• Question: What is the Bermuda triangle and how was it formed?

    Asked by 563furk23 to Chris, Sarah on 14 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by beckyđź’—.
    • Photo: Chris Werner

      Chris Werner answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      Good question! It technically speaking isn’t an actual feature, more of a myth. Its a loosely defined region, where the points of the triangle are Bermuda, southern tip of Florida and Puerto Rico, where ships and planes disappear in mysterious fashion! The count is about 75 incidents. There has been a theory recently that meteorologists came up with of ‘air bombs’ (small areas where winds can be really high 200km/hr+) that overturn ships or down planes. That’s a plausible explanation, but it’s never been tested in reality.

Comments

  • Photo: Kathryn

    Kathryn commented on :

    Also- just to add to this, seaweed has something to do with the mysterious nature of the Bermuda triangle. A species of brown seaweed called Sargassum floats around in large matts that look like land across the Carribean and mid-Atlantic- an area also called the Sargasso sea (named after the seaweed!)- and this is where the Bermuda triangle lies. The seaweed grows in a way that is similar to how it grows in a harbor- so much so that anything that drifts into it stays there, such as an abandoned ship. Seaweeds also have certain compounds that contain halogens (like fluorine, chlorine, bromine) and these compounds can affect cloud formation in the sky above them. So the calm seas that used to trap sailors for weeks and months (because they were wind-driven vessels) was caused by the seaweed that would then collect abandoned ships and more!

    More info: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/esp_bermuda_04.htm

    Also- the last blue Planet had a really great video of a whirl pool forming in the ocean, on a coral reef- check that out!