Unraveling the Mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle

[Razi Abid]

The bermuda triangle, also known as the devils triangle is a mystery for scientists today. Some say that it has an immense gravitational pull in that area. Some say that there is a "hole in the sky" in that area. But still there is no proof why many ships and planes have disappeared after they have crossed it. My question is that, do anyone know a logical reason about this?

 

[Andre]

Logical reason

Oh yes, no problem

First of all, there is a lot of confirmation bias about the horrors of the Bermuda Triangle. Meaning that all the catastrophic events in that area are logged and remembered, whilst others somewhere else are fading from memory.

Second there is a lot of alleged catastrophes attributed to the BT that did not took place there at all. Like the flight of those Avengers after reconstruction it became clear that they actually got lost in the Gulf of Mexico having missed the Florida pensinsula.

Third, it is perceived that the area may contain a lot of unstable clathrate, that could convert the ocean to a bubble stream locally, in which ships would sink. See this page

Finally. There is nothing wrong with the gravity in that area and magnetic compasses are known to be sensitive to several disturbances. This happens all over the world but the confirmation bias suggest that it happens a lot more in the BT.

No magic, just plain physics.

 

[Phobos]

I recall hearing another explanation...

It's just an area with a lot of shipping/flight traffic so, statistically, there is bound to be more accidents than in areas with no traffic.

 

[Andre]

Well, there is no North Sea triangle

 

[killerinstinct]

Just how God made the world i guess!

 

[franznietzsche]

There is a known geological deposit of methane gas (an extremely large one) in the northern part of the bermuda triangle. it has been shown that a massive enough bubble escaping from the seabed could easily sink any man made ship (obviously, the bigger the ship, the bigg the bubble would ahve to be) and it takes only a very small amount of methane in the air to displace enough oxygen to cause a propeller plane to stall (not to mention the effect the lighter air density would have on the altitudemeter). Not saying that this is necessarily the cause of all or even the majority of the incidents but it is possible that given the high traffic and such a hazard that the high number of incidents could be at least partially caused by this.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

thank you franznietzsche.

Yes, it is starting to appear that this is the true Bermuda Triangle Story. A few genuinely unsual disappearances were spun into a legend. The oversight has been that a few very unusual disappearances did happen. These disappearances were a hint at the dangers to shipping and oil drilling that large deposits of methyl hydroxide [methyl hydrate?] can pose. [I think this is the proper salt form found in the ocean floor]. When water hits a layer of this salt, a tremendous amount of gas can be generated. At least one oil platform hit one of these deposits while drilling and the platform was lost.

It is now suggested that an event of this type can be so large that it can have global effects. I will try to find some previously referenced links a little later.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Third, it is perceived that the area may contain a lot of unstable clathrate, that could convert the ocean to a bubble stream locally, in which ships would sink. See this page

No magic, just plain physics.

As in the end all things must be; though they may seem like magic for a time.

 

[Cod]

I was watching the Discovery Channel a few months back when they did a special on the Bermuda Triangle. One of the scientists claimed that many of the older radios on planes as well as boats would get jammed in that area causing them to lose contact as they go through. He then went on to say that most of the "lost contact" only occurs anywhere from 5 - 15 minutes at any given time. And 9 times out of 10, whenever an airplane or boat loses radio contact, the initial reaction is..."OMG ITS GOING DOWN!". When the truth is they are probably just having a dandy time in the air or on the water.

Now, I don't know how factual that is since I've never tried to talk on the radio while going through the Bermuda Triangle. I just figured I would share that with everyone.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Some related discussions

Clathrate gun kills Pleistocene mega fauna.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=16702

The great gas attack: Permian Mass Extinction Theory

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=7161

Gulf experiment seeks to explain the Bermuda Triangle

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73143116169015&Avis=SH&Dato=20030801&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=308010471&Ref=AR

The Bermuda triangle

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=3461&page=1&pp=15

Darnit! I know we have at least one more thread with some good links. Will try to find as time allows.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

More:

Earth 'shook off' ancient warming

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=13819

Solving the mystery of Venus

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2974

It's a load of gas

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=7680

Also, something like this catches my eye as potentially related. I saw another report like this from this same area in which the sounds were thought to be coming from far out at sea.

