What Lies Beneath The Bermuda Triangle Seabed?

Here’s one place in the oceans that has

particularly sinister fame

in the distant 15th century christopher

columbus's expedition faced something

that made the whole team panic

the great discoverer ship journal

contains accounts of the compass needle

going haywire

huge spurts of flame appearing out of

nowhere and the sea giving off a strange

glow

many years later this dead place proved

once again how sinister it is

ships disappear without a trace here

sometimes they are found

drifting

empty and completely desolate

but more often than not we don't even

find wrecks

but it's not only the ships that go

missing

planes disappear too

even entire squadrons of military

aircraft

facts and rumors about these incredible

phenomena have quickly spread around the

globe and soon this region of the

atlantic became known as something

sinister and it continues to uphold its

eerie reputation

even today

you've already guessed it this is the

bermuda triangle

what kind of supernatural power is

hidden under its waters and what does

science say about all this

the bermuda triangle

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for starters let's refresh the most

notable incidents that brought the

bermuda triangle its loud and sad fame

the training sailing ship hms atalanta

left the royal navy dockyard in bermuda

for falmouth england on january 31st

1880

the ship didn't reach the british isles

it hasn't even left bermuda

it simply disappeared without a trace

it was assumed that the ship sank after

encountering a severe storm on its route

and that the crew wasn't experienced

enough to handle the situation

at that time the whole world was eager

to learn about the ship's fate

when the ship went missing the admiralty

received over 150 telegrams and 200

personal calls from concerned friends

and relatives

the missing ship made headlines and the

public demanded an explanation

people came up with all kinds of

plausible theories but neither the

wreckage nor the bodies of the dead let

alone survivors were found

hms atlanta's disappearance has remained

a mystery

the coal carrier cyclops loaded with

manganese ore left the island of

barbados on march 4th 1918.

a few days later it disappeared without

a trace along with a 309 people crew

this incident is responsible for the

highest number of non-battle casualties

in u.s navy history

there are many hypotheses regarding the

loss of the uss cyclops

some people blame a strong storm others

blame the overload and the structural

damages caused by cargo

and others even suggest an attack by the

imperial german navy

but the fact remains the ship

disappeared without a trace in the ocean

area that later became known as the

bermuda triangle

this is a five-masted commercial

schooner carol a deering built in 1919.

on january 31st 1921 it was discovered

by the coast guard on diamond shoals

near cape hatteras north carolina the

ship ran aground and the coast guard was

ready to rescue people in trouble but it

turned out that there was no one to save

the ship was empty

no crew

no passengers

unfortunately further search efforts for

the missing people didn't yield any

results

as usual there are multiple hypotheses

explaining this incident

from a pirate attack to the inexplicable

disappearance staged by the team itself

flight 19

this was one of the most famous and

sensational incidents and it happened

not with a ship but with a whole group

of aircraft which inspired researchers

to come up with more and more paranormal

explanations of the bermuda triangle

flight 19 was a training flight for five

tbm avenger torpedo bombers

according to the squadron's flight plan

they had to go 141 miles east of fort

lauderdale then 73 miles north and then

back for another 140 miles to complete

the training the aircraft never returned

to base

the entire squadron disappeared over the

atlantic on december 5th 1945.

moreover a further rescue expedition

with pnm mariner seaplanes also ended up

in disaster and casualties

one of the mariners also disappeared in

the same area along with a crew of 13.

flight 19 was just the first link in a

chain of similar aircraft incidents

in the future aircraft continued to

disappear in this area

on january 30

1948 an avro tudor four passenger plane

also known as star tiger disappeared

when flying from the azores to bermuda

almost one year later on january 17 1949

another plane disappeared when flying

from bermuda to kingston jamaica and

this also was an avro tudor iv which

even had a similar name star ariel it

was as if the devilish triangle favored

these particular models

on december 28 1948

douglas dc3 nc16002

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went missing on a flight from san juan

puerto rico to miami

no trace of the aircraft or 32 people on

board was found the civil aviation

board's investigation found that there

was not enough information to determine

why it disappeared

on september 26th 1955

a pleasure yacht kanamara 4 was found

adrift in the atlantic south of bermuda

the ship was empty with no crew or

passengers

the people were never found

it seemed strange that the yacht was

intact and it's unlikely that the crew

would have voluntarily left it without a

clear threat of drowning

and planes again

on august 28

1963 a pair of u.s air force kc-135

stratotankers collided and crashed into

the atlantic 300 miles 480 kilometers

west of bermuda

there are no more mysteries here

well they collided such things happen

but again

why in the bermuda triangle of all

places

one can't help but think that things are

not as easy to explain as they might

seem

judging by the dates you might think

that all this happened a long time ago

but that's not the case

the next incident happened just recently

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the 29 foot mako cuddy cabin with 20

