Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle covers roughly 500,000 square miles in the Atlantic Ocean. See more Bermuda Triangle pictures.

You won't find it on any official map and you won't know when you cross the line, but according to some people, the Bermuda Triangle is a very real place where dozen of ships, planes and people have disappeared with no good explanation. Since a magazine first coined the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" in 1964, the mystery has continued to attract attention. When you dig deeper into most cases, though, they're much less mysterious. Either they were never in the area to begin with, they were actually found, or there's a reasonable explanation for their disappearance.

Does this mean there's nothing to the claims of so many who have had odd experiences in the Bermuda Triangle? Not necessarily. Scientists have documented deviations from the norm in the area and have found some interesting formations on the seafloor within the Bermuda Triangle's boundaries. So, for those who like to believe in it, there is plenty fuel for the fire.

In this article, we'll look at the facts surrounding what we do know about the area as well as some of the most commonly-recited stories. We'll also explore the bizarre theories like aliens and space portals as well as the mundane explanations.

­Many think of the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, as an "imaginary" area. The U. S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle and does not maintain an official file on it. However, within this imaginary area, many real vessels and the people aboard them have seemingly disappeared without explanation.

The Bermuda Triangle is located off the Southeastern coast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean, with its apexes in the vicinities of Bermuda, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It covers roughly 500,000 square miles.

The area may have been named after its Bermuda apex since Bermuda was once known as the "Isle of Devils." Treacherous reefs that have ensnared ships sailing too close to its shores surround Bermuda, and there are hundreds of shipwrecks in the waters that surround it.

The Devils' Sea Image courtesy NASA Miyake Island, Japan The Devil's Sea, also called the Formosa Triangle, is located off the coast of Japan in a region of the Pacific around Miyake Island, about 110 miles south of Tokyo. Like the Bermuda Triangle, the Devil's Sea doesn't appear on any official maps, but the name is used by Japanese fishermen. The area is known for strange disappearances of ships and planes - at least by those in the United States. Another myth is that, like the Bermuda Triangle, the Devil's Sea is the only other area where a compass points to true north rather than magnetic north (more about this later). One popular theory is that volcanic activity around the area, particularly an underwater volcano, could be responsible for the disappearances.