Sonic boom? Earthquake? Big bang theories abound

http://www.charleston.net/stories/080203/loc_02boom.shtml

Finally, it strikes me that considering the potential connection of this idea to mass extinctions, or at least that this may all have global implications, the name "Devil's Triangle" may have been more appropriate after all.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

From the last link above:

So what's left?One theory batted around was that it could be "Seneca Guns," a folk explanation used to describe unexplained booms often associated with the coast of North Carolina. Such booms have been experienced in North America since before the Age of Flight, some as early as the 18th century.

Surely nothing definitive but it caught my interest.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Methane clathrate hydrate is a form of water ice that contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure. Originally thought to occur only in the outer regions of the solar system where temperatures are low and water ice common, extremely large deposits of methane clathrates have been found under sediments on the ocean floors of Earth. Methane clathrates are common constituents of the shallow marine geosphere, and they occur both in deep sedimentary structures, and as outcrops on the ocean floor. Methane hydrates are believed to form by migration of gas from depth along geological faults, followed by precipitation, or crystallization, on contact of the rising gas stream with cold sea water. [continued]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_clathrate

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was looking around for a transcript from flight 19 - the squadron that so famously disappeared without a trace. Maybe this is from another incident...I'm not sure, but it has been reported that in one transmission from a plane that was lost, the pilot reported that the sea looked very strange. I think he even said something about the ocean boiling. I will post this if I can find anything significant. In the mean time, I noticed a couple of interesting facts.

From the Navy's Bermuda Triangle FAQ page.

The "Bermuda or Devil's Triangle" is an imaginary area located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States, which is noted for a high incidence of unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft. The apexes of the triangle are generally accepted to be Bermuda, Miami, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Does this mean that a high incidence of unexplained disappearances is a fact? I wasn't aware of any significant statistics here.

First, the "Devil's Triangle" is one of the two places on Earth that a magnetic compass does point towards true north.

I did not know that.

An area called the "Devil's Sea" by Japanese and Filipino seamen, located off the east coast of Japan, also exhibits the same magnetic characteristics. It is also known for its mysterious disappearances.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq8-1.htm

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I am just posting interesting, related information found as I look around.

... Today, methane hydrates have been detected around most continental margins. Around the United States, large deposits have been identified and studied in Alaska, the west coast from California to Washington, the east coast, including the Blake Ridge offshore of the Carolinas, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed its most detailed assessment of U.S. gas hydrate resources. The USGS study estimated the in-place gas resource within the gas hydrates of the United States to range from 112,000 trillion cubic feet to 676,000 trillion cubic feet, with a mean value of 320,000 trillion cubic feet of gas. Subsequent refinements of the data in 1997 using information from the Ocean Drilling Program have suggested that the mean should be adjusted slightly downward, to around 200,000 trillion cubic feet -- still larger by several orders of magnitude than previously thought and dwarfing the estimated 1,400 trillion cubic feet of conventional recovered gas resources and reserves in the United States.

Worldwide, estimates of the natural gas potential of methane hydrates approach 400 million trillion cubic feet -- a staggering figure compared to the 5,000 trillion cubic feet that make up the world's currently known gas reserves.

This huge potential, alone, warrants a new look at advanced technologies that might one day reliably and cost-effectively detect and produce natural gas from methane hydrates.[continued]

http://www.fe.doe.gov/programs/oilgas/hydrates/

Tapping Ocean Methane Deposits
INEEL Microbiologist Joins Japanese on Expedition to Tap Marine-methane Deposits...

