5.1.2 SEE-I Model

State

Throughout this research, we were able to find six credible/scientific theories for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle and an alternative five pseudo-theories that have little to no credibility.

Elaborate

Many theories have been made to try to explain the weird occurrences ranging from magnetic anomalies to wormholes and other creative theories/pseudo-theories. Other theories include sea monsters, Atlantis, aliens, the Gulf Stream, ship traffic, hexagonal clouds, and rogue waves. The figure below will go through different disappearances and anomalies that have occurred in the Triangle.

There are many different theories relating to the Bermuda Triangle, and they all range in credibility. The table we created provides a summary of the various mysteries (refer to section 5.1.4 of this chapter for table 5.1).

Exemplify: Pseudo-Theories

• Sea monsters – Many pseudoscientists have theorized that there are large marine organisms that have grown to outrageous lengths and have been able to destroy or capsize different ships. It’s hard to determine the validity of this theory in some cases. There have been confirmed sightings of giant squid in very deep water, but this is due to gigantism as a result of high levels of dissolved oxygen in the lower depths of the ocean. However, many of the other supposed sea monsters found in pseudo-theories have no evidence backing the validity of their existence.
• Atlantis – The lost city of Atlantis is a well-known myth about a civilization that was destroyed and brought to the bottom of the ocean due to its failures and greed. Atlantis enthusiasts have speculated that the lost city could be located in the Bermuda Triangle and that this could be a reason behind the various disappearances of ships and planes.  The myth of Atlantis has been proven wrong time and time again by oceanography and the lack of written records (outside of Plato’s account) of one such civilization ever existing. Even if Atlantis was at the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle, it’s unclear as to how this would affect the passage of sailors and pilots.
• UFOs/Aliens – UFOs have been blamed for the disappearance of many planes and ships that have gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle (ex. Flight-19). “Sightings” of UFOs in the Bermuda Triangle go back as far as Columbus, who said he saw a “great ball of fire” crash into the ocean during his voyage (likely a meteor). Other ships have also reported seeing strange lights in the sky while sailing through the Triangle. Some also believe that UFOs are responsible for the magnetic anomaly in the Triangle that disrupts compasses. Because of the overall lack of evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life, this theory is very clearly of a pseudoscientific nature.
• Time-warp/Wormholes – It is theorized that wormholes exist in the Bermuda Triangle, and that explains why wreckage is hard to find after the disappearances. Wormholes are believed to be a shortcut through both space and time and could allow time travel. In other words, if a boat or plane were to accidentally come across a wormhole, it could be transported to another time and/or place. Though wormholes have not yet been proven to exist, they have been thrown into the controversy of the Bermuda Triangle.

Exemplify: Scientific Theories

• Gulf Stream – One of the most important questions to ask when investigating a disappearance is where did the evidence go? If Flight 19 crashed in the ocean and the BC Super Fortress sank, then surely there would have been some evidence left behind to entail that such events ever occurred; however, this isn’t necessarily the case, or at least not in the way one might imagine. As many sea captains have described, the Sargasso Sea can have a calm appearance that puts sailors at ease. In fact, it was so calm at times that in the crews’ negligence, ships would get stuck in seaweed, unable to move. While the ship is temporarily disabled, a violent current, formed by different temperature seas clashing, lurks underneath. This current is so powerful that it could easily pull any evidence of a crash up North by hundreds of miles in a short amount of time before the wreckage would even hit the seafloor. This would explain the “disappearances” that largely add to the mystery of the Triangle, because there is a vast graveyard in the North Atlantic that could more than likely hold the wreckages of these ships and planes, and they have just been yet to be discovered.
• Hexagonal Clouds and Air Bombs – The bizarre cloud formations that are known to form over the Bermuda Triangle are known as “Closed Rayleigh-Benard Convection Cells.” These clouds form because of heating at the base of the cloud and cooling at the top. The “Rayleigh Number ” is used to explain how the convection and the heat in the clouds are moved through both the center of the cell and edges, causing the distinct “honeycomb” shape. These clouds are essentially thunderstorm clouds that can produce “air bombs,” or micro blasts which are bursts of air up to 150 mph that can cause incidents with aviation.
• Rogue Waves – Rogue waves: such an ominous title for something and for good reason. These waves were once considered to only be the stuff of legend: waves so enormous that sailors described them as the gaping maw of a monster trying to engulf them. However, recent science has found that these waves do exist and could quite possibly explain what caused ships or even some planes to sink in the Bermuda Triangle. Rogue waves are described as shear walls, and satellite imaging has found these “walls” to be up to one-hundred feet high from trough to crest and much larger than surrounding waves. Some of the waters in the Bermuda Triangle are notoriously violent, known for their hurricanes and tropical storms that could easily create a rogue wave large enough to sink any ship or even low-flying aircraft.
• Magnetic Anomaly – There are many forms of magnetic disturbances or anomalies, ranging from geomagnetic storms and high deposits of iron ore that cause man-made instruments to malfunction. These disturbances can cause compasses and other magnetically powered instruments to act strangely because of the extra magnetism in either the storm or the pull from the excessive ore in the ground. Because of the change in the magnetic pull, instruments such as compasses are nearly impossible to use.
• Methane Gas – Off the coast of Norway in 2016, scientists discovered crates in the area of the Bermuda Triangle that had methane gas radiating from them. When methane gas is released into the water, it has the potential to sink ships and bring down planes extremely quickly; this would hypothetically give victims no time to communicate for help. Further research by these scientists has also determined that some parts of the ocean contain more methane pockets than others, which would explain the fact that more incidents occur in this specific location over others.
• No Mystery – As people search high and low for answers to the question of why disaster seems to reign in the Bermuda Triangle, perhaps many have failed to take into account the fact that there may be no mystery at all. The Bermuda Triangle is one of the most traveled areas in the ocean, and it follows that with higher levels of traffic, there will come higher levels of disastrous incidents. And because it can be difficult to differentiate between a fact and theory, pseudo-theories confuse the issue and create the ambiance of “mystery” around this area. In reality, however, the ocean continues to be a place scientists know very little about, and the different scientific theories listed above may just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to explaining the Bermuda Triangle’s disappearances.

Illustrate