passengers on board was reported missing

a day after it was due to arrive in lake

worth after crossing the gulf stream

from the bahamas

it was last seen on december 28 2020

looking for the ship or passengers

yielded absolutely no results

there were no records of any distress

signal

search efforts involving aircraft and

boats lasted 84 hours and covered an

area of 17 000 square miles which is

about twice the size of the state of

massachusetts but to no avail

these are just a few examples

in total there are dozens of recorded

strange incidents that happened in the

bermuda triangle area

people have come up with all sorts of

theories

bold assumptions and skeptical

revelations concerning the bermuda

triangle and its strange events

and of course a lot of research has been

done in this field you'll probably be

surprised to hear that for all its

mystery the triangle area is one of the

most explored places in the oceans

but it's not only because of the

mysterious disappearances of ships and

airplanes

many expeditions were sent to the area

of the bermuda triangle to study the

gulf stream the ocean's influence on the

weather the seabed and its minerals as

well as the geological structure of the

earth's crust deep under the ocean floor

those who consider the bermuda triangle

to be a true death trap are right at

least from one perspective

this is indeed an extremely complex

ocean region

huge showliness and deep water

depressions

a complex system of sea currents and

intricate atmospheric circulation all

coexist in this region

and now you'll learn all about it

let's start from the very seabed

the bottom configuration in this ocean

region is well studied it's even known

what lies several kilometers under the

seabed

on the florida shelf in the bahamas and

bermuda region

a lot of drilling and geophysical

research was performed

there is also an amazing variety of

seabed landforms in the bermuda triangle

which is hardly found anywhere else on

the planet

there is a shelf with shallow banks

a continental slope marginal and median

plateaus

deep straits

abyssal plains and deep sea trenches

this wide variety is very rare to come

by in such a relatively small ocean area

scientists conducted a planimetry of a

large scale morphological map of the

seabed and established that the bermuda

triangle area can be arbitrarily divided

into two parts the southern and northern

ones

the southern one includes the florida

shelf the bahama banks the straits and

the puerto rico deep sea trench

in this part the seabed shape looks very

striated

extensive shoals alternate with

straights and great ocean depths

the northern part of the triangle is

more calm and has a relatively uniform

bottom topography

the wide shelf turns into a spacious

deep water plane

in its north and east some seamounts and

a rather large bermuda plateau arise

seamounts

now this is where it gets interesting

in fact a mountain is too strong a word

but there are several groups of

seamounts in the northern and eastern

parts of the triangle some of them even

have names but most remain unnamed the

fact is that they're only 150 to 200

meters high

by surface standards these are not even

mountains but hills but for the seabed

these are quite remarkable formations

these small mountains in the area have a

rather peculiar almost regular conical

shape

lower cones of less than 100 meters are

more numerous

and these are actually called underwater

hills their round or elliptical shape is

easy to notice when looking from above

the slopes of 10 to 30 degrees aren't

that steep

the foot can range from several

kilometers to several tens of kilometers

in diameter

seamounts and even slopes in this area

have a regular shape which is sometimes

complicated by several terraced steps in

the first case the mountains look just

like cones

in the second one they look like huge

plinths with several smaller cones on

top

interestingly there are much fewer

seamounts in the atlantic ocean than in

the pacific

in fact there are around 10 000

individual seamounts in the pacific

ocean while the atlantic ocean bed has

only about 600

and the point is not that the atlantic

ocean is smaller in size but that the

geology of the pacific ocean is more

diverse

but in the atlantic there are also

places with some unusual seabed shape

perhaps it's not a coincidence that the

most interesting configurations are

found mostly in the bermuda region

the islands that lent their name to the

entire bermuda triangle are precisely

the peaks of the largest seamounts

rising from the bermuda plateau

some rise from the bottom of the ocean

on their own and others form groups

the original material that formed the

seamounts is basalt

but it's hard to see because the

mountains are covered with limestone

deposits

the limestone platform that forms the

bottom of the bermuda triangle is a

unique geological formation

the limestone deposits here are almost

six kilometers deep and all this thick

layer is the remains of ancient small

creatures

this ocean area is also interesting

because the northernmost coral reefs on

the planet are found here

and for hundreds of millions of years

the natural conditions that we see here

now remain virtually unchanged

in general scientists haven't even found

consensus on the very origin of bermuda

in 2019 a large international group of

geologists published an article in the

nature journal showing that bermuda was

formed as a result of highly unusual

volcano activity previously scientists

didn't study such a mechanism of

volcanic activity but it may have

contributed to the formation of some

other volcanic archipelagos of the world

ocean

for many years it was believed that the

ancient long extinct volcanoes that once

raised the bermuda islands from the

bottom of the sargasso sea were

triggered by the mantle plumes

indeed a stable plume was observed in

this area

on the other hand such a plume could

leave a characteristic chain of islands

such as hawaii it emerges as a result of

the slow crust movement over a stable

vertical magmaflow also there's no

volcanic activity in the area affected

by this flow today

to sort out these inconsistencies

geologists conducted an additional

analysis of an 800 meter core from

bermuda back in 1972.

