may not have been.

    3. Some disappearances had, in fact, never happened. One plane crash was said to have taken place in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses; a check of the local papers revealed nothing.

4. According to some researcher, this was a region of anomalous mystic forces and was a gateway for the UFO's into the earth.( Oh Really!!!) 

It was not just Kusche, other researchers and some investigators found that the number of disappearance are not that large in number as compared to the hype created because this topic turned out to be a good way of making profit from books, video films , TV shows and all sorts of products available in the market.

It cannot be denied that Bermuda triangle is still a place whose incidents are still fresh to give spine chills and goose bumps to anyone. I hope my article would have helped you in knowing it better and removing the misconceptions created by the hype about it. What lies there, nobody knows with cent percent of surety; till then I leave it for you to decipher!!!