The Mystery of the Bermuda
Triangle by Anish Chandy
 One
of the greatest mysteries that the world faces - The Bermuda Triangle.
It seemingly has an endless appetite for aircrafts and ships. How does
this happen?
Ships, airplanes, helicopters
and men – they have all been sucked into the Bermuda Triangle at some point
of time or the other. None of them have ever returned. It is impossible
to provide details of the first such disappearance because of erratic record
keeping over the years, but it was the U.S. Navy that first brought the
Bermuda Triangle mystery into the limelight.
On 5 December 1945, five
Avenger torpedo bombers of the US Navy took off from Fort Lauderdale on
a routine training flight over the Atlantic. They did not return. A large
Mariner flying boat sent to search for the missing aircraft also failed
to return. No trace has ever been found of the six planes or the 27-crew
members. As a result of this incident, it was discovered that quite a few
ships and aircraft had also been lost, apparently without explanation in
the triangular area off the south-east coast of the United States bounded
by Bermuda, Puerto-Rico and Florida.
Every investigator worth
his salt has postulated a number of theories that attempt to satisfactorily
explain the mysterious happenings at the Bermuda triangle. Some of the
more bizarre explanations include extra-terrestrials, the presence of a
huge magnet, the position of the moon, sudden appearing of giant waves,
time/space warps, electrostatic charges, and the return of the inhabitants
of the lost city Atlanta. There have been innumerable books that have been
written regarding the unusual phenomenon which take place in this area.
 One
of the problems faced by those documenting the missing ships and aircrafts
is the fact that there is lack of reliable data. Insurance companies seldom
insure smaller aircrafts and ships. This area comes under the aegis of
the U.S. Navy but the US Coast Guard SAR (Search and Rescue) publishes
yearly statistics for calls of assistance, causes of accidents, weather,
deaths, and conditions. But missing vessels are not included. However it
is generally believed that around 20 aircrafts and 50 vessels have gone
missing over the years. In 1492, shortly after leaving the Canary Islands,
Christopher Columbus recorded in his ship's log that he and his crew had
observed a large ball of fire fall into the sea and that the ship's compass
showed erratic readings while in the Sargasso Sea and Triangle.
One of the more credible
theories seems to belong to Dr Richard McIver, who centers his explanation
on the presence of methane hydrate. Methane hydrate was first encountered
in the 1920s and 1930s in the early days of the American and Soviet gas
industries. Natural gases (a mixture of flammable gases found in the Earth’s
crust, methane, ethane, butane and propane) were being piped across the
Atlantic but occasionally the pipes would become mysteriously plugged up.
All gases except for helium,
hydrogen and neon can form hydrates if enough gas and water are present,
if the pressure is high enough and if the temperature is low enough. These
conditions can be found naturally occurring on earth, and methane hydrate
has been found to exist in huge quantities in many parts of the sea floor
and is concentrated in some places on continental slopes such as the Bermuda
Triangle. The structure of the molecule of methane hydrate is such that
it facilitates the capturing of a large amount of gas. If this were to
break-up, then even a small area could cause a large gas release.
 Sediment
piles on continental slopes have the tendency to accumulate on the slopes
of the edge of continental plates. But it is unstable and can tumble down.
When this happens, it can cause the removal of the hydrate layer, releasing
the methane gas trapped below. Methane gas bubbling up through the sea
will cause an area of decreased density; ships will lie lower in the water
and will be swamped by the least wave; also methane gas when mixed with
air in the correct proportions is highly explosive. This could account
for the mysterious disappearances of both ships and aircraft.
All this activity on the
sea bed occurs at the edges of tectonic plates, where there is constant
activity as a result of the pressures beneath the earth’s crust; any wreckage
sinking to the bottom would be lost forever beneath the moving plates.
The latest myth that is doing
the rounds is that there have been disappearances in the Indian and Pacific
oceans, this means that the Bermuda Triangle is widening in scope.
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For accommodation in Bermuda,
visit All World
Vacation Station
About the Author: Anish
Chandy
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