Also called the Devils Triangle, the Bermuda Triangle is an area of water in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean that is mythical for its many strange occurrences and disappearances. Whether or not the location has supernatural forces at play within its bounds is up for debate, but it is home to some of the most chilling stories in maritime history. This is the story of the Bermuda Triangle: its location, mysteries, and the ongoing research into the area today.Origins & Location of the Bermuda TriangleA map of the bounds of the Bermuda Triangle. Source: iStockThe bounds of the Bermuda Triangle are often agreed to extend from the southernmost Atlantic tip of Florida, the island of Bermuda, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. These boundaries, however, change depending on who tells the story. Some believe the border extends to the Chesapeake Bay, and a 1970s BBC program even claimed that some think the border extends to the Irish Coast.The location seems to depend on which incident the author is writing about. However, it is generally understood that the Bermuda Triangle encompasses between 500,000 and 1.5 million square miles of the Atlantic Ocean.The mystery continues with the timeline of when strange things began happening in the Bermuda Triangle. According to the reports of Christopher Columbus, as he sailed through the area, a great pillar of fire crashed into the sea there, and he claimed that a strange light shone in the distance during his passing. Columbus also added about the erratic compass reading he received, but this is perhaps because of the area in the Triangles bounds where, at that time, true north and magnetic north aligned.Act I, Scene 1 of The Tempest by William Shakespeare, in an engraving by Benjamin Smith based on a painting by George Romney, date unknown. Source: Picryl/Library of Congress, Washington DCShakespeare comes into the lore of the Bermuda Triangle as well. His play The Tempest is suggested to have been based on an actual shipwreck near the island of Bermuda in 1609, lending the area a well-forged reputation for mystery.Despite the stories going back to at least the 15th century, the Bermuda Triangle was not introduced as a concept into the public psyche until the mid-20th century. In 1950, Miami Herald journalist Edward Van Winkle Jones first wrote about the unusual disappearances that occurred in the Bermuda area. Joness piece was followed in 1952 by George Sands article in Fate magazine titled Sea Mystery at Our Back Door, in which he detailed the area where several planes and ships had gone missing since World War II.However, it wasnt until 1964 that the term Bermuda Triangle was coined by Vincent Gaddis, who wrote a piece called The Deadly Bermuda Triangle for Argosy magazine. In the article, Gaddis claimed that there was a pattern in the area of strange events and disappearances dating back to the mid-19th century.Gaddiss article and subsequent book, Invisible Horizons, kicked off a slew of investigations and research on the topic. The most famous of the several studies that followed was Charles Berlitzs The Bermuda Triangle, which became a bestseller and cemented the legend in the mind of the general public.Famous Mysteries From the Bermuda TriangleWreck of the HMS Vixen off the coast of Bermuda, photograph by David Broad, 2011. Source: PanoramioReportedly, at least 50 ships and 20 aircraft have gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle in the last 500 years. Most vanished without a trace, or in some cases, vessels were found without a crew. However, there are a few famous tales from the Triangle that are always included in its legend.According to Gaddis, the first record of a strange occurrence in the Bermuda Triangle goes back to 1840. The Rosalie, a French vessel en route to Havana, was found near the Triangle with her sails set and everything in place, but with only a canary aboard.The USS CyclopsCyclops USN, probably taken during the 1911 naval review in New York City. Source: Library of Congress, Washington DCThough the Rosalie is the first mystery claimed by the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, the most infamous shipwreck is that of the USS Cyclops. The 542-foot ship had been sailing since 1910, carrying coal between the Caribbean, Mexico, and the Baltic Sea.The ship was requisitioned for use in the Navy in 1917, when the United States entered World War I. The Cyclops carried troops and coal across the Atlantic. However, in March 1918, it set sail from Brazil loaded with a new cargo: over 10,000 tons of manganese ore.The ship stopped in Barbados to restock for the nine-day journey back to Baltimore with its 309 crew members. On the day it sailed out, the message from the Cyclops was Weather Fair, All Well. This would be the last message ever sent out from the ship, as it sank somewhere between Barbados and the Chesapeake Bay without so much as an SOS call.The USS Cyclops was never found, nor were any of the 309 crew members. The official Navy record of the event stated, The disappearance of this ship has been one of the most baffling mysteries in the annals of the Navy, all attempts to locate her having proved unsuccessful.Though there has been speculation ranging from German submarines to giant sea monsters, there is still no explanation for what happened to the Cyclops or her crew.Flight 19/MarinerFive US Navy Grumman TBF-1 Avengers, similar to the five planes lost over the Bermuda Triangle. Source: National Archives CatalogThe most infamous flight to disappear in the Bermuda Triangle is Flight 19 and the subsequent rescue aircraft, the Mariner. On December 5, 1945, at 2:10 p.m., five US Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers took off from Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station for a routine training mission. The total flight was to be 120 miles and should have only taken three hours.About two hours into the scheduled mission, the squadron leader radioed to the tower reporting that his compass and backup compass had failed. The squadron had been training in the area for over six months but had no idea where they were. The other planes also experienced such malfunctions.Several attempts on land were made to locate the squadron, along with several more confused and partial messages from the crew. However, at 6:20 p.m., the tower received its last distorted transmission from the squadron leader, seemingly calling for his men to prepare to ditch their planes at sea due to a lack of fuel.By the time of the last transmission, land radar stations were able to determine that Flight 19 was somewhere