Bermuda Triangle mystery 'solved'
British scientists believe 100ft 'rogue' waves could be the reason why so many boats have been sunk in the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. Rogue waves, which only last for a few minutes, have been known to measure 30 meters (nearly 100ft) high.
If creating a Facebook event to "storm Area 51" wasn't ridiculous enough, perhaps storming the Bermuda Triangle will be humanity's coup de grace.
More than 40,000 people are either interested in going or will actually "storm" the Bermuda Triangle as "it can't swallow all of us," Fox 5 NY reports. The event's creator, Anthony Dominick Carnovale, told the outlet it was not a joke and has even created a GoFundMe in an effort to raise money for a party.
"I'm contractually obligated to only use the money for the event. If I somehow can't, I have to give everyone their money back," he added.
"Attendees must dress as [Spongebob] characters or pirates," the "about" section of the page states, adding that "food and drink will be provided for purchase."
Any additional funds that are raised and unused will go towards cancer research, in memory of Carnovale's grandfather, who died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2017.
Carnovale noted that the event, scheduled for Oct. 1 at 8 a.m, was created because he was worried that people will actually attend the Area 51 event, something he said is "dangerous."
"I honestly just don't want people to attend the Area 51 event because I don't want people getting shot or arrested," he said.
U.S. Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews recently issued a statement saying the Air Force "would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces," adding that it [the U.S. Air Force] "always stands ready to protect America and its assets."
4 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT AREA 51
Also known as the Devil's Triangle, the Bermuda Triangle has claimed over 1,000 lives in the last 100 years, according to The Sun. However, researchers in the U.K. believe it does not deserve its “mysterious” reputation, as a natural “rogue wave” phenomenon could play a part in the Bermuda Triangle’s reputation.
“Rogue waves are one explanation and they do occur in the Bermuda region but by no means uniquely here — they are far more common off the Cape of Good Hope (off the South tip of Africa),” explained Dr. Simon Boxall, an oceanographer and principal teaching fellow at the U.K.’s University of Southampton. “They were things of myth and sailors’ tales, but since the introduction of satellite systems capable of measuring waves there have been a number as big as 30 m (100 feet) measured and verified.”
The rogue waves come and go very randomly and quickly but are always part of a storm, according to Boxall. “The thriller movie of a flat calm sea with a 100ft wave hitting the cruise liner out of the blue is myth,” he told Fox News via email last year. The rogue waves, he added, would not deter him from taking a cruise.
“The area covered by the triangle accounts for nearly a third of all privately owned vessels in the U.S.,” he said. “The 2016 Coastguard annual report shows that in this area 82 percent of all incidents involving marine traffic of any kind was caused by people with no experience or training. The numbers speak for themselves as to why so many incidents occur here.”
SECRETS OF THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE
A similar factor likely played a part in the famous disappearance of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. torpedo bombers that went missing on Dec. 5, 1945, according to Boxall. “The infamous bomber squadron that went missing in 1945 was actually a training flight with new and inexperienced crews. In those days nav[igation] was very much by eye and it is easy to get it wrong,” says Dr. Boxall. “The evidence shows this was the case. Taking that out, there are no more plane disappearances [in the Bermuda triangle] than anywhere else in the world.”
The Sun notes that a seaplane deployed to search for the aircraft also went missing.
Boxall is keen to debunk the myth of the Bermuda Triangle as a mysterious place where strange things happen. “Along with Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster there is no mystery,” he told Fox News. “But it does sell books and creates great discussion.”
Fox News' James Rogers contributed to this story.