Bermuda Triangle - Mystery solved?

[skeptoid humanoid]

I saw a documentary on the Burmuda Triangle. It explained how methane gas released from sea floor sediments (due to water temp changes or seismic activity) could cause e following: boats to loose bouancy, cockpit instrumentation failures, airplane engine stalling and failure, and explosions when sparked. It was very compelling. Did anyone else see this program, or have any thoughts on it.

[erehwon]

I did not see the program. Seems to me that methane gas would become more diffuse the higher in the atmosphere if released at sea level. Any reports of fires if so sparked? Airplane engine intake at low altitudes, possibly, and I suppose a boat could be upset if directly under a huge bubble of methane, but otherwise these seem a bit outlandish to me.

[pixelsmith]

i have seen this program and also another one somewhere concerning methane gasses. sounds plausible.

could it be underwater alien bases flushing their waste products?

[CapnG]

Makes sense for ships but not for planes since the prevailing winds would blow away the methane once it reached the surface. Another theory I've seen presented is deep-sea pockets of fresh water cracked open by undersea earth quakes dilluting the sea water temporarily and robbing boats of bouancy.

Doesn't explain disappearances of persons off ships, mysterious apparitions, ufo sightings, time dilation or any of the other dozen or so weird phenomena that occur in that region though. This might be another case of the infamous 95%-5% ratio.

[skeptoid humanoid]

This is an enormous amount of methane gas, released rarely. True, the gas concentration would diffuse the higher the altitude. But the diffused gas could cause plane engines to stall. I agree it does'nt explain everything (such as UFO sightings, etc). But it could provide a reasonable explanation for a large percentage of the strange phenomenon in this area. I am not a debunker, but this is one of the few areas in paranormal topics, where I have found any compelling explanations at all.

[Brian Now]

Originally Posted by CapnG

Makes sense for ships but not for planes since the prevailing winds would blow away the methane once it reached the surface. Another theory I've seen presented is deep-sea pockets of fresh water cracked open by undersea earth quakes dilluting the sea water temporarily and robbing boats of bouancy.

I saw this show too several years ago. I understood how a massive amount of gas hitting the surface could decrease buoyancy and cause a ship to sink (they did some model simulations), but not how a large amount of fresh water would. Do you mean when some big pocket of fresh water hits the surface the resulting disturbance cancels the ship's buoyancy?

[CapnG]

Originally Posted by Brian Now

Do you mean when some big pocket of fresh water hits the surface the resulting disturbance cancels the ship's buoyancy?

Sorta... the theory goes that since fresh water is less dense than sea water it requires greater buoancy to remain afloat in it. A sudden shift in density in the relative area could cause the ship's bow (or stern) to sink rapidly, pulling the rest of the ship along with it... or something like that, keep in mind it's something I saw years ago.

[Brian Now]

Originally Posted by CapnG

Sorta... the theory goes that since fresh water is less dense than sea water it requires greater buoancy to remain afloat in it. A sudden shift in density in the relative area could cause the ship's bow (or stern) to sink rapidly, pulling the rest of the ship along with it... or something like that, keep in mind it's something I saw years ago.

Ok, I get the idea now. I wonder if anyone has ever actually seen one of these massive gas or fresh water releases in the Bermuda Triangle or whether it is entirely theoretical. If memory serves, the show postulated that underwater landslides would cause the gas releases...don't know about the fresh water ones though.

Whatever happened to the theories of magnetic anomalies?