Bermuda Triangle Still a Mystery?

For quite a few years now, a possible scientific explanation has been put forth for the large number of ships that have allegedly disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle - a rough triangle with points at the tip of Florida, the island of Bermuda, and the island of Puerto Rico. The ocean floor in this region is known to occasionally release methane bubbles, which some scientists believe can temporarily lower the density of the ocean water and sink a ship. However, physicist Helen Czerski has studied this phenomenon and concluded that its ability to sink a ship has been profoundly exaggerated. In fact, she contends that it poses little if any danger.

For decades, reports have claimed ships and aircrafts have vanished while traveling through the mysterious region of the Atlantic Ocean known as 'The Bermuda Triangle.' Some sailors call it the 'Devil's Triangle', claiming the area is plagued by supernatural powers or possibly extraterrestrial visitors.

However, there is a scientific explanation. "This idea that if you had a whoosh of methane bubbles from the sea floor, it could sink a ship," Helen Czerski, physicist and oceanographer from University College London, said. So the tiny bubbles really don't threaten the ship?

"The first thing is that this whoosh of gas is going to break up into small bubbles, really, really quickly. It doesn't rise as one massive, great big bubble." Czerski said. "It pushes up on the ship, much more strongly than the ship is falling into the bubbles. The bubbles actually make the ship go up, not down."

In fact, the Bermuda Triangle isn't really much of a mystery. As I keep harping on here on Augoeides, even very intelligent people routinely estimate or calculate probabilities wrong. The Bermuda Triangle is (A) one of the areas most strongly affected by Atlantic hurricanes and (B) crossed by one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The storms somewhat increase the risk to ships, but more importantly the sheer number of ships passing through the area mean that there seem to be an unusual number of disappearances. Several studies now have shown that the rate of lost ships in the region is not that unusual if you control for the level of traffic and compare it to other shipping routes.

So once again, this is a case where a failure to understand probability means a failure to understand life, and not just with probability manipulation technologies like magick. If you want to live your life to the fullest, it helps a great deal to accurately assess risk, and a little knowledge in that area can go a long way.