by Elton Gahr

Created on: April 13, 2009

The Bermuda triangle, also called the devils triangle, is a section of water that forms a triangle between Bermuda, Miami, Florida and San Juan. To understand the mystery of the Bermuda triangle there are a few things that you must know. Among those things you must understand are the number of boats and planes that travel through the triangle, the theories of the Bermuda Triangle and some of the most interesting of the stories.

The Bermuda Triangle is one of the busies sea lanes in the world. Hundreds if not thousands of ships travel inside the Bermuda triangle each day and yet only a tiny percentage have any trouble. The coast guard receives 23 calls a day from the Bermuda triangle but a vast majority of those are from small boats that have run out of gas. The truth is that the number of ships disappearing in the Bermuda triangle is only marginally higher per capita than most places in the world.

That said, it is higher and the stories must be explained. These stories range from the absurd to the plausible though none have truly been proved. One of the less reasonable sounding of these is that of space aliens. This possibility seems small because there is yet no explanation of why space aliens who traveled millions of miles through space would limit themselves to one small part of the ocean. Other possibilities that seem more plausible are those of methane gas breaking free from below the surface. These bubbles would make plane flight difficult as well as causing trouble for ships. Another possibility is that of a magnetic anomaly that would effect not only the electronics of modern ships but humans natural ability to sense direction.

Without the stories though none of these would be given much weight, and along with the numerous reports of ships or planes that simply disappear are stories that defy simple explanation. One of the most important of these is flight 19. Flight 19 disappeared into the ocean and had reported troubles with compasses and flight equipment. Adding to the mystery the search and rescue aircraft also disappeared with a 13 man crew.

One of the first ships connected to the triangle was the USS Cyclops which disappeared in 1918. The ship disappeared without a trace and no wreckage was ever found and no distress signal was ever sent. The 306 men who disappeared on the USS Cyclops remain the largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly tied to combat.

Evidence of the Bermuda triangle is difficult to pin down and most of the stories are anecdotal yet there are many of these stories and ships disappear in this part of the ocean with alarming frequency and so the question remains, is this section of the ocean cursed in some way or is it simply watched more carefully than other parts of the world leading to the stories.

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