Bermuda Triangle

An area of the Western Atlantic between Bermuda and Florida where ships and planes are said to have vanished without a trace. During the late 1960s, inspired largely by the volume by Vincent Gaddis, Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea (1965), a popular controversy erupted around claims that since 1945 over 100 ships and planes and more than 1,000 people have disappeared in the Bermuda triangle. The area was also termed "the Hoodoo Sea," "the Devil's Triangle," "Limbo of the Lost," "the Twilight Zone," and "Port of Missing Ships." Charles Berlitz, who wrote several books on the triangle, speculated on the possibility of time warps, electromagnetic impulses from vanished civilizations, and extraterrestrial activities in UFOs.

The controversy was largely put to rest by Lawrence David Kusche in his book The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved. Kusche destroyed the mystery in a case-by-case discussion of the alleged disappearances. Many had been solved, but popular writers were unaware of the relevant literature. Others happened outside of the triangle. Many had perfectly normal explanations. Since Kusche's book appeared, discussion of the Bermuda triangle has been confined to the fringe, though a few writers like Berlitz have tried to perpetuate interest.

Among the more interesting theories put forward to solve the alleged mystery was proposed by Russian oceanographer Vladimir Azhazha. In articles published in reputable scientific journals in the U.S.S.R. and the United States, Azhazha suggested that storms in the triangle area generate "infrasound"— low-frequency waves that are inaudible to human beings but that can be magnified by special conditions to become a force powerful enough to destroy ships and planes. Infrasound is a frequency lower than 16 cycles per second. In an interview in Moscow published in the National Enquirer (November 15, 1977), Azhazha stated that he believed infrasonic waves in the Devil's Triangle are amplified by such factors as changes in water temperature and a powerful undersea river running in an opposite direction to ocean currents.

Scientists at the Wave Propagation Laboratory of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirm that the power of infrasonic vibrations does increase in a storm and that sound can be carried thousands of miles. A NOAA research oceanographer stated that there are very sharp changes in the temperature of the water in the Devil's Triangle because of the Gulf Stream, and that different temperatures in water could cause differences in the intensity of infrasound, either increasing it or decreasing it.

In the National Enquirer, Azhazha stated: "An infrasonic sound wave can travel thousands of miles to find its victim in a calm sea. If the wave is gigantic enough, a crew can perish almost instantly. Death will come from stopping of the heart or destruction of the cardiovascular system." In the resulting panic, a ship's crew might even abandon ship. Azhazha claimed that the hull and masts of the ship would begin to vibrate in tune with the infrasound, cracking the ship and breaking it up.

Azhazha's theory was published in the Soviet magazine Science and Life, and a similar theory was also put forward by Soviet science writer I. Boyetin. Tests conducted in France have supported the theory that infrasound can damage ships, and Dr. Freeman Hall, chief of the atmospheric acoustic program at NOAA Wave Propagation Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, confirmed that severe storms can generate such a phenomenon, and that it can also be dangerous to human beings. The theory has not been tested, however, because the mystery was largely accounted for by other means.

(See also Devil's Jaw , another area of claimed mysterious disappearances.)

Sources:

Berlitz, Charles F. The Dragon's Triangle. New York: Wynwood Press, 1989.

Berlitz, Charles, and J. Manson Valentine. The Bermuda Triangle. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974.

The Bermuda Triangle: An Annotated Bibliography. Buffalo, N.Y.: Buffalo and Erie County Public Library Librarians Association and Buffalo and Erie County Library, 1975.

Kusche, Lawrence D. The Bermuda Triangle—Solved. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

Kusche, Lawrence David, and Deborah K. Blouin. Bermuda Triangle Bibliography. Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona State University Library, 1974.

Winer, Richard. The Devil's Triangle. New York: Bantam Books, 1974.

BERMUDA TRIANGLE

BERMUDA TRIANGLE, the best-known of a variety of folk names given to a triangular region of the Atlantic Ocean whose apexes are Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the island of Bermuda. Numerous ships and aircraft have disappeared in the area, the most famous being a flight of five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo bombers that failed to return from a routine training mission in December 1945. Other losses range from small pleasure boats to the 542-foot U.S. Navy collier Cyclops, lost with all hands in 1918. Since the 1960s, some commentators have attributed these disappearances to powerful, mysterious forces that include UFOs, time warps, and the "lost continent" of Atlantis. Scientific and maritime authorities have consistently rejected these explanations in favor of naturalistic ones such as turbulent seas, rapidly changing weather conditions, and the errors of inexperienced sailors and pilots.

The name "Bermuda Triangle" first appeared in a 1964 Argosy Magazine article by Vincent Gaddis. A widely reprinted 1967 National Geographic Society press release gave it national prominence. Charles Berlitz's sensationalistic book The Bermuda Triangle (1974) and Steven Spielberg's references to the Avengers' Flight 19 in his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) bracketed the peak of the legend's popularity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kusche, Larry. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved. New York: Harper and Row, 1975. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1995. Debunks the legend in detail.

A. BowdoinVan Riper

See alsoUnidentified Flying Objects .

Bermuda triangle, the area of the Sargasso Sea within the triangle formed by Bermuda, Miami, and Puerto Rico, which is subject to violent thunderstorms and waterspouts. Columbus reported unusual events in his log when sailing through the region. In 1945 a training flight of five Avenger aircraft got lost, ran out of fuel, and crashed into the sea. A number of ships, like the USS Cyclops and the Marine Sulphur Queen, have either disappeared or been found, like the Mary Celeste, drifting and abandoned. In the region magnetic compasses are subject to a 20° error. These losses have been attributed by more imaginative minds to paranormal happenings linked to UFOs or the lost world of Atlantis, but statistically this region is probably no more dangerous and mysterious than any other.

www.fortunecity.com/roswell/warminster/167/index.html

M. V. Angel

Bermuda Triangle area in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida where a number of ships and aircraft have vanished. Also known as the Devil's Triangle, it is bounded at its points by Melbourne, Fla.; Bermuda; and Puerto Rico. Storms are common in the region, and investigations to date have not produced scientific evidence of any unusual phenomena involved in the disappearances.

Bermuda Triangle an area of the western Atlantic Ocean where a large number of ships and aircraft are said to have mysteriously disappeared; the name is recorded from the 1960s.

Bermuda Triangle an area of the western Atlantic Ocean where a large number of ships and aircraft are said to have mysteriously disappeared.