what is burmuda triangle?

Answer 1

The Bermuda triangle is an area of sea, where it is said there are many disappearances of ships etc.

Answer 2

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a geographical area in the Atlantic Ocean which has been made infamous for the many people, aircraft, and surface vessels said to have disappeared within its bounds. Many of these disappearances involve a level of mystery which are often popularly explained by a variety of theories beyond human error or acts of nature, often involving the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings. An abundance of documentation for most incidents suggests that the Bermuda Triangle is a mere legend built upon half-truths and tall tales from individuals who sailed the area, then later embellished on by professional writers.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

Its an area tipping off three countries in the Atlantic ocean where ships and planes mysteriously disappear without trace. famous people like the musician Glen Miller went missing while flying over the Bermuda triangle.. boats were found with uneaten food on the table and nobody found on board. During W.W 11 fighter planes went missing, when spotter planes went up to try and find them they too went missing. No trace of them or wreckage were ever found.While flying they kept in radio contact and without warning the radios just went dead....................God Tanan_ Nan below would it not have been easier to have given the asker a web address to look up instead of all that typeing..?

Answer 5

It is a triangle-shaped geographical oceanic region with its head at Bermuda, and its western end at Miami and the Bahamas and the southern at Puerto Rico, then straight back north to Bermuda.

My personal opinion in the matter is that there's no one final explanation to the drastic climatic and magnetic phenomena occuring occasionally in that region over the past century or so.

Many have tried to attribute it to the lost and presumably highly advanced culture of the submerged "continent" of Atlantis, claiming that a gigantic magnetic force submerged along with that continent is responsible for the malfunctioning of all navigational and aviational equipment of magnetic nature, that happen to come within its range, and so result in bringing them down and sinking them.

Of course it's puzzling and intriguing, why most (if not all) notorious disappearances of ships and aircrafts took place within that triangle. It's wise however to approach the magnetic allegation with caution, but what is it that causes the weather to act so bizarrely and so suddenly as to engulf sailing and flying vessels within a foglike shroud that makes things seem as though one has been transferred into a different place and time (a phenomenon reported by several who have had a firsthand experience with the notorious triangle and managed to escape)?

One should note that such phenomena aren't exclusive to the Bermuda Triangle, but that there have been similar reports in other locations of the earth, one of which is the area extending between southern Japan and the Marianas, and there's no magnetically notorious Atlantis submerged there.

Yet other sources have attempted to attribute the incidents to a force similar to that of the Philadelphia Experiment, which allegedly managed to end up making a navy destroyer and its crew, literally disappear; imagine! And it is said that after that experience; after the destroyer or carryer or whatever was restored to view, the crew members were publicly seen disappearing and reappearing as a result of the experiment! After which, sadly, many were reported to have died.

Earth is full of such bewildering wonders if you ask me; on land as well as at sea. My personal and recently developed notion is that there's a strong seismic activity, yet likely to result in a gigantic underwater volcano in that region, which is very likely to have been emitting the kind of fumes and gases for the past century that probably have the kind of disruptive force against magnetic equipment and probably a magnetic force strong enough to mislead and sink the most advanced and most experienced of sailors and aviators. A passenger flight happened to experience similar disruption over Iceland recently, as that latest volcano erupted in 2005, but luckily managed to escape disaster. I'm not yet sure whether the Atlantic rift has anything to do with the tectonic motions of the Wyoming plateau, several thousand miles westwards; this I'm now curious to find out!

Answer 6

This question has been posted before. For a whole bunch of quick answers use the "search for questions" field just below Yahoo Answers. Search for bermuda triangle and look at all the answers within a few seconds reach.

Answer 7

the bermuda triangle is a freaky zone where is happening creepy things.....brrrr :D

Answer 8

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a geographical area in the Atlantic Ocean which has been made infamous for the many people, aircraft, and surface vessels said to have disappeared within its bounds. Many of these disappearances involve a level of mystery which are often popularly explained by a variety of theories beyond human error or acts of nature, often involving the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings. An abundance of documentation for most incidents suggests that the Bermuda Triangle is a mere legend built upon half-truths and tall tales from individuals who sailed the area, then later embellished on by professional writers.

