How Brilliant Computer Scientists Solved the Bermuda Triangle Mystery

salem-news ^ | 6 Aug 2010 | Terrence Aym

[RayChuang88]

While it sounds plausible, there's an even better explanation for the Bermuda Triangle: the ocean currents.

Remember, this part of the ocean is where the Gulf Stream starts, and the waters east of Florida is where the ocean currents sharply curve from going directly west to going northeast. It is this "curve" in the ocean currents that can rile up strange waves and also cause the weather to go from calm to stormy in a very short period of time, and because of the fast weather and wave changes, small wonder why there has been a lot of mysterious airplane and ship disappearances.

[Hardraade]

It would explain sinking ships. Planes falling from the sky. Mysterious clouds. Pretty much all of it.

Scoff. But Fester knows better.

[lefty-lie-spy]

This has been the accepted theory for about 40 years IIRC. What the hell is new about this story?

[TXnMA]

Old, old theory...

[JSteff]

the actual shape of these regions as more like a lozenge rather than a triangle

Geometry was not my greatest class but I don't recall a "lozenge" shape. I have had many cough lozenges in my life but they all were different shapes. Squares, rectangles, circles, etc.

Does anyone have a picture of the "lozenge" shape?

[TXnMA]

If they know where these eruption sites are, where are all the wrecks on the bottom?

[oyez]

Finally we can dispose of all of the other flatulent hearsay.

[okie01]

Aircraft falling victim to these methane bubbles will lose their engines-perhaps igniting the methane surrounding them-and immediately lose their lift as well, ending their flights by diving into the ocean and swiftly plummeting

Methane gas is obviously lighter than water. But is it lighter than air?

My recollection is that a natural gas leak will sink to the floor -- being heavier than air. Thus, there would be no reason whatsoever for an airplane to lose its lift.

[TXnMA]

"Does anyone have a picture of the "lozenge" shape?"

Diamond shape -- as the red suit in cards...

(1st hit when you Google "lozenge".)

[justa-hairyape]

If the Relief Wells on the Maconda Bp well fail, I would like to suggest that we call the new methane spot in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama Triangle.

[jongaltsr]

If we could only operate our cars on all the hot air certain people emit and in conjunction with the natural gas (methane) that we all produce daily in the course of our daily lives, we could putt putt down the road at a leisurely 20 - 30 mph (cost free).
Question is this - how do we connect the input orifice to the engine to our output orifices (mouth and anus).

[exDemMom]

The two hypothesized that large methane bubbles rising from the ocean floor might account for many, if not all, of the mysterious disappearances of ships and aircraft at specific locales around the world.

I'm convinced/s.

That is pretty typical scientific writing. Scientists do not like to state anything as if it is a certainty, because there is always a very high chance someone will come along and prove them wrong. Learning to write this way is a large part of scientific training.

[Oztrich Boy]

"Today we are going to be sailing through the Triangle of DEATH!"

"Gasp!"

"Don't worry. It's just a name"

"Whew!"

"It's really a lozenge shape"

[Man50D]

There hypothesis lacks any documented instances to buttress their claim and doesn’t explain how aircraft’s compasses have gone haywire.

[Man50D]

There=Their

[screaminsunshine]

Nope I was caught in a storm in the triangle between Florida and the Bahama Bank in a 30 ft boat. It almost went down. It was not ‘gas’. It was very very strange.

[verga]

This doesn’ explain compasses going crazy, pilots getting lost and disoriented etc.

Would inhaling a higher concentration of methane cause disorientation or an altered mental status, similar to taking in to much oxygen? And could that mental status cause hallucinations making it seem the compass is going off kilter?

Not arguing, just asking because I have no clue.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Next: drilling the Bermuda Triangle to get natural gas?"

Clathrate precipitates on the sea floor. AFAIK, the technology to access this form of methane doesn't exist. It's not a normal underground reservoir like Macondo, or even a shale deposit.

[Wonder Warthog]

Methane by itself “is” lighter than air, and will thus rise. But when it forms a clathrate with water, the resulting species is heavier than water and will sink. So yes, the theoretical result with airplanes is correct. Melt the clathrate and release the methane and the result is a myriad of bubbles rising through the water (and then the air). In water these bubbles cause the density of the water column to drop much like an fluidized bed causes sand to act like water. So the resulting “aerosolized” (methanolized??) water column will no longer support the weight of boats, which will literally “drop like a rock”.

[Dusty Road]

Powder coating uses the same process, powder is put into a container that has a porous board at the bottom and air is pushed through the board. As the air rises it suspends the particles and actually gives the powder a fluid like state making it much easier to blow through lines or transfer.