More than 100 ships and planes have disappeared since the end of World War II between the Bermuda archipelago, the state of Florida, in the United States, and the city of San Juan, in Puerto Rico. The limits of this region form an imaginary triangle over the waters of the Caribbean Sea, which has aroused fears for centuries. Even so, the fame of the Bermuda Triangle as a scene of inexplicable phenomena grew even from December 1945, when five US Navy planes disappeared without a trace.
Speculation about the incident and the memory of similar cases made many people curious and soon the media began to explore the subject in books, films and TV programs. Published in 1974, the book “The Bermuda Triangle”, by the American writer Charles Berlitz, sold 20 million copies, raising hypotheses such as that alien ships had hijacked the missing boats in the place.
As popular interest grew, scientists began to take the matter seriously, looking for a plausible answer. One of the theories that today has some credibility in the scientific community blames methane gas, present in the oceanic subsoil of the Triangle, for the mysteries. “The release of methane reduces a ship’s buoyancy and can sink it”, says physicist Bruce Denardo, from the Naval Graduate School of Monterey, in the United States.
In addition to the risk of sinking, the gas would also cause explosions when reaching the atmosphere. “As it is a raw form of cooking gas, methane can be ignited by a spark from a boat or plane engine”, says geologist Carlos José Archanjo, from the University of São Paulo (USP).
This theory, however, is far from unanimous. For several specialists there is a lot of exaggeration around the subject. Much more common phenomena, such as storms, would explain most of the shipwrecks and many may have occurred far from the area. In 1975, in the book The Bermuda Triangle Mystery – Solved (“O Mistério do Triângulo das Bermuda – Solucionado”, unpublished in Brazil), the former American pilot Larry Kusche shows the work of months of investigations into several incidents and concludes that the planes disappeared in 1945 fell into the sea because of the simple lack of fuel.
In any case, the stories about the Triangle still impress. Heloisa Schurmann, from Santa Catarina, matriarch of the family that sailed around the world on a boat between 1984 and 1994, sailed through the region with her husband Vilfredo in 1978.
And he doesn’t have good memories: “When we entered the Bahamas archipelago, a strong storm approached. Suddenly, we saw a whirlpool of water coming towards us. We immediately changed course and fled from that place.”
suspicious gas
Some scientists hypothesize that methane may explain the mystery.
1. In the oceanic subsoil of the Triangle, there is methane stored as gaseous hydrate, in structures such as ice crystals. The movement of tectonic plates changes the pressure and temperature of the depths, turning this hydrate into a gas.
2. Methane gas rises to the surface in the form of bubbles and reduces the density of the water, causing boats to lose lift and sink
3. The bubbles can also release the gas into the atmosphere and the spark from the engine of an airplane passing by the place at that moment would be enough to cause an explosion
A mystery of centuries
Caribbean region is the scene of strange facts since before the Christian era
500 BC – Phoenician Nightmare
The Phoenicians – a civilization of expert navigators that emerged where Syria is today – feared monsters that moved in an ocean of algae. Today, there are experts who see this as an indication that they would have reached the Sargasso Sea, an area infested with algae that extends over the Triangle.
15th century – The scares of Columbus
Navigator Christopher Columbus also feared this part of the Caribbean Sea. In his logbook, he mentions strange happenings in the place, such as the malfunction of his compass and the presence of lights emerging from the ocean.
18th century – First shipwreck
In 1790, the boat of the Spaniard Juan de Bermudez sank in the region, but he managed to reach an island that he would call Bermuda, after his surname. The navigator not only was in one of the first shipwrecks recorded in the Triangle, but also named the archipelago
[1945–Themostcontroversialcase
Five US Navy Torpedo bombers take off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and disappear with 14 crew on board. The incident of so-called Flight 19 (its air traffic control number) made the region world famous as a place of mysterious disappearances.
1951 – Missing Giant
A US Air Force C-124 cargo plane fails to be registered by radars when flying over the Triangle. Considered one of the largest cargo planes in the world, it carried 52 crew
1963 – Disappearance routine
The 425-foot (129.45-meter) Marine Sulfur Queen cargo ship disappears with 39 men on board. No distress signal was issued and the ship was never found.
1972 – The last case
The disappearance of the German freighter Anita, weighing 20,000 tons and with 32 occupants, was the last mysterious event in the Triangle to have major repercussions around the world.
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