Featured Image Credit: NOAA via Flickr
By Kira Krall
The Bermuda triangle has claimed hundreds of ships and airplanes throughout history. This area of the Atlantic bordered by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, is also known as the “Devil’s triangle”.
Some of the most fanciful theories bring aliens, mysterious fog, and even the lost city of Atlantis into the mix. A supernatural theory claims that the souls of African slaves that perished in this area still remain today, capsizing ships and bringing airplanes down to the watery depths.
Naturally, meteorologists and oceanographers alike prefer science-based explanations. One is the peculiar honeycomb-like cloud formations found in this area. Similarly shaped clouds in the North Sea create “air bombs”; downward bursts of 100 mph air capable of creating waves up to 40 feet high.
While honeycomb clouds may not be the culprit, this location is still subject to high winds and high seas year-round. Tropical thunderstorms in the summer and Nor’easter storms in the winter make for treacherous seas.
Some geochemists believe that landslides on the deep-sea ocean floor are responsible for bringing ships into the depths. Large quantities of methane released from this geological activity could reduce the density of water, causing ships to sink in no time.
One theory is that there’s nothing to explain. The Triangle is a large geographic area, up to 1.5 million square miles depending on who you talk to, so there are naturally more shipwrecks and plane crashes in that area. It’s also a main thoroughfare that links Europe, Florida, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, which adds more credit to the “probability for error” theory.
Supernatural or not, the Bermuda Triangle is a mystery that scientists of all fields are still trying to analyze. And we think it’s kind of fun to believe that a time portal opened up in our corner of the oceans.