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Bermuda Triangle Facts & Worksheets

Bermuda Triangle is a zone in the western North Atlantic Ocean, and is well-known for the mysterious disappearances of several aircraft and ships that have passed through it.

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The Bermuda Triangle, a zone in the western North Atlantic Ocean, is well-known for the mysterious disappearances of several aircraft and ships that have passed through it. It was dubbed the Devil’s Triangle in urban legend, but most experts dismiss the idea of a mystery and instead try to prove it scientifically.

See the fact file below for more information on the Bermuda Triangle or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Bermuda Triangle worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Origin

  • Edward Van Winkle Jones published the first suggestion of an unusual disappearance in the region in The Miami Herald in 1950.
  • The incident was also reported in a short article written by George Sand in 1952, where he mentioned several lost planes and ships in the area.
    • Flight 19 was carrying five US Navy Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers on a training mission, and it disappeared when it passed through the area.
    • The first proposed layout of the triangular area was shown in his article.
  • The Flight 19 incident was covered in the American Legion magazine in April 1962. Its author, Allan W. Eckert, wrote that the flight’s leader was heard saying something about them entering white water and suddenly turning green.
  • Another article about Flight 19 was published in February 1964. In his book The Deadly Bermuda Triangle, Vincent Gaddis described a pattern of regional disappearances.
    • In the Argosy article, Gaddis identified the triangle’s vertices as Miami, San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Bermuda.
    • The area was estimated to be larger than 1.2 million square kilometers.
    • He was the first to give the region the name Bermuda Triangle.
    • The following year, he expanded it into the book Invisible Horizons.
  • Other writers expanded on Gaddis’ ideas, including John Wallace Spencer in Limbo of the Lost, Charles Berlitz in The Bermuda Triangle, and Richard Winer in The Devil’s Triangle.

Most Notable Incidents

HMS Atlanta

  • On January 31, 1880, the ship HMS Juno set sail from Bermuda’s Royal Naval Dockyard for Falmouth, England.
  • It was assumed that the ship sank due to the inexperienced crews’ exposure to a severe storm.
  • Decades later, allegations that it was a victim of the triangle surfaced.

USS Cyclops

  • In 1918, the collier Cyclops carried a large amount of manganese ore and 309 crew members. When one of its engines failed, it vanished without a trace.
  • It was significant in US Navy history because several lives were lost without a battle.
  • Many theorists blamed storms and capsizing, but many people thought it was a mystery because two of its sister ships were also lost in the same region during World War II while transporting heavy loads of metallic ore.

Flight 19

  • It was a training mission with TBM Avenger torpedo bombers.
  • It was supposed to fly from Fort Lauderdale to the east, north, and back.
  • It vanished over the Atlantic on December 5, 1945, and never returned to the base. According to some theories, they ran out of fuel due to a navigational error.
  • A search and rescue mission was ordered for a PBM Mariner with 13 men, but the team also vanished. When the team was searching for survivors, a tanker near the coast of Florida reported seeing an explosion followed by an oil slick.

Star Tiger and Star Ariel

  • G-AHNP Star Tiger, an Avro Tudor IV passenger plane owned and operated by British South American Airways (BSAA), vanished over the Atlantic Ocean from the Azores to Bermuda on January 30, 1948.
  • On January 17, 1949, another BSAA-owned and operated Avro Tudor IV(B) passenger plane registered as G-AGRE Star Ariel vanished over the Atlantic Ocean on its way from Bermuda to Kingston.
  • Both planes were said to be nearing their limits, and even the most minor mistake could prevent them from arriving at their destination.

Douglas DC-3

  • On December 28, 1948, a flight carrying 32 people from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami vanished without a trace.
  • A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation found insufficient information to determine the cause of the disappearance.

Connemara IV

  • Three Atlantic hurricanes were reported to have passed through the region, affecting winds in Bermuda, beginning on September 14, 1955, and lasting four days.
  • The yacht Connemara IV was discovered floating freely in the southern part of Bermuda on September 26.

KC-135 Stratotankers

  • Two US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft crashed into the Atlantic about 480 kilometers west of Bermuda on August 28, 1963.
  • It was first suggested that there were two separate crash sites, but the second one was found to be a mass of tangled seaweed and driftwood. So the second theory was instead accepted that the two aircraft collided.

Explanation Attempts

Paranormal

  • Some triangle writers blame the mythical lost continent of Atlantis’ technology. The Bimini Road, which was thought to be a submerged rock formation within the triangle, was linked to this.
  • Others believe a parallel universe exists in the area, causing a time warp to engulf objects, including lost aircraft and ships.
  • Author Charles Berlitz listed several paranormal theories to which the losses in the region were attributed.

Compass Variations

  • Many Triangle incidents refer to compass or navigation issues.
  • Some speculated that the area had an unusual local magnetic force that caused compass variation, but this has yet to be proven.
  • However, it was stated that the compass would “change” naturally across the region, but this should not cause navigation issues.

Gulf Stream

  • The thermohaline circulation from the Gulf of Mexico flowing into the North Atlantic is said to cause this strong surface current.
  • Its maximum surface velocity of around 2 m/s was claimed to have caused engine trouble in a small plane making a water landing and carrying a boat away from the position reported by its crew, losing real track of them.

Violent Weather

  • Several Atlantic hurricanes passed through the region, and ships were not warned of them until the weather satellