Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle

Is the Bermuda Triangle really a place where strange powers are at work? The Bermuda Triangle is a very complex and mystifying area that is noted for a high incidence of unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft. From reading this paper one will learn geographic features of the Bermuda Triangle, famous disappearances, and possible explanations for them.

There is a section of the western Atlantic, off the southeast coast of the United States, forming what has been termed a triangle. It extends from Bermuda in the north to southern Florida, and then west to a point through the Bahamas past Puerto Rico to about 40* west latitude, and then back again to Bermuda (Gaffron 14). This area occupies a disturbing and almost unbelievable place in the world’s catalogue of unexplainable mysteries. In the Bermuda Triangle more than 100 planes and ships have literally vanished into thin air, most of them since 1945. More than 1,000 lives have been lost in the past twenty-six years, without a single body or even a piece of wreckage from the vanishing planes or ships having been found. Disappearances continue to occur with apparently increasing frequency, in spite of the fact that the seaways and airways are today more traveled, searches are more thorough, and records are more carefully kept (Berlitz 1).

During the past century more than 50 ships and 20 aircraft sailed into oblivion in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle. Exactly what happened to the ships and aircraft is unknown. Most disappeared without a trace. Few distress calls and little, if any, debris signaled their disappearance (Baumann 44).

Ships and Planes Disappeared in the Last Century

1900-1919 1920-1939 1940-1959 1960-1979 1980-1999 Total

Ships 13 11 13 14 12 ...

... middle of paper ...

...hat time does not always travel in a straight line, but that parts of it occasionally break off and head away from the main flow, carrying with them whatever might happen to be in the area. These lost vessels and their occupants might be trapped in a parallel universe. Like the eddies found in ocean currents, these time eddies would strike suddenly and unpredictably (Gaffron 74).

Taken one at a time, logical explanations can be found for most of the disappearances. Many deny that there is a great mystery in the Bermuda Triangle. But where is the Cyclops? Why wasn’t even a scrap of metal found from Flight 19? Until these and many more questions are answered, the mystery remains.

Works Cited

Baumann, Elwood D. The Devil’s Triangle. New York: Franklin Watts, 1976.

Berlitz, Charles. The Bermuda Triangle. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc.,

1974.

Cusack, Michael J. Is There a Bermuda Triangle?: Science and Sea Mysteries. New York:

Julian Messner, 1976.

Gaffron, Norma. The Bermuda Triangle: Opposing Viewpoints. St. Paul, MN: Greenhaven

Press, Inc., 1988.