...The crew drilled into a marine shelf region 60 kilometers off Japan's Omae Zaki peninsula over the Nankai Trough through 950 meters of water. The area is known to contain large amounts of gas hydrate—methane gas molecules trapped in lattices of ice—and may also contain extractable natural gas in formations considerably deeper than the hydrate deposits. For the Japanese, the purpose of the expedition was to explore the possibilities of harvesting the fuel. [continued]

http://www.inel.gov/featurestories/00-02methanogens.shtml

From a "Planetary Grid" of Devil's triangles.
http://www.crystalinks.com/devilstrimap.jpg

http://www.crystalinks.com/bermuda.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If you look at the jpg linked above

http://www.crystalinks.com/devilstrimap.jpg

you will see ten "Devil's Triangles" mapped over the globe using their planetary grid

http://www.crystalinks.com/grid.html

For crying out loud! So anyway...I am just looking through the material to see if anything interesting pops out. If you look you will see that only one of the triangles is "predicted" to be on land. In particular, it outlines Algeria rather nicely. So I looked to see if anything interesting pops up in Algeria.

Maybe something a little bit interesting...

Algeria has the fifth-largest reserves of natural gas in the world and is the second-largest gas exporter

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ag.html#Econ

Anyway, it seemed worth a post.

 

[Andre]

Thats another world, Ivan, with crop circles, ET's, poleshifts of 5 may 2003, the end of the world on 21 December 2012 etc, etc, Hogwarts is probably their university. The problem is however, we, Muggles, have no idea why all their predictions fail consistently.

There are no scary stories for almst all the other nodes in the grid.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Thats another world, Ivan, with crop circles, ET's, poleshifts of 5 may 2003, the end of the world on 21 December 2012 etc, etc, Hogwarts is probably their university. The problem is however, we, Muggles, have no idea why all their predictions fail consistently.

True enough.

There are no scary stories for almst all the other nodes in the grid.

I noticed the reference to the Japanese Devil's triangle as well as methane hydrate deposits in the same area. What interest me in these sites are not the theories but the personal accounts and legends. I just thought the Algerian thing was a little interesting. By no means do I mean to give any credence to their “theories”.

Notice that the "Seneca Guns" are a myth from the Carolina coastal area that goes back to the 1800s. Methane hydrate deposits are also known to exist in this area. I am obviously wondering if these deposits and an occasional large release of gas may be the Seneca Guns. It is starting to seem that these large releases of gas may account for several legends and myths. I also noticed that these are capable of producing freak waves. Thought to be only a mariner's myth until they were seen by satellite, now controversy exists over the source of these waves. According to some of the information linked, these Clathrate deposits can produce freak waves [edit: I should say major events. A clear link to "freak waves" is not made].

Freak waves:

Freak waves up to 30 metres high (100 feet) that rise up from calm seas to destroy ships do exist, researchers argue.
For centuries sailors have blamed mysterious surges of water for unexplainable sinkings but the claims have always attracted plenty of scepticism.

However, there is now growing evidence, including satellite imagery, which suggests the massive waves may be more than just maritime myth. [continued]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2450407.stm

Finding the formula for freak waves

Freak waves are a major threat to ships and offshore structures such as oilrigs, but they are notoriously difficult to predict. This could be set to change following simulations of water wave dynamics by physicists at the University of Torino in Italy. Miguel Onorato and colleagues adapted the Schrödinger equation - which usually describes the wave-like properties of quantum particles - to establish the sea conditions that give rise to rogue waves (M Onorato et al 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 5831). [continued]

http://www.physicsweb.org/article/news/05/6/10

Clathrates as a cause of tsunamis

During the formation of gas hydrates, methane and water become immobilized within the sediment pore spaces. Because of the presence of these solids (instead of pore waters and gas), the sediment can not become consolidated because the water can not be expulsed with increasing overburden as more sedimentation occurs. Cementation of the sediments does not occur when pore spaces are filled with hydrates (solid ice) rather than with water, from which minerals such as calcite can be precipitated. Gas hydrate rich sediments are thus cemented by the hydrates, which may occupy much of the sedimentary section, but which are not stable when the temperature rises or the pressure falls.

This may lead to problems during continued sedimentation and further burial of the gas hydrates: the hydrates will become buried so deeply that the temperature will increase according to the regional geothermal gradient. The hydrates will then no longer be stable, and will disintegrate into a liquid water and gas mixture. The basal zone of the gas hydrate becomes under-consolidated, possibly over-pressured because of the release of the methane, leading to the development of a zone with low shear strength where failure could be triggered and massive landslides could occur. With the landslides, more gas could escape.

