The Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis

The myth of The Bermuda Triangle reached a
frenzied peak during the 1970's, and has fascinated
people ever since. The "Bermuda Triangle" is an
imaginary boundary line that stretches between
Bermuda, Miami, San Juan and Puerto Rico in the
Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Board of Geographic
Names does not recognize the 'Bermuda Triangle as
an official name, and does not maintain an official
file on the are. Regardless, the mystery of the
famed Triangle has captivated the world at large,
and sparked an enormous controversy between
scientists and believers that shows no sign of
stopping.

The myth says that for several un-proved reasons,
such as aliens, worm holes, other-worldly
dimensions, and magnetic crystals of the sunken
city of Atlantis cause air crafts, submarines or
boats that travel through this invisible triangle to
get lost, or simply vanish never to be heard from
again. While several ships and planes have
vanished, it's not too difficult to explain this
phenomena scientifically.

Most of the disappearances can be attributed to
the area's unusual environmental features. The
"Devil's Triangle" is one of the two places on earth
that a magnetic compass does point towards true
north. Normally it points toward magnetic north. The
difference between the two is known as compass
variation. The amount of variation changes by as
much as 20 degrees as one circumnavigates the
earth. If this compass variation or error is not
compensated for, a navigator could find himself far
off course and in deep trouble.

Another environmental factor is the character of the
Gulf Stream. It is extremely swift and turbulent and
can quickly erase any evidence of a disaster. The
unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic weather pattern
also plays its role. Sudden local thunder storms and
water spouts often spell disaster for pilots and
mariners

Not to be under estimated is the human error factor.
A large number of pleasure boats travel the waters
between Florida's Gold Coast and the Bahamas. All
too often, crossings are attempted with too small a
boat, insufficient knowledge of the area's hazards,
and a lack of good seamanship.

The Bermuda Triangle is also notorious for
unpredictable weather. The only things necessary for
a storm to become a violent hurricane are speed,
fetch (the area the wind blows over) and time. If the
area is large enough, a thunderstorm can whip into a
hurricane of tremendous intensity. But hurricanes
can usually be spotted by meteorologists using
satellite surveillance. It is the small, violent
thunderstorms known as meso-meteorological storms
that they can't predict since they are outside of
normal weather patterns. These are tornadoes,
thunderstorms and immature tropical cyclones.

They can occur at sea with little warning, and
dissipate completely before they reach the shore. It
is highly possible that a ship or plane can sail into
what is considered a mild thunderstorm and suddenly
face a meso-meteorological storm of incredible
intensity.

One of the greatest adventures in recent history
has been the hunt for the lost city of Atlantis,
made popular again by the new Disney movie. The
legend of Atlantis has been around for thousands
of years, and one of its earliest advocates was the
Greek philosopher, Plato. While it is unsure
whether or not Plato was accurate in his
descriptions of Altantis, or if he really believed in
it's existence, his tales of the lost city have
intrigued generations of explorers.

Around 370 B.C. Plato wrote in two of his
dialogues. "Timaeus" and Critias," about the lost
continent. It was the size of Europe he said,
boasting beautiful cities, advanced technology,
and a utopian government. It was subjected to
great natural disasters, and sank beneath the sea
overnight to be lost forever under the waves.

Plato claimed that the story, which he claimed to
be true, came from then 200 year-old records of
the Greek ruler Solon, who heard of Altantis from
an Egyptian priest. The continent, Plato said, lay
in the Atlantic Ocean near the Straits of Gibralter
until it's destruction nearly 10,000 years earlier.

It's destruction was to come about in this way:
They were great conquerors, and made the ill fated
choice of attempting to conquer Greece. They
could not withstand Greece's powerful military, and
following their defeat, violent flooding and
earthquakes sank their island within the day. Plato
later theorized that 'The lost kingdom of Poseiden
became greedy, and to punish them, Zeus brought
great disaster upon their lives, and destroyed their
noble society.'

Although Plato was the first to call the continent
'Atlantis,' there are other references to the myth.
There is an Egyptian Legend which Solon probably
heard tell of while traveling in Egypt, and passed
down to Plato years later. The island nation of
Keftiu was said to be a glorious advanced
civilization, which was destroyed and sank beneath
the ocean.

Other Atlantis-type stories include 'The Minoan
Civilization'. This is a story based on fact, and says
that the Minoans were a great and peaceful culture
based on the island of Crete, which reigned as long
ago as 2200 B.C. A huge volcano erupted there in
1470 B.C. and the resulting earthquakes and
tsunamis devastated the Minoan Civilization, whose
remnants were easily conquered by the Greek
forces. Some think that this is the basis for the
legend of Atlantis, but others argue that since it
was destroyed 1,000 years ago, instead of the
original time that Plato described as 10,000 years.
Other Greek thinkers, such as Aristotle and Pliny,
disputed the existence of Atlantis, while Plutarch
and Herodotus wrote of it as historical fact.

In 1882, Ignatius Donnelly, a U.S. congressman
from Minnesota, brought the legend into the
American consciousness with his book, Atlantis:
The Antediluvian World. In more recent years, the
psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) became the
U.S.'s most prominent advocate of a factual
Atlantis. Widely known as "The Sleeping Prophet,"
Cayce claimed the ability to see the future and to
communicate with long-dead spirits from the past.
He identified hundreds of people -- including himself
-- as reincarnated Atlanteans.

Cayce said that Atlantis had been situated near
the Bermuda island of Bimini. He believed that
Atlanteans possessed amazing technologies,
including powerful "fire-crystals" which they used
for energy. A disaster in which the fire-crystals
went out of control was responsible for Atlantis's
sinking, he said. Remaining active beneath the
ocean waves, damaged fire-crystals send out
energy fields that interfere with passing ships and
aircraft, which is how Cayce accounted for the
Bermuda Triangle.

Cayce prophesied that part of Atlantis would rise
again to the surface in "1968 or 1969." It didn't,
and no one has yet found hard evidence that it
was ever there. With sonar tracing and modern
knowledge of plate tectonics, it appears
impossible that a mid-Atlantic continent could
have once existed. Still, many argue that there
must have been an Atlantis, because of the many
story similarities on either side of the ocean which
could not have developed independently.