The triangle deLle Bermuda It is a large area of the northern Atlantic Ocean, of over one million km², ideally enclosed between Three geographical points. His north vertex it is represented by Bermudathe main island of the Bermuda archipelago on South summit from the most eastern point of the island of Puerto Ricoin the Caribbean and the West summit from the southernmost point of the peninsula of Floridain the United States. In all, it has about 300 small islands, of which about twenty are inhabited.
Starting from the 1950s it has become famous in popular culture as “Damn triangle” because of the numerous episodes of disappearance of ships and airplanes occurred in the last 200 years. One case in particular gave way to the actual myth: that of “Flight 19”a group of five planes bombers of the US Navy who disappeared on December 5, 1945 during a simple exercise. Since it was not possible to trace with certainty to the causes of the accident (most likely a series of instructor orientation errors in the lead), some pseudo-journalists took advantage of it to formulate some supernatural hypotheses for disappearances, with the term of “Bermuda Triangle” which appeared for the first time in an article by a Pulp magazine in February 1964.
Why do ships and planes disappear in the Bermuda triangle?
We are in an area of theAtlantic Ocean characterized by rather extreme meteorological events: here is where the hurricaneswhich then fall on the Caribbean islands and on the southern coasts of the United States with often disastrous consequences. The Gulf current, that as you know passes precisely in this portion of the ocean, it is among the main causes of these disturbances since it is precisely the high water temperature on the surface, above the 26 ° Cto allow the elevation of vast hot air masses which then generate hurricanes. For this reason it is very easy to come across storms in the open sea, with waves that can reach tens of meters in height. To this scientific component we must add a historian: this part of the ocean, from the discovery of America onwards, it has always been very busy. Of goods, especially, but also of commercial flights from Europe which, sixty years ago, were a not very dangerous novelty. In fact they required a refueling stop at the Azores, off Portugal, before a flight of beyond 3 thousand kilometers For the Bermuda islands, at that time the longest non-stop commercial flight in the world. The planes of the time therefore often operated At the limit of their range of actionwith the risk, in the event of particularly adverse conditions, to be without fuel with the mainland still far away. Which obviously does not happen today, given that the planes directed to Bermuda have a sufficient fuel reserve to change course in the event of an emergency, and thus reach the eastern coast of the United States about 1100 kilometers away.
All this serves to explain why of the numerous accidents that occurred throughout history, but it is not enough to justify the reputation of “Damn triangle”. Numbers in hand, the area of the Bermuda triangle is as dangerous as those of the rest of the world, for a simple speech of proportions of the phenomenon. More ships and planes pass in this areathe greater the historical number of accidents. Indeed nowadays, with the number of accidents at sea in drastic decline, it can be affirming in all respects that the Bermuda triangle no longer exists. Do you think that a 2013 study conducted by the WWF on the most dangerous maritime areas in the world has not included it even among the top 10. The eastern Mediterranean, or even the Black Seaare considered more dangerous, because today one of the decisive factors is represented by the safety rules in the field of navigation, which may vary not a little from one country to another.