Several examples of possibly gas-hydrate linked extremely large slumps have been described, e.g., on the Norwegian continental margin (Bugge et al., 1987), where debris from the giant, three-part Storegga slide, over 450 m thick, is spread over a distance of 800 km. One of the Storegga slides caused a tsunami to deposit sediment up to 4 m above the high water line in Scotland (Nisbet and Piper, 1998). There are more of these mega slides in the same region (Laberg et al., 2000). [continued]

http://ethomas.web.wesleyan.edu/ees123/clathrate.htm

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Within the context of Methane Clathrate Hydrates, do reports like this make any sense? Is there any reason to expect magnetic effects?

In 1966, a tugboat captain, Don Henry was on his way from Puerto Rico to Fort Lauderdale on a clear afternoon. Suddenly the compasses on his tug began to spin wildly as a strange darkness descended on them and the horizon couldn’t be seen. Water was coming in all directions, and their electrical power failed completely. A dense fog covered their tug. Luckily, their engine kept going and they moved out of the fog. Looking back, the fog was densely concentrated in a solid block, "a bank." Inside this area, the sea was boiling. Outside this area, the sea was calm.

http://www.coverups.com/bermuda.htm

 

[Andre]

Well, if we consider that eye witness stories are rather subjective, some of it may make sense. A spinning compass does not. But then again, the old stabilized needle compasses were sensitive to resonance. If (engine or roling or yawing) vibrations are at the right freqency, old compasses may have got rather nervous.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I am interested in the persistent references to magnetic effects. If this can be explained it would mostly complete the loop for these devilish reports.

Are any geologic events known to cause variations on the order of 1 Gauss in the local magnetic field? I was looking at data from volcanoes but the only deviations that I saw [related to volcanism] maxed out at about 130nT. Since 1 Gauss is 100,000 nT, this does not seem a promising avenue to consider.

A couple of things come to mind. Firstly, something causes the release of gas.

Methane hydrates are believed to form by migration of gas from depth along geological faults...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_clathrate

It seems reasonable to assume that in some cases the cause for methane releases is seismic activity. Next, high levels of electromagnetic energy is also associated with fault lines; for one as earthquake lights, and also as RF interference.

It wasn't until the phenomenon was captured in photographs, taken during the Matsushiro earthquake swarm in Japan between 1965 and 1967, that the seismological community acknowledged their occurrence.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/effects.html

In a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, physicist Friedemann Freund theorizes that positive charges can be generated when huge stresses are generated along faults in the Earth's crust. The rocks in the crust normally act as insulators that conduct electrical charges only poorly. But under the severe stress generated before an earthquake, these rocks may behave briefly like "p-type semiconductors" found in computer chips, capable of releasing large numbers of positive charges referred to as "holes."

These charges speed upward toward the surface of the Earth at between 220 and 660 mph.

Freund, a professor at San Jose State University in California, thinks they ionize the atmosphere upon reaching the air, accounting for the bizarre effects -- radio interference and colored streamers, flashes and glows reported by thousands of observers. Among them:

Radio interference reported in the days before the worst quake recorded (magnitude 9.5), in Chile in 1961, as well as Alaska's magnitude 9.2 Good Friday quake in 1964.

http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/nqlights.htm

See also The Marfa Mystery Lights
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=7371

It is very tempting to try to connect the dots.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

More related information

I have flown through and around the area several times in a small
airplane, and aside from some interesting and very occasional compass
errors, there have been no "strange" experiences.
The stories are still a great deal of fun, though...
-- dipper

http://www.Newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99306.htm

Also

Many articles concerning the triangle have made the erroneous statement that the Navy formed Project Magnet to survey the area and discover whether magnetic aberrations do limit communications with ships in distress, or contribute to the strange disappearance of ships and aircraft.

Truth is that Navy's Project Magnet has been surveying all over the world for more than 20 years, mapping the Earth's magnetic fields. According to Henry P. Stockard, project director, "We have passed over the area hundreds of times and never noticed any unusual magnetic disturbances."

I don't know where the scientist from the DOE [the first quote] gets his information, but as for the Navy's program, unless the ship happens to be in the right place at the right time...they might scan for years and never "get lucky".

Next

Also passing through the Devil's Triangle is the 80th meridian, a degree of longitude which extends south from Hudson Bay through Pittsburgh then out into the Triangle a few miles east of Miami. Known as the agonic line, it is one of two places in the world where true north and magnetic north are in perfect alignment and compass variation is unnecessary. An experienced navigator could sail off course several degrees and lead himself hundreds of miles away from his original destination.

This same line extends over the North Pole to the other side of the globe bisecting a portion of the Pacific Ocean east of Japan.

This is another part of the world where mysterious disappearances take place and has been dubbed the "Devil Sea" by Philippine and Japanese seamen.

Noted for tsunami, the area is considered dangerous by Japanese shipping authorities. Tsunami, often erroneously called tidal waves, are huge waves created by underground earthquakes. These seismic waves have very long wave lengths and travel at velocities of 400 miles per hour or more. In the open sea they may be only a foot high. But as they approach the continental shelf, their speed is reduced and their height increases dramatically. Low islands may be completely submerged by them. So too may ships sailing near the coast or above the continental shelf.

Quite a bit of seismic activity occurs off the northern shoreline of Puerto Rico. Seismic shocks recorded between 1961 and 1969 had a depth of focus ranging from zero to 70 kilometers down. Relatively shallow seaquakes could create tsunamis similar to those in the Pacific Ocean, but few have been recorded.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq8-3.htm

For a list of who’s who in Hydrates?
Who Studies Gas Hydrate?
http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/hydrates/who.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Bermuda Triangle
Does loss of gas from gas hydrate account for extensive ship-sinkings in the "Bermuda Triangle"? Please let me pose and answer a series of questions?

Are there large amounts of gas hydrate in the sea floor sediments on the continental rise off the southeastern United States (western part of "Bermuda Triangle"?

Yes, I think that our interpretations and mapping show that.


Did sea floor sedimentary deposits collapse because of hydrate processes and cause landslides and release of gas by eruptions?

Probably, yes.


Could gas release cause a ship to sink?

Absolutely. If you release enough gas you generate a foam having such low density that a ship would not be able to displace enough to float.


Did gas release related to hydrate breakdown result in sinking of ships off the southeastern United States?

No, I don't think so. Evidence suggests that the collapse and abrupt release of gas related to hydrate breakdown probably occurred at the end of the glacial episode when ocean water was tied up in great continental ice sheets and, thus, sea level was lowered. The lower sealevel caused the pressure on the gas hydrate at the sea floor to be reduced, which would cause hydrate breakdown and gas release. This happened about 15,000 years ago or more, when the more technically advanced men's ships were probably nothing more than hollow logs.


Is there a mystery regarding sinking of ships in the Bermuda Triangle?

No. I was involved in a television program called "The Bermuda Triangle" that was shown in Britain in about 1992 on Channel 4, the Equinox Programme and that was produced by John Simmons of Geofilms. At that time the producers checked with Lloyds of London to learn whether an unusually large number of ships had sunk in the triangle. They determined that large numbers of ships had not sunk there.
The mystery of the Bermuda Triangle is a fairy tale. Sorry.

Bill Dillon
Geologist, USGS

http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/hydrates/bermuda.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

They determined that large numbers of ships had not sunk there.
The mystery of the Bermuda Triangle is a fairy tale.

Note that again we see the reference to the number of ships lost as the only measure of any potential phenomenon. Obvously this logic fails. One mysterious disappearance might be all that's really needed; not to mention the personal accounts. If only one story like that of the tugboat captain is true then indeed we do have [or at least had] a mystery.

 

[Faizan]

Bermuda triangle

The Muslims, most which belong to the shiaism sect, believe that the last awaited Imam is hiding there and one day will appear to save the people who are in atrocities and he would revive the religion of Islam. He would also conquer the world and introduce a new system throughout.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wow! I never heard that one. Hmmm, this is going to be very difficult to explain with methane clathrate hydrate. Hmmmm.