east of Florida and north of the Bahamas. At 7:27 p.m., a search-and-rescue Mariner airboat took off with a 13-man crew ready to find the missing flight. The Mariner reported that the mission was underway three minutes later, and was then never heard from again.A tanker off the coast of Florida reported an explosion seen at 7:50 p.m., but neither the Mariner nor the 14-man crew of Flight 19 were ever seen again. Official Navy records state that storms destroyed the evidence from the crashes, but the mystery has become synonymous with the legend of the Bermuda Triangle.Paranormal Powers at Work?UFOs flying over a beach, by Maxime Raynal, 2016. Source: FlickrMany people have theorized that the Bermuda Triangles strange occurrences must be caused by the paranormal. This has led to discussions about, among other things, the lost city of Atlantis, UFOs, and comets landing in the triangle.The most popular of these theories was developed and supported by American psychic Edgar Cayce. Cayces claim to fame was his connection with the lost city of Atlantis. He was able to supposedly answer questions and documented several readings about the lost city, claiming that the Bahamas Banks and the island of Bimini were the last vestiges of Atlantis.Particularly, Cayce believed the island of Bimini, which many consider to be a part of the Bermuda Triangle, contained a trail of crystals that once fueled Atlantis. This was supposedly the cause of electromagnetic interference with planes and boats, causing them to crash or disappear without a trace.In 1968, a series of stones in the form of a road was discovered near Bimini. Now called the Bimini Road, it was proof of Atlantiss existence for proponents of Cayces psychic abilities. Thus, it also supposedly confirmed the existence of paranormal forces working within the Bermuda Triangle. Geologists, however, have confirmed that the existence of the road is natural, explaining that it was formed as a result of erosion and the breaking up of larger beach rocks.The beach on Bimini Island, where Bimini Road is sunken off the coast, photograph by Matt Kieffer, 2005. Source: FlickrAnother paranormal explanation for the Bermuda Triangle is the existence of a parallel universe within it. This theory claims that within the area, a time and space warp is created, making ships, planes, and people disappear.Another explanation for this parallel universe is what is known as a Star Gate created by UFOs as a portal to other dimensions. This is most often used to explain the disappearance of Flight 19, as Lieutenant Taylor made a radio call saying, We are entering white water. Nothing seems right. We dont know where we are. The water is green, not white.The third paranormal theory for the phenomenon of the triangle is based on the electromagnetic properties of the area. Conspiracy theorists claim that a comet fell into the Bermuda Triangle around 11,000 years ago, which explains why navigational and electronic tools would malfunction or act strangely in the bounds of the triangle. The truth is that the Bermuda Triangle is a massive area of the ocean, and compass variances are natural within such large boundaries.Paranormal theories have become popular and will continue to be popular, as humans love to fantasize about the existence of a higher power that causes strange phenomena. However, this is likely not the case in the Bermuda Triangle, so what does actually cause the seemingly bizarre occurrences?The Truth About the Bermuda Triangle: Scientific HypothesesNOAA Ship PISCES silhouetted in the sunset. Source: Flickr/NOAA Photo LibraryThe truth about the Bermuda Triangle is that, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), disappearances and wrecks happen in this location with no greater frequency than in any other similarly sized area of the Atlantic Ocean. The US Navy, US Coast Guard, and the US Board of Geographic Names do not even recognize the boundaries or the existence of the Bermuda Triangle.While this official denial of its existence probably spurs on some conspiracy theorists, science provides evidence that proves these governmental bodies are probably correct. Most, if not all, of the strange happenings in the Bermuda Triangle can be explained by human error, violent weather, the Gulf Stream, and navigational challenges.Human error is one of the most cited explanations for the disappearance of ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle. There is no limit to human stubbornness in the face of situations they are not prepared for, such as when the yacht Revonoc was sailed into a storm south of the Florida coast by its owner, Harvey Conover, in 1958. Panic when things go wrong also leads to human error, even in experienced sailors and pilots, causing a shipwreck or crash in already hard-to-navigate areas of the ocean.Data from the National Hurricane Center for the years 1851 to 2019 overlaid onto a satellite image of the world from NASA. Source: Wikimedia CommonsMost hurricanes and storms in the Atlantic also pass through the Bermuda Triangle. Before the invention of weather satellites, there was no way to warn a pilot or captain of the weather, and it would have seemingly come out of nowhere. One instance of a hurricane passing through the area was when Francisco de Bobadillas fleet sank in the triangle in 1502. Satellite imaging backs up the cases of suddenly dangerous weather, showing that most hurricanes in the Atlantic occurred near or passed through the Bermuda Triangles boundaries.The existence of the Gulf Stream or the Florida Current can provide a third explanation for the disappearance of vessels or their sudden changes in position. This ever-present surface current flows from the Gulf of Mexico through the Straits of Florida and into the Atlantic. It can carry objects within its flow, explaining why a plane or ship that is already having trouble can be carried away from its reportedly known position.An aerial view of Bermuda and the sea surrounding it. Source: NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive/The US National ArchivesIn the end, the Bermuda Triangle is not, scientifically speaking, unique in its number of disappearances and shipwrecks. The most likely explanation for the fame of the Bermuda Triangle is an exceptional case of marketing and a constant human interest in the mysterious or unexplained. The stories that made the Bermuda Triangle infamous latched onto the psyche of the public, as much of folklore does. While the Bermuda Triangle may not be a strange phenomenon scientifically, it has and will continue to provide chilling and fascinating tales for years to come.