Head south... which way south to go? You ask the station "what is my location?"...but no response. Fuel time remaining: three hours; What do you do in this situation? Many pilots and sailors face this type of situation when entering the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle is a dangerous area of the Atlantic Ocean, where many mysterious disappearances of ships and planes have occurred. Many theories attempt to explain the inscrutability of the Bermuda Triangle, but no one knows the real explanation. The Bermuda Triangle is a formidable and precarious place known throughout the world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First of all, what exactly is the Bermuda Triangle? It covers an area of approximately 500,000 square miles off the southern coast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean. The area is in the shape of an imaginary triangle with vertices at 1) Miami, Florida, 2) San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 3) Bermuda Islands ("Works" 1). Many know the Bermuda Triangle for its rough seas and stormy weather, and for rumors of more than 1,000 ships and planes disappearing without a trace within its borders (Exposed 1). The island of Bermuda was once known as "Devil's Island" due to treacherous coral reefs that trapped ships sailing too close to shore. When a certain triangular area began to stir up trouble and mystery, it seemed all too familiar to this Devil's Island off the coast of Bermuda ("Works" 1). This is where the name "Bermuda Triangle" came from. Despite its familiarity now, the Bermuda Triangle wasn't always so famous. Many people tried to say that the danger there means nothing, ships and planes disappear all over the world at any moment. But Gian J. Quasar, author of the article “In the Bermuda Triangle: Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery,” thought differently. Requested Coast Guard records of ships and aircraft that traveled through the Bermuda Triangle (“Jobs” 2). Records revealed that over 300 ships and vessels have disappeared or were overdue in the last two years alone. These reports don't even include yachts, charter boats and private planes. Quasar then compared these reports to two records: 1) 428 ships disappeared worldwide between 1955 and 1975, and 2) only a handful of planes disappeared off the coast of New England in 10 years, while 30 were disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle ("Works "2). This turned out to be just one of the cases where the Bermuda Triangle showed its reality and is dangerous. The Bermuda Triangle has gained great fame due to the collection of data on disappearances, the publication of numerous reports and articles, and rumors that have spread throughout the world ("Works" 2). This is the Bermuda Triangle and its rise to fame. Secondly, are all the rumors about the Bermuda Triangle true? As the documents and reports in the previous paragraph have shown, yes, the Bermuda Triangle turned out to be real. But no one knows much about it; to its mysteries, scientist Richard Weiner commented, “We probably know more about the Moon than about our planet…we are learning more about Mars than…about the waters of Earth” (Exposed 1). That said, we need to take a look at the historic exodus to the Bermuda Triangle, about which we know next to nothing. The first notable disappearance occurred in early 1918 of the USS Cyclops. The ship served on the East Coast during World War I, and then was assigned to Naval Overseas Transportation duty ("Jobs" 3). Thereship planned to sail to Brazil so it could refuel British ships. He left Rio de Janero on February 16, made a brief stop in Barbados from March 3 to 4 and was never seen or heard from there again (“Works” 3). But this was only the beginning. Many years later the truly devastating death occurred. The next well-known disappearance occurred on December 5, 1945, just six months after World War II. Lieutenant Charles Taylor conducted a training mission for five Avenger aircraft, departing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Exposed 1). However, at 2:30 p.m., with five and a half hours of fuel remaining, Commander Don Poole at Fort Lauderdale station received a distress call. Taylor reported that "they were unable to convey our current position..."; Poole responded “head west,” and Taylor responded “we don't know which way is west” (Exposed 1). In the early evening, Port Everglades radio man Baker heard the Avengers' latest report. At 8pm there was no time left to refuel. A rescue plane was then sent after them, but it too disappeared 27 minutes later (Exposed 1). What happened to them, no one knows to this day. Less than 20 years later, another great mystery occurred in the Triangle. The SS Marine Sulfur Queen headed from Norfolk, Virginia to Beaumont, Texas, carrying 15,000 tons of molten sulfur in heated tanks. On 3 February 1963, the captain radioed his routine position report; reported the ship's position near Key West in the Straits of Florida ("Works" 6). This proved to be the last communication heard from the captain. Three days later, Coast Guard investigators found a single life jacket floating 40 miles southwest of the tanker's location. The article states that “it is likely that the sulfur leak caused an explosion. The leaking sulfur gas could have poisoned the crew and prevented them from sending a distress call” (“Works” 6). Honduran officers reported encountering “a strong, acrid odor 15 miles off Cape San Antonia” (“Works” 6). Further evidence was later found that the ship had been in trouble: many wrecks were washed away, and the area appeared to be infested with sharks and barracudas, so no bodies were ever found ("Works" 6). These are just a few of the hundreds of ship/plane disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. So what could be the cause of all these disappearances? Well, there are many theories; the first came from a North Sea oil rig accident that burst a bubble of methane gas, nearly sinking the oil rig, in 1985. Researcher Phil Jiles thought this option might prove critical in finding a reason for the disappearance of ships. Jiles conducted an experiment where he took a methane line, drilled holes in it, and stuck it underwater (Exposed 2). This produced bubbles of methane that bubbled to the surface of the water. Jiles then placed a sailboat right in the middle of the bubbles to see if the boat would sink, but it didn't; the upward flow of water kept the boat afloat while in the midst of the spray of bubbles (Exhibit 2). But Jiles did not give up the experiment; he moved the boat to the outer edge of the spray of methane bubbles and observed what happened next. The flat water had a lower density than the boat, so the front part of the boat remained afloat; but the water with the methane bubbles had a higher density than that of the boat, so the rear part of the boat began to sink. Within a few minutes the boat sank completely (Exposed 2). This experiment was successful!
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