The Bermuda Triangle

What Is Known (and Not Known) About the Bermuda Triangle

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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People have been trying to solve the “mystery” of the Bermuda Triangle for years. Here’s what we know (and don’t know) about the Bermuda Triangle.

What is known about the Bermuda Triangle:

The Bermuda Triangle is a region of the North Atlantic Ocean (roughly) bounded by the southeastern coast of the U.S., Bermuda, and the islands of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico).

The exact boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle are not universally agreed upon. Approximations of the total area range between 500,000 and 1,510,000 square miles (1,300,000 and 3,900,000 square kilometers). By all approximations, the region has a vaguely triangular shape.

The Bermuda Triangle does not appear on any world maps, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official region of the Atlantic Ocean.

Although reports of unexplained occurrences in the region date to the mid-19th century, the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” didn’t come into use until 1964. The phrase first appeared in print in a pulp magazine article by Vincent Gaddis, who used the phrase to describe a triangular region “that has destroyed hundreds of ships and planes without a trace.”

Despite its reputation, the Bermuda Triangle does not have a high incidence of disappearances. Disappearances do not occur with greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other comparable region of the Atlantic Ocean.

At least two incidents in the region involved U.S. military craft. In March 1918 the collier USS Cyclops, en route to Baltimore, Maryland, from Brazil, disappeared inside the Bermuda Triangle. No explanation was given for its disappearance, and no wreckage was found. Some 27 years later, a squadron of bombers (collectively known as Flight 19) under American Lieut. Charles Carroll Taylor disappeared in the airspace above the Bermuda Triangle. As in the Cyclops incident, no explanation was given and no wreckage was found.

Charles Berlitz popularized the legend of the Bermuda Triangle in his best-selling book The Bermuda Triangle (1974). In the book, Berlitz claimed that the fabled lost island of Atlantis was involved in the disappearances.

In 2013 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conducted an exhaustive study of maritime shipping lanes and determined that the Bermuda Triangle is not one of the world’s 10 most dangerous bodies of water for shipping.

The Bermuda Triangle sustains heavy daily traffic, both by sea and by air.

The Bermuda Triangle is one of the most heavily traveled shipping lanes in the world.

The agonic line sometimes passes through the Bermuda Triangle, including a period in the early 20th century. The agonic line is a place on Earth’s surface where true north and magnetic north align, and there is no need to account for magnetic declination on a compass.

The Bermuda Triangle is subject to frequent tropical storms and hurricanes.

The Gulf Stream—a strong ocean current known to cause sharp changes in local weather—passes through the Bermuda Triangle.

The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Depth, is located in the Bermuda Triangle. The Puerto Rico Trench reaches a depth of 27,493 feet (8,380 meters) at the Milwaukee Depth.

What is not known about the Bermuda Triangle:

The exact number of ships and airplanes that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle is not known. The most common estimate is about 50 ships and 20 airplanes.

The wreckage of many ships and airplanes reported missing in the region has not been recovered.

It is not known whether disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle have been the result of human error or weather phenomena.