they detected a very unusual mineral

composition as well as lead isotopes and

some other heavy elements

the research results gave rise to

several hypotheses on the origin of

bermuda according to the most plausible

theory the disruptions in magmaflows

lifted and mixed the matter fragments of

ancient plates preserved in the mantle

transition zone this may seem unclear

but once you understand all this

you'll be surprised

let's remember that the entire atlantic

ocean emerged about 175 million years

ago as a result of the split of the

pangaea supercontinent which previously

contained almost all of the planet's

land

the plates that today form africa europe

and the americas parted giving rise to

an ocean between them

numerous plate fragments plunged into

the mantle under the ocean bed sinking

into the transition zone at a depth of

about 400 to 600 kilometers

about 30 million years ago mantle flow

disturbances made several of this

semi-molten debris float higher

while merging mixing and interacting

with water

such a process could create not only

bermuda with its unusual geology but

also some other volcanic islands in the

oceans

yep the bermuda triangle was a very

unusual place tens of millions of years

before it became mainstream

but what rises above the water in the

bermuda triangle has its opposite and

that's even more interesting

after all there is nothing but the

puerto rico trench

the deepest point in the atlantic ocean

the milwaukee deep lies in the bermuda

triangle the puerto rico trench is 8

380 meters deep at this point

according to other estimates even deeper

perhaps a coincidence

it seems to be a little too much of a

coincidence however the puerto rico

trench is also well studied in fact as

much as modern technology allows

the 8 to 10 degree slope located closer

to the island of puerto rico is a little

steeper the slope facing the ocean is

more moderate and has only three to five

degrees the puerto rico trench is

medium-sized its length is

1550 kilometers to put this into

perspective the longest trench on earth

the peru chile is 5

900 kilometers long but the puerto rico

trench is up to 120 kilometers wide

which is one of the widest ones on earth

for example the marian trench is twice

as wide the total area of the puerto

rico trench's bottom is 186 000 square

meters

science fiction writers often imagine

that the deepest parts of the ocean hide

mysterious forces and unknown creatures

the puerto rico trench seems to inspire

such ideas however nothing mysterious or

supernatural can be found at its bottom

there are only silts volcanic ash and

layers of fine-grained sands in some

places

special deep sea organisms live in

bottom sediments and above such as

sponges holothurians

worms and other living creatures

and of course deep sea fish in the water

column

well after all although extremely

unusual the bottom of the bermuda

triangle still lacks anything completely

mysterious

perhaps we'll find something interesting

in its very thickness

at first glance the structure of the

triangle bottom seems unremarkable

here one can mostly find regular

sedimentary rocks such as limestones

sandstones and clays

this layer's thickness ranges from one

to two kilometers in the bermuda plateau

area and up to five to six kilometers

near the bahama banks

the average rate of sediment

accumulation is approximately six

millimeters per 150 years that is it's

safe to say that little has changed in

the triangle seabed over the past 120 to

130 million years but this is only at

first glance

there's something in this area that

haunts not only mystery seekers but also

quite famous researchers who are

concerned about safe seafaring

we are literally talking about a time

bomb a real gas bomb we know almost

nothing about and where and when it will

explode

now this is where it gets really

interesting

in the hopes of explaining some of the

strange ship disappearances

scientists and enthusiasts are

desperately trying to balance between

bold hypotheses and a rigorous

scientific approach that rules out

hoaxes

therefore there aren't so many bold

theories

one of them concerns eruptions of

methane hydrate deposits a special form

of natural gas

the presence of large deposits of

methane hydrates on the continental

shelves has been scientifically proven

the only question is whether the rapidly

released masses of these substances can

sink a ship

some very serious experiments were

performed to find it out

for example a group of australian

researchers conducted a series of

simulations the results were actually

promising when experimenting with

smaller ship models artificial gas

eruptions sank the models quite easily

this was due to a sharp decrease in the

water density it has been suggested that

intermittent methane interruptions may

create areas of foamy water that can't

provide sufficient buoyancy for ships

such an area formed around the ship

could cause it to sink very quickly and

unexpectedly

hence the lack of distress signals

they simply couldn't be sent in time

the debris would then be quickly swept

away and scattered by the gulf stream

hence the disappearances are very hard

to trace

u.s geological survey publications

describe large sub-sea hydrant reserves

around the world including in the blake

ridge region near the coast of the

southeastern united states

now everything seems to add up

but according to the same geological

survey there have been no major gas

hydrant emissions in the bermuda

triangle zone over the past 15 000 years

i don't want to talk about any

conspiracies here

moreover there exists a lot of

well-founded explanations debunking the

mysterious nature of even the most high

profile disappearances

but mysteries attract inquisitive minds

no matter how overrated the bermuda

triangle is

no matter how far fetched its secrets

are it inspires the curiosity of whole

generations and it's in the pursuit of

mystery that humanity often discovered

the true nature of phenomena that

quickly turned from fantasies to

indisputable facts