The Triangle area
The area of the Triangle varies with the authors.
The area of the Triangle varies with the authors.
USS Monitor, the best-known victim of a Cape Hatteras gale.
USS Monitor, the best-known victim of a Cape Hatteras gale.

The boundaries of the Triangle vary with the author; some stating its shape is akin to a trapezium covering the Florida Straits, the Bahamas, and the entire Caribbean island area east to the Azores; others add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar, triangular boundary in most written works has as its points Miami, Florida, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the incidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.

The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas and Europe, as well as the Caribbean islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft (boats and aircraft) regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands.

The Gulf Stream ocean current flows through the Triangle after leaving the Gulf of Mexico; its current of five to six knots may have played a part in a number of disappearances. Sudden storms can and do appear, and in the summer to late fall the occasional hurricane strikes the area. The combination of heavy maritime traffic and tempestuous weather makes it inevitable that vessels could founder in storms and be lost without a trace — especially before improved telecommunications, radar and satellite technology arrived late in the 20th century.[1]

[edit] The "Graveyard of the Atlantic"

Although another title of the Triangle, the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" is in fact two places: the area of continental shelf near Sable Island, Canada, and just off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Of the two, Sable Island is nowhere near the Triangle, but it did claim one alleged Triangle victim: the steamship Raifuku Maru (a more famous case would be the recent loss of the Andrea Gail). Both places are known for the intensity that a severe storm brings to the area, especially in the winter months, with the relatively-shallow water making the waves worse than they would be in the deep ocean. The most famous victim of a Cape Hatteras gale was not a Triangle vanishing: the American Civil War ironclad USS Monitor went down in a severe gale while under tow to Charleston, South Carolina on December 31, 1862. A number of alleged Triangle incidents have included this area. [1]

[edit] History of the Triangle story
Washington Post, July 10, 1921, reporting, and postulating on, mysterious losses at sea prior to that date.
Washington Post, July 10, 1921, reporting, and postulating on, mysterious losses at sea prior to that date.
February 1964 issue of Argosy Magazine, featuring the first printing of a story bearing the name Bermuda Triangle
February 1964 issue of Argosy Magazine, featuring the first printing of a story bearing the name Bermuda Triangle

According to the Triangle authors Christopher Columbus was the first person to document something strange in the Triangle, reporting that he and his crew observed "strange dancing lights on the horizon", flames in the sky, and at another point he wrote in his log about bizarre compass bearings in the area. From his log book, dated October 11, 1492 he actually wrote:

"The land was first seen by a sailor called Rodrigo de Triana, although the Admiral at ten o'clock that evening standing on the quarter-deck saw a light, but so small a body that he could not affirm it to be land; calling to Pero Gutierrez, groom of the King's wardrobe, he told him he saw a light, and bid him look that way, which he did and saw it; he did the same to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the squadron as comptroller, but he was unable to see it from his situation. The Admiral again perceived it once or twice, appearing like the light of a wax candle moving up and down, which some thought an indication of land. But the Admiral held it for certain that land was near..."

Modern scholars checking the original log books have surmised that the lights he saw were the cooking fires of Taino natives in their canoes or on the beach; the compass problems were the result of a false reading based on the movement of a star. The flames in the sky were undoubtedly falling meteors, which are easily seen while at sea[2]

The first article of any kind in which the legend of the Triangle began appeared in newspapers by E.V.W. Jones on September 16, 1950, through the Associated Press. Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door", a short article by George X. Sand in the October 1952 issue covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine. The article was titled "The Lost Patrol", by Allen W. Eckert, and in his story, picked up by various authors since, it was claimed that the flight leader had been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." "The Lost Patrol" was the first to connect the supernatural to Flight 19, but it would take another author, Vincent Gaddis, writing in the February 1964 Argosy Magazine to take Flight 19 together with other mysterious disappearances and place it under the umbrella of a new catchy name: "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle"[3]; he would build on that article with a more detailed book, Invisible Horizons the next year. Others would follow with their own works: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost, 1969); Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974); Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974), and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.[4]

