facts about the Bermuda triangle

Bermuda Triangle, section of the North Atlantic Ocean off North America in which more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have mysteriously disappeared. The area, whose boundaries are not universally agreed upon, has a triangular shape that reaches approximately from the Atlantic coast of Florida to Bermuda to the islands known as the Greater Antilles. Estimates of the Bermuda Triangle’s total area range between 500,000 and 1,510,000 square miles (1,300,000 and 3,900,000 square kilometers).

Reports of unexplained occurrences in the region date to the mid-19th century. Some ships were discovered completely abandoned for no apparent reason; others transmitted no distress signals and were never seen or heard from again. Aircraft have been reported and then vanished, and rescue missions are said to have vanished when flying in the area. However, wreckage has not been found, and some of the theories advanced to explain the repeated mysteries have been fanciful.

(Learn more about what’s known—and what’s unknown—about the Bermuda Triangle.)

wave. ocean. Cresting ocean wave. Large sea waves. storm, hurricane, tropical cyclone
Britannica Quiz
All About Oceans and Seas Quiz
USS Cyclops
USS CyclopsThe USS Cyclops, pictured here in the Hudson River, New York, in 1911, went missing in the area of the Bermuda Triangle in March 1918. There were no survivors, and the wreck has never been found.
Although theories of supernatural causes for these disappearances abound, geophysical and environmental factors are most likely responsible. One hypothesis is that pilots failed to account for the agonic line—the place at which there is no need to compensate for magnetic compass variation—as they approached the Bermuda Triangle, resulting in significant navigational error and catastrophe. Another popular theory is that the missing vessels were felled by so-called “rogue waves,” which are massive waves that can reach heights of up to 100 feet (30.5 meters) and would theoretically be powerful enough to destroy all evidence of a ship or an airplane. The Bermuda Triangle is located in an area of the Atlantic Ocean where storms from multiple directions can converge, making rogue waves more likely to occur.