Posted on 08/06/2010 10:38:07 PM PDT by smokingfrog
According to two research scientists the mystery of vanished ships and airplanes in the region dubbed "The Bermuda Triangle" has been solved.
Step aside outer space aliens, time anomalies, submerged giant Atlantean pyramids and bizarre meteorological phenomena ... the "Triangle" simply suffers from an acute case of gas.
Natural gas—the kind that heats ovens and boils water—specifically methane, is the culprit behind the mysterious disappearances and loss of water and air craft.
The evidence for this astounding new insight into a mystery that's bedeviled the world is laid out in a research paper published in the American Journal of Physics.
Professor Joseph Monaghan researched the hypothesis with honor student David May at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
The two hypothesized that large methane bubbles rising from the ocean floor might account for many, if not all, of the mysterious disappearances of ships and aircraft at specific locales around the world.
Researcher Ivan T. Sanderson identified these mystery areas during the 1960s. Sanderson described the actual shape of these regions as more like a lozenge rather than a triangle. Some of the more famous spots include an area in the Sea of Japan, the North Sea, and of course the infamous "Bermuda (or Devil's) Triangle."
Oceanographic surveyors of the sea floor in the area of the Bermuda Triangle and the North Sea region between continental Europe and Great Britain have discovered significant quantities of methane hydrates and older eruption sites.
Because of the correlations and existing data, the two envisioned what would happen when gigantic methane bubbles explode from natural fissures on the seafloor.
The methane—normally frozen at great pressure as gas hydrates embedded within subterranean rock—can become dislodged and transform into gaseous bubbles expanding geometrically as they explode upwards.
(Excerpt) Read more at salem-news.com ...
This theory’s been around long enough I watched a program a couple years ago, where they conducted a test replicating the effect of a (relatively low) percentage rise in the proportion of methane into the air intake to an internal combustion aircraft engine.
The effect was immediate. The engine simply stopped.
A prop airplane flying into a methane cloud rising from the ocean, would simply fall like a stone into the sea.
I'm convinced/s.
Same thing I was going to post. I remember watching a program about this theory almost 10 years ago, and it made sense at the time that I watched it.
Some computer model certainly isn’t more “proof” to me, though.
Um, I read about this explanation over 10 years ago is some obscure science journal. Went, “well yeah, duh.”
You forgot: And it’s GW Bush’s fault...
errth fahrts....
so much for cow methane....
either way, its all methane to me.
The window of combustibility for methane is pretty narrow for concentrations in air (got that factoid from my gas company). If a bit too rich or too lean, just won’t burn. So could see how it might put out an engine.
Against that seems to stand the failure of insurance companies, who actually get and pay claims and know what has been lost and where, to notice the area as any worse risk than the rest of the ocean. Maybe those ocean fissures are very old, as in centuries if not millennia? And Mother Earth has gotten over her Bermuda burps, at least for now?
Japan is actually working on this. There is a massive deposit of methane hydrate within their territorial waters.
One problem is safely mining the hydrate without dislodging huge chunks of it. As in ENORMOUS chunks. There are other problems. But if the problems can be cracked, there are quadrillion of cubic feet of natural gas available from this source. Actual, hundreds of quadrillions of cubic feet.
PS Yes, really, as in about 300,000,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of know reserves.
I have to stand in the Loyd’s of London circle on this one. They also reported there are other areas with significant losses but all investigated and explainable. But I do believe, geologically speaking, in ocean farts.
So what risks would a methane hydrate-berg pose? Would it proceed to blanket huge areas with gaseous methane near the ground/sea surface?
The ‘eastern’ most point of the triangle sits ‘exactly’ on top of my old watering hole in Fort Lauderdale .. The Elbo Room.
After Years of serious study.. sitting on my favorite stool .. I never noticed any ‘methane bubbles’ but Did see a lot of strange happenings!
Actually, what it does is lower the density of the water (and further disrupt the surface tension), so the ship simply goes under. The underlying physics is well understood, and frankly pretty basic.
After thinking it over once more .. Whereas I never saw any of these ‘methane bubbles’ .. I gotta admit .. I May Have smelled a few!
The version of the theory I heard, wasn’t methane from “fissures”, rather that the undersea geography specific to that area within the triangle - deep mounds of shallow water sediment, on steep declines from the continental shelf down to the depths - were in effect perfect for generating the undersea equivalent of an avalanche.
The sediment, due to organic matter in the runoff it’s comprised of, sits perched at the edge of that undersea slope - saturated with methane bubbles. A suspension of sorts.
When one of the periodic “avalances” occurs, it released large amounts of methane all at once. Whatever happens to be sailing, or flying immediately above that spot at the moment it happens.
Will for all intents and purposes - vanish. All hands lost, because the water pressures involved in a ship or plane first dropping through low-density gaseous bubble saturated sea water, which then at some point immediately resumes its full density. Would be catastrophic for any humans who went through that.
IMHO the theory is sound. It’s a good explanation for the mysteries. And probably not just theoretical.
Probably happens. Just like the stories say.
Well, for one thing, if dislodged, it might melt, resulting in the same type of methane gasses rising to the surface and causing any ships over a wide area to simply sink due to the decrease in buoyancy. We’re not talking a small area, either - think square kilometers. Lots of ‘em.
Well I’ll be pull my finger..
Interesting as a theory, but if giant methane bubbles actually did sink ships caught in their updraft, there should be at least one or two cases where ships *close* to one of those bubbles noticed something odd happening, even if they weren’t directly in the line of fire.
The gas bubbles can’t aim at passing ships, so if they pop up randomly, there should be at least as many “near misses” as “direct hits”.
The existence of methand hydrate concentrations deep in the ocean is well established, but until I hear of a report of somebody on a ship experiencing such an eruption, I’m dubious as regards their relevance to the sinking of ships.
This doesn’ explain compasses going crazy, pilots getting lost and disoriented etc.
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