[edit] Kusche's explanation

Lawrence David Kusche, a research librarian from Arizona State University and author of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975) has challenged this trend. Kusche's research revealed a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between Berlitz's accounts and statements from eyewitnesses, participants and others involved in the initial incidents. He noted cases where pertinent information went unreported, such as the disappearance of round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, which Berlitz had presented as a mystery, despite clear evidence that Crowhurst had fabricated the accounts of his voyage and had probably committed suicide. Another example was the ore-carrier Berlitz recounted as lost without trace three days out of an Atlantic port when it had been lost three days out of a port with the same name in the Pacific Ocean. Kusche also argued that a large percentage of the incidents which have sparked the Triangle's mysterious influence actually occurred well outside it. Often his research was surprisingly simple: he would go over period newspapers and see items like weather reports that were never mentioned in the stories.
Front page of the New York Times, April 23, 1925, detailing the sinking of S.S. Raifuku Maru, an example of a Triangle story contradicted by a newspaper. The photo at the top of the page was taken by a Homeric crewman, showing the Raifuku Maru in the act of sinking.
Front page of the New York Times, April 23, 1925, detailing the sinking of S.S. Raifuku Maru, an example of a Triangle story contradicted by a newspaper. The photo at the top of the page was taken by a Homeric crewman, showing the Raifuku Maru in the act of sinking.

Kusche came to several conclusions:

* The number of ships and aircraft reported missing in the area was not significantly greater, proportionally speaking, than in any other part of the ocean.

* In an area frequented by tropical storms, the number of disappearances that did occur were, for the most part, neither disproportionate, unlikely, nor mysterious.

* The numbers themselves had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A boat listed as missing would be reported, but its eventual (if belated) return to port, may not be reported.

* The circumstances of confirmed disappearances were frequently misreported in Berlitz's accounts. The numbers of ships disappearing in supposedly calm weather, for instance, did not tally with weather reports published at the time.

* Some disappearances had in fact, never happened. One plane crash took place in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses; a simple check of the local papers revealed nothing.

* "The Legend of the Bermuda Triangle is a manufactured mystery... perpetuated by writers who either purposely or unknowingly made use of misconceptions, faulty reasoning, and sensationalism." (Epilogue, p. 277)

In recent years, however, several authors, most notably Gian J. Quasar, have raised several questions as to the veracity of Kusche's findings, including, but not limited to, why Kusche so often brought up as evidence for his claims cases that were already well-known before the writing of his work as not being Triangle incidents; his misidentification and mislocation of several ship and aircraft incidents that are well-documented, but then using that inability to properly identify the craft as "proof" that they never existed; and in other examples openly claiming possibilities for foul weather for certain disappearances where it can be verified that none existed.[2]

[edit] Other responses

The marine insurer Lloyd's of London has determined the Triangle to be no more dangerous than any other area of ocean, and does not charge unusual rates for passage through the region. United States Coast Guard records confirm their conclusion. In fact, the number of supposed disappearances is relatively insignificant considering the number of ships and aircraft which pass through on a regular basis.

The Coast Guard is also officially skeptical of the Triangle, noting that they collect and publish, through their inquiries, much documentation[5] contradicting many of the incidents written about by the Triangle authors. In one such incident involving the 1972 explosion and sinking of the tanker V.A. Fogg in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard photographed the wreck and recovered several bodies[6], despite one Triangle author stating that all the bodies had vanished, with the exception of the captain, who was found sitting in his cabin at his desk, clutching a coffee cup (Limbo of the Lost by John Wallace Spencer, 1973 edition).

