There’s a lot of Bermuda Triangle bullsh*t out there. This triangular patch of sea in the Atlantic Ocean has been giving scientists headaches since the odd disappearance of an aircraft squadron in 1945.
The latest story about the area claims sonar imaging has revealed an ancient crystal pyramid lying 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) below the water's surface in the Bermuda Triangle.
According to the Before It's News website, “further investigation into the secrets in the the pyramid's center could reveal more information regarding the cases of mysterious disappearances associated with the Bermuda Triangle.” There’s also a YouTube video from 2013 explaining the crystal pyramid, which appears to have sparked this recent spade of stories.
As most news sites hint at, though, there’s no transparency about where this information comes from or any evidence to back it up.
While this kind of stuff is clearly nonsense, the Bermuda Triangle has a nasty reputation of mysteriously disappearing ships and planes even outside of YouTube rabbit holes. This has led many to come up with strange phenomena to explain what's going on, such as water vortexes, giant methane bubbles, and, of course, a gateway to another dimension.
The Bermuda Triangle is not recognized by the US Board of Geographic Names as a place, but it's generally considered to lie between Miami in Florida, San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. WindVector/Shutterstock
But the Bermuda Triangle is not as treacherous as it is often made out to be. Official figures and empirical evidence are nearly impossible to come by, although the latest research suggests the worst shipwreck hotspots are actually the South China Sea, the Mediterranean, and North Sea – with no mention of the Bermuda Triangle at all.
It’s also worth considering that this is a patch of sea particularly busy with shipping activity, acting as a kind of crossroads between Europe, the Americas, and the many Caribbean islands. It's also a popular area for tourists, cruise ships, and yachting.
In their post “What is the Bermuda Triangle?,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) remain quiet on definitively confirming a phenomenon exists. However, they argue it could potentially be explained through “environmental considerations” that are “grounded in science, if not in evidence.”
For example, the NOAA says the area is also subject to the Gulf Stream, which can cause rapid changes in weather conditions. The Caribbean Sea also has many small islands surrounded by shallow waters that would make ship navigation tricky.
So while the evidence might not be in favor of a spooky phenomena, the persistence of the reports is certainly interesting. Just like a modern-day retelling of the Kraken plundering pirate ships, perhaps it says less about inexplicable natural phenomena and more about the human imagination’s deep-seated fascination with mystery and the high seas.
