Disappearances

(http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/html/flight_19.html)

After reading about the long list of disappearances that have been recorded in this area, I would like to talk about one of them that was very important in history. Flight 19 was a routine training exercise that took place on December 5, 1945 off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.The crew consisted of 14 men and 5 US Navy Avengers. Soon after they took flight they disappeared. There was a 13 man crew sent out to search for them and they never returned either. This disappearance sparked one of the largest air and sea searches in history; hundreds of ships and aircraft seached over 200,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of mexico. On land a search was conducted on the chance that the aircraft might have crashed. However, there was nothing found, no bodies, wreckage, or anything else.  Flight 19 was then known as "The Last Patrol" and became the central element of the Bermuda Triangle. Now, I would also like to discuss some theories as to what these disappearances could be caused by, both unrealistic and realistic. 

"Unrealistic" Theories

1. City of Atlantis and Bimini Road

The first explanation I have found is that the lost “City of Atlantis” was predicted to be near the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas, by a famous psychic Edgar Cayce and after wards in 1968 there was a "road" found underwater. This road was made up of rocks and was believed to be naturally occurring, however, recent investigations have found evidence that seems to show that the stones were shaped and placed together to form a wall. The reason that Atlantis and the Bimini Road have been thought to cause these disappearances is because according to legend Atlantis relied on the power formed by special energy crystals that were extremely powerful. These energy crystals are in an altered state of some kind and send rays of energy that can disturb navigational instruments or disintegrate vehicles.

2. Magnetic Abnormalities and Fog

Many pilots have had experiences in The Triangle that lead them to believe their is an electronic fog that has time travel qualities in it. It is thought that there are electromagnetic storms from within the Earth that come through the surface and into the atmosphere where they disappear and become electronic fog. To support this a Swedish scientist found that more than anywhere else on the planet the magnetism is greatest in The Triangle which might be why this fog shows up here more than other places on Earth.

"Realistic" Theories

1. Weather Patterns and Topography

The area of The Triangle is located in the part of the Atlantic Ocean that is home to many tropical storms and  violent and frequent weather changes. Some storms are so short and intense because they build up quickly and dissipate just as fast, therefore going undetected by satellites.Waterspouts are a tornado in water that pulls water thousands of feet into the sky and this could be another theory as to why there are such high volumes of disappearances. There has also been detection by scientists that support the idea that there are  freak waves up to 100 feet high. Not to mention there are also underwater earthquakes in this area.

The topography is so intense, the floor of the ocean goes from a gently sloping continental shelf to deep drop offs.Some of the deepest trenches in the world are in the Bermuda Triangle and anything that drops off into these trenches will likely never be found again. 

The Gulf Stream runs right through a part of The Triangle and can cause severe navigational problems. This stream is proven to run faster than 5 mph in some spots and this can cause sailors to veer off course if they are unaware of this.

2. Methane Gas Hydrates

There has been a discovery made by scientists at Cardiff University that there is a large presence of concentrations of methane gas trapped in the ocean floor. This theory could be the most realistic as to why all of these disappearances have occurred in The Triangle. Sea organisms cause this build up as they die and decompose. Gas hydrates are super concentrated methane ice that consists of sediment that contain bacteria that produce methane. The layer of ice that traps methane gas is being studies by scientists as it is a potential energy source. 
Some question the presents of these gas hydrates, however it is possible they are all over the ocean floor in The Triangle. The North American continental shelf has landslides that occur north of The Triangle and could be breaking the layer of gas hydrate and freeing the trapped gas.  When this happens it causes the gas to thrust out of the surface without so much as a warning causing ships to sink because the water beneath them abruptly becomes a lot less dense. After it has sunk it could easily sink into the ocean floor potentially to never be found. Not only ships are effected; but planes could burst into flames in the event of a gas release. 

It is mind boggling to imagine what it could be that is causing this high volume of disappearances, or maybe it is just natural and there are no more disappearances than those that occur anywhere else in the open ocean.Thank you, and I hope you are now interested in researching this topic and the theories involved more. 
Who really knows?!

History

What is the Bermuda Triangle and where is it located?

The Bermuda Triangle is an invisible triangle that connects off the coast of South Eastern Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean and is 500,000 square miles. However the size of the Bermuda Triangle is often decided by whoever is writing about it at the time. Some authors have said it lies somewhere in Virginia, on the western coast of Bermuda and Cuba, Dominican Rebublic and Puerto Rico. This would set the size of it to 1,500,000 square miles!



(http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_bermuda_triangle1.htm
)

What is the reason it is so well know?

The reason the Bermuda Triangle is so well know is because it is said to have many mysterious boat and plane disappearances.

Background Information

Vincent Gaddis invented the name "Bermuda Triangle" when he wrote "The Deadly Bermuda Traingle," in the February, 1964, issue of Argosy, a magazine devoted to fiction. However, the name Bermuda Triangle is not recognized as an official name by the US Board of Geographic Names. Also, the US Navy believes the Bermuda Triangle does not exist.

The Triangle's strange phenomenon was said to be first recorded by Christopher Columbus and his sailors in 1492 when they passed through the Sargasso Sea. This sea is know to have extremely salty water bounded by currents, such as the Gulf Stream as well as underwater currents,  that are 700 miles wide and 2,000 miles long. This sea in the Triangle is know to have a tremendous amount of gigantic seaweed that many claim its reputation to be a "ships' graveyard."

There have been dozens of articles, books, and television programs pushing the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle over the years however few did any investigation into the mystery, instead they just passed on speculation.


The mystery of The Bermuda Triangle was wrote about in 1974 by Charles Berlitz in his book, "The Bermuda Triangle." The book instantly became a best seller. A year later Lawrence David Kusche published a book, "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved," This was a rebutle from the book published the year before and stated that there was nothing mysterious or supernatural that happens in the area of the Triangle and that Berlitz had misinterpreted and fabricated the information he used. Kusche writes: "If Berlitz were to report that a boat were red, the chance of it being some other color is almost a certainty." However both books were found to have incorrect statements within. Twenty-five years later Gian J. Quasar published, "Into the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery." This book was written based on 13 years of researched information from sources such as NTSB, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Navy and many foreign archives. 


All in all I believe the mystery only came into the spotlight as a communal reinforcement because uncritical authors and a mass media jumped at the first chance to pass on the speculation, as this happens often with other topics.