Skeptical researchers such as Ernest Taves and Barry Singer have noted how mysteries and the paranormal are very popular and profitable. This has led to the production of vast amounts of material on topics such as the Bermuda Triangle. They were able to show that some of the pro-paranormal material is often misleading or not accurate, but its producers continue to market it. They have therefore claimed that the market is biased in favour of books, TV specials, etc. which support the Triangle mystery and against well-researched material if it espouses a skeptical viewpoint [3].

[edit] Natural explanations

[edit] Methane hydrates

Main article: Methane clathrate

Worldwide distribution of confirmed or inferred offshore gas hydrate-bearing sediments, 1996.Source: USGS
Worldwide distribution of confirmed or inferred offshore gas hydrate-bearing sediments, 1996.
Source: USGS

An explanation for some of the disappearances has focused on the presence of vast fields of methane hydrates on the continental shelves. A white paper was published in 1981 by the United States Geological Survey about the appearance of hydrates in the Blake Ridge area, off the southeastern United States coast.[4] Periodic methane eruptions may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning.

Laboratory experiments carried out in the Monash University in Australia have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water [7]; any wreckage consequently rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by the gulf stream.

Methane also has the ability to cause a piston engine to stall when released into the atmosphere even at an atmospheric concentration as low as 1%[citation needed].

[edit] Compass variations

Compass problems are one of the cited phrases in many Triangle incidents; it is possible that people operating boats and aircraft looked at a compass that they felt was not pointing north, veered course to adjust, and got lost quickly. The North Magnetic Pole is not the North Pole; rather it is the north end of the earth's magnetic field, and as such it is the natural end where the needle of a compass points. The North Magnetic Pole also wanders. In 1996 a Canadian expedition certified its location by magnetometer and theodolite at 78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W; in 2005 its position was 82.7° N 114.4° W, to the west of Ellesmere Island.

The direction in which a compass needle points is known as magnetic north. In general, this is not exactly the direction of the North Magnetic Pole (or of any other consistent location). Instead, the compass aligns itself to the local geomagnetic field, which varies in a complex manner over the Earth's surface, as well as over time. The angular difference between magnetic north and true north (defined in reference to the Geographic North Pole), at any particular location on the Earth's surface, is called the magnetic declination. Most map coordinate systems are based on true north, and magnetic declination is often shown on map legends so that the direction of true north can be determined from north as indicated by a compass.
False-color image of the Gulf Stream flowing north through the western Atlantic Ocean. (NASA)
False-color image of the Gulf Stream flowing north through the western Atlantic Ocean. (NASA)

Magnetic declination has been measured in many countries, including the U.S. The line of zero declination in the U.S. runs from the North Magnetic Pole through Lake Superior and across the western panhandle of Florida. Along this line, true north is the same as magnetic north. West of the line of zero declination, a compass will give a reading that is east of true north. Conversely, east of the line of zero declination, a compass reading will be west of true north. Since the North Magnetic Pole has been wandering toward the northwest, some twenty or more years ago the line of zero declination went through the Triangle, giving sailors and airmen a compass reading of true north instead of magnetic north. Not knowing the difference could easily result in a false compass reading, and ultimately a vanishing due to getting lost.

[edit] Hurricanes

Hurricanes are extremely powerful storms which are spawned in the Atlantic near the equator, and have historically been responsible for thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert, one of the most powerful hurricanes in history, set back Jamaica's economy by three years. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle.

[edit] Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream is an ocean current which flows out of the Gulf of Mexico, then north through the Florida Straits on into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean, and like a river, it can and does carry floating objects with it. A small plane making a water landing, or a boat having engine trouble will be carried away from its reported position by the current, as has happened to the cabin cruiser Witchcraft on December 22, 1967, when it reported engine trouble near the Miami buoy marker one mile from shore, but was not there when a Coast Guard cutter arrived.

