The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

Bubbling methane

Seismic activity at the bottom of the ocean can also be an explanation for disappearing ships. Scientists have discovered that huge bubbles of methane gas can violently erupt without warning from the ocean floor and at least one oil rig is thought to have sunk because of this phenomenon. Ralph Richardson, the director of the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, claims that a large pocket of gas could surround a ship, causing it to lose buoyancy and disappear without warning.

At the U.S. Navy's research centre in California, Bruce Denardo, an expert in fluid dynamics, has proved that bubbles from methane gas eruptions could be responsible for vanishing ships in the open ocean. Water pressure causes objects to float, and the deeper the water, the greater the pressure exerted to keep the object floating at the surface. If bubbles from methane are introduced, they lower the density of the water. They take up space, but the volume of water stays the same, causing the buoyant force to decrease. In an experiment with a ball in water, Denardo can demonstrate that the ball sinks deeper and deeper down in water as the amount of bubbles increases, until it reaches a critical point where it sinks completely. "If a ship were to take on enough water, it would sink to the bottom and stay there," says Denardo.

Credit: Les Bossinas, NASA

 

An artist's representation of a spaceship entering a wormhole.

A mysterious time warp?

Others have more far out explanations for the Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Property developer Bruce Gernon claims that on December 4th 1970, when he flew from the island of Andross in the Bahamas to Florida, he experienced a distortion in space time. He had made the same trip on many occasions, but he claims that his journey that day was much faster than usual. "I noticed a huge U-shaped opening in the clouds, but as I approached it, the top of the opening closed and it became a horizontal tunnel that appeared to be 10 to 15 miles long," he says. "When the aircraft entered the tunnel, some lines, which I call time lines, appeared which were rotating counter-clockwise. It was difficult to keep it level and concentrate on the other end of the tunnel which was aiming directly for Miami."