The Bermuda Triangle could be a magnet for disaster.
A scientist believes he has solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, claiming that a volcanic metal interfered with their navigational tools and sent them off course. He floated this unorthodox theory in the Channel 5 Documentary, “Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle,” which first aired in 2019.
“You can just imagine the ancient mariners sailing past Bermuda,” explained Nick Hutchings, a mineral prospector, while discussing his bizarre theory, LadBible reported. “It would be very disconcerting.”
Mineral prospector Nick Hutchings claims to have identified the culprit behind the Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Science Channel
Mariners have recorded disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle (pictured) since the 1800s. sarfaraz – stock.adobe.comIf correct, Hutchings will have closed the book on one of the ocean’s most enduring mysteries. From the 1800s until recently, over 50 ships and 20 aircraft have allegedly vanished without a trace over this so-called “Devil’s Triangle,” located in the North Atlantic between Bermuda, Florida and the Greater Antilles.
Notable incidents included the USS Cyclops, which disappeared along with its 308 crewmembers and passengers in 1918; the disappearance of the shipping carrier SS Cotopaxi in 1925; and Flight 19, a squadron of five bombers that vanished over the Houdini-like region while conducting a training exercise in 1945.
For years, conspiracy theorists blamed these disappearances on a variety of outlandish phenomena, ranging from whirlpools to sea monsters and even alien abductions.
However, Hutchings had a far more rational explanation for how the vessels vanished into the void: underwater magnets that made it impossible for seafarers to navigate.
The USS Cyclops, a navy ship that vanished in Bermuda Triangle in the early 1800s. Naval History and Heritage Command“Bermuda’s basically a sea mountain – it’s an underwater volcano,” the sleuth explained. “It has now eroded away and we’re left with the top of a volcano. We have a few core samples, which have magnetite in them. It’s the most magnetic naturally occurring material on Earth.”
Experts attribute the disappearances to a combination of human error and storms.
To make his point “stick,” he held a magnetite rock under a compass, causing the needle to spin out of control and effectively render the instrument useless.
Coincidentally, Karl Kruszelnicki, a scientist at Sydney University in Australia, claims that the Bermuda Triangle doesn’t have any supernatural powers, explaining that the percentage of disappearing planes and ships is no different than in any other heavily-trafficked parts of the ocean.
“It is close to the Equator, near a wealthy part of the world – America – therefore you have a lot of traffic,” he said in a 2017 interview with news.com.au. “According to Lloyd’s of London and the US Coast Guard, the number that go missing in the Bermuda Triangle is the same as anywhere in the world on a percentage basis.”
Kruszelnicki chalked up the vanishing vessels to a combination of bad weather and human navigational errors.
Experts have previously cited 100-foot-high rogue waves that form when storms converge in the volatile region.
“There are storms to the south and north, which come together,” explained Dr. Simon Boxall, an oceanographer from the University of Southampton. “And if there are additional ones from Florida, it can be a potentially deadly formation of rogue waves.”
He added that these are large enough to destroy “a supertanker or a big cargo vessel.”
