Top 10 Bermuda Triangle Theories
Top 10 Bermuda
Triangle Theories
The legend of the Bermuda Triangle probably started sometime
around 1945, when a squadron of five Navy Avenger airplanes disappeared on a
training flight out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Soon, the masses were wondering: Was something amiss in the
triangle-shaped stretch of ocean between Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico? Today,
we've all heard of the Bermuda Triangle. And over the years, a whole host of
theories, from the wacky to the reasonable, have cropped up to explain its disappearances.
Here are just a few…
1: Human error/Pilot
disorientation
Look, no one likes to admit they make
mistakes...but we all do it, and pilots and sailors are no exception.
The Bermuda Triangle's tropical weather and
crystal blue water make it prime aviation stomping ground for everyone from
veteran pilots to Navy sailors to amateurs looking to play around.
There's a lot of traffic in the area, and when
you add in the turbulent weather patterns, swift currents and a landscape
composed of a lot of similar-looking islands, it can be really easy to lose
one's way. Once you're a little way off, it's only a few more wrong turns until
you're really far askew: far, far away from a place to refuel or wait out tough
weather.
In short, you're a disaster just waiting to
happen … and, judging from the Triangle's history, you're not alone.
2: Crazy weather
patterns
This theory about crazy weather isn't actually
so crazy at all.
The tropical skies over the Bermuda Triangle
are prone to intense, severe storms as warm and cold air masses collide over
the ocean. Seriously, it IS kind of smack in the middle of hurricane alley.
Add to that the swift-moving Gulf Stream that
cuts right through the Triangle, and you've got some very difficult territory
for both ships and planes. To add another level of mystery to the legend, just
take the underwater terrain: It's rugged and deep, and is home to the Puerto
Rico trench, the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean.
Good luck finding anything that does wreck in
that region. Between the depth and the currents, wreckage is long gone …or as
some might say, it's "just disappeared."
3: Magnetic fields
askew
We've all heard myths about compasses in the
Bermuda Triangle spinning wildly out of control. Legend has held that the
Bermuda Triangle is one of only two places on the planet where a compass points
true north, as opposed to the magnetic north.
Now, navigators know that a compass must be
calibrated to compensate for the deviation depending on the location on the
globe. While the Bermuda Triangle was once, during the 19th century, a place
where a compass pointed true north with no variation, the Earth's magnetic
field is constantly changing, and along with it, compass variations.
These days, the Bermuda Triangle does not sit
in any kind of strange magnetic area, and pilots and sailors know well to
adjust their compasses to compensate for the variation, called declination,
between magnetic north and true north. There are plenty of charts to help them
out with that.
4: Atlantis
For those of you who believe in the legendary
underwater city of Atlantis, this one may actually hold some water (no pun
intended).
Those who believe Atlantis once lay deep
beneath the Bermuda Triangle argue that the remnants of the intense energy
crystals that were once used to fuel the city are now interfering with airplane
and ship electronics, causing them to go haywire.
Their proof? Sometime in 1970, a scuba-diving
Atlantis proponent claims he found a mirrored pyramid of some type, deep under
the Atlantic, somewhere around the Bahamas.
Um …well, yeah, if he really did find that,
then, sure, most likely something's going on…but the guy seems to have
forgotten his underwater camera, let us say.
Other theorists have even more evidence,
pointing to what they say is obvious, more easily seen evidence: the Bimini
Road, a strange rock formation composed of uniform, seemingly sculpted towers
of rock just of the coast of the Bahamian island of Bimini.
The Atlantis proponents claim it was once a
dock; geologists claim it's the work of natural forces.
Hmm…so, naturally occurring,
interesting-to-look-at rock formation or underwater port? You be the judge.
5: UFOs/Aliens
A downed spaceship lurking deep underwater,
its dangerous alien mechanics interfering with our own technology? Perhaps. Or
perhaps the Bermuda Triangle, along with another similarly rumored triangle in
the Pacific off the coast of Japan, serves as a portal for interplanetary,
interdimensional creatures.
Not kidding.
That's the theory.
This particular myth holds that human ships
and planes, when caught in the portal at the wrong time, end up trapped in
between dimensions - it's all just an unintentional by-product of your average
day-to-day alien interplanetary, interdimensional, time portal transport.
And you thought your commute was dangerous.
6: Government testing
That darn government.
They really are out to get us, aren't they?
And they're so secretive about it.
Forget Area 51; they call this base AUTEC (for
Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center). It's located on the Bahamas'
Andros Island, right in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, and it's where the
Navy tests out subs, weapons and sonar…but some people think that's not all
they test out.
A handful of theorists insist that our
government has been working with extraterrestrials and that AUTEC is actually a
testing ground for reverse-engineered alien technology.
Might this advanced alien technology be
powerful enough to down planes?
7: Time vortex, aka
"electronic fog"
So, this theory arises mostly from a single
incident.
Here's the story: In 1970, Floridian pilot
Bruce Gernon and his father were en route from Andros Island to Bimini Island
in the Bahamas when they came across a strange cloud that they say grew
exponentially before morphing into a tunnel.
Now, would you fly straight into a spinning,
tunnel-shaped cloud? Gernon did.
He flew into that rotating vortex, he says,
only to emerge in a thick "electronic fog" with a white haze
surrounding the plane. His compass spun wildly and electrical sparks surrounded
him.
When the fog finally broke up, Gernon says he
found himself miles away from where he expected to be - and much farther than
he could have traveled in that time, leading him to believe he had passed
through a time travel tunnel.
So, was the "fog" a natural
occurrence? Was it due to UFOs, caused by interference from extraterrestrial
technology?
Well, anything is possible.
8: Methane hydrates
Deep beneath the surface of the Bermuda
Triangle lie pockets of trapped methane gas, just waiting to be unlocked by
seismic activity or underwater landslides. If unleashed, the theory goes, this
methane gas could bubble to the surface, reducing the density of the water.
Any ship in that patch of water would lose its
buoyancy and sink perilously. It gets worse: In theory, if enough of the
flammable gas bubbled up to the surface and got high, high, high up into the
air, it could potentially stall an airplane engine or even be ignited by an
engine's spark.
It's important to note that the Bermuda
Triangle is far from the only place on the planet where methane hydrates exist
- it's not even the area with the highest concentration - but it is possible
that these hydrates could pose a threat.
Now, would their eruption be powerful and
forceful enough to sink a ship or down a plane? We'll leave that one up to you.
9: Pirates
That's right, pirates.
This region, just north of the Caribbean in
the Atlantic Ocean, is totally pirate territory …um, remember Pirates
of the Caribbean? We rest our case.
But seriously, piracy really has been a
consistent problem in the Triangle for hundreds of years. Now, stir in some
good old-fashioned myths about supernatural phenomenon and it's just that much
easier for a wily pirate to get away with it ("Who? Me? Blame it on the
ghosts...or the aliens.").
While piracy wouldn't account for the aircraft
disappearances, it might explain some of the ships that went missing over the
years (and also, any treasure you might find buried on the ocean floor).
10: A downed
11,000-year-old comet
So, way, way, way back, 11,000 years ago, a
comet may or may not have crashed to Earth and landed deep on the ocean floor,
right beneath where the Bermuda Triangle lies today.
Some theorists speculate that this comet might
have strange electromagnetic properties that could disrupt compasses and other
navigational tools and even interfere with an aircraft engine. So, has anyone
found such a comet?
No … or, well, not YET, but the ocean in the
area can be tens of thousands of feet deep in some trenches, so proof may never
be found. With no proof, faith in an ancient alien comet is really all that's
left.
(Author: Deepak Kumar)