[edit] Acts of Man

[edit] Human error

One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error. Whether deliberate or accidental, humans have been known to make mistakes resulting in catastrophe, and losses within the Bermuda Triangle are no exception. For example, the Coast Guard cited negligence related to a lack of proper maintenance as one of the reasons for the loss of SS Marine Sulphur Queen in 1963, and lack of proper training for the cleaning of volatile benzene residue as a reason for the loss of the tanker V.A. Fogg in 1972. Human stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover to lose his sailing yacht, the Revonoc, as he sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958. It should be noted that many losses, with few exceptions, remain inconclusive due to the lack of wreckage which could be studied, a fact cited on many official reports?

[edit] Deliberate acts of destruction

This can fall into two categories: acts of war, and acts of piracy. Records in enemy files have been checked for numerous losses; while many sinkings have been attributed to surface raiders or submarines during the World Wars and documented in the various command log books, many others which have been suspected as falling in that category have not been proven; it is suspected that the loss of USS Cyclops in 1918, as well as her sister ships Proteus and Nereus in World War II, were attributed to submarines, but no such link has been found in the German records.

Piracy, as defined by the taking of a ship or small boat on the high seas, is an act which continues to this day. The Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean occurred in the western Atlantic and Caribbean from about 1660-1720; men such as Henry Every, Bartholomew Roberts, and the notorious Edward Teach (Blackbeard) captured and taken many vessels, some of which have never been recorded. A repeat of this Golden Age almost happened during the early part of the 1800s; the young U.S. Navy would send ships after them in the wake of the War of 1812. A famous pirate from this time, and an alleged Triangle disappearance himself, was Jean Lafitte. It is said one victim of this period may have been Theodosia Burr Alston, the daughter of Aaron Burr.

Alston may also have been a victim of another kind of pirate, the kind who operated on land. These individuals were known collectively as bankers or wreckers, and their method of operation was to walk along a beach swinging a lantern; ships far off would assume the light was from another ship, think they were off course and adjust accordingly, resulting in the ship running aground and the wreckers claiming salvage. It is possible that these wreckers also killed any crew who protested. Nag's Head, North Carolina, was named for the wreckers' practice of hanging a lantern on the head of a hobbled horse as it walked along the beach.

[edit] Popular theories

The following theories have been used in the past by the Triangle writers to explain a myriad of incidents:

[edit] Atlantis

An explanation for some of the disappearances pinned the blame on left-over technology from Atlantis, for example, the activation of a still-operable death ray. Reputed psychic Edgar Cayce claimed that evidence for Atlantis would be discovered just off Bimini in 1968. New Agers view the Bimini Road as either a road, wall, or pier meant to service ships bound for Atlantis from Central and South America, or a breakwater built to protect fishing boats. Dr. Greg Little, who has well-established connections to Edgar Cayce, did a study and on-site investigation of the Bimini Road; he claimed that the road could not possibly be a natural formation, and could be the work of an early civilization.[8][9] Skeptics, however, view the Bimini wall a natural formation, pointing out its probable natural origin. [10]

[edit] UFOs

Theorists claim extraterrestrials captured ships and planes, taking them beyond our solar system. This was given a boost when topics like ESP, telekinesis, clairvoyance, and the like flowered in the middle-to-late 1960s, and was used as storylines for popular films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The UFO Incident.
USS Memphis (CA-10) in 1916, hard aground in the Dominican Republic, after an encounter with a freak wave. (U.S. Navy)
USS Memphis (CA-10) in 1916, hard aground in the Dominican Republic, after an encounter with a freak wave. (U.S. Navy)

[edit] Time warp

The proponents of this theory state that the many ships and planes entered a time warp to a different time, or dimension on the other side. Usually, the ship or aircraft in the story enters this dimension by way of a cloud. This has been a popular subject in television episodes of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Anomalous phenomena

Charles Berlitz, grandson of a distinguished linguist and author of various additional books on anomalous phenomena, has kept in line with this extraordinary explanation, and attributed the losses in the Triangle to anomalous or unexplained forces