Miami is bizarre enough of a place already that sometimes we forget it's one of three corners of the Bermuda Triangle, the purportedly supernatural stretch of the Atlantic Ocean where, according to myth, ships go missing under mysterious circumstances.
Well, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency has released a statement officially declaring that the myth is bull hockey.
"There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean," the NOAA states on its website, as noted by the Sun Sentinel.
"The Coast Guard does not recognize the existence of the so-called Bermuda Triangle as a geographic area of specific hazard to ships or planes," a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard also told the paper. "In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes."
Also known as "The Devil's Triangle," the Bermuda Triangle has vertices in Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and, obviously, in Bermuda.
Stories of the area being at the very least statistically more dangerous for boaters or even supernatural date back to the 1950s and really took hold in the '60s. Indeed, Wikipedia lists several incidents that have taken place in the Triangle. Several theories have been floated to explain the area's reputation, everything from magnetic disturbances that could affect navigation to supposed underwater gas fields, but no one has really found anything off about the area.
The NOAA posits that the area's bad weather, especially during hurricane season, and several areas of shallow water in the Caribbean that could be treacherous to inexperienced navigators may to be blamed for several incidents. It contends that there's no evidence that there are anymore mysterious disappearances than in any other well-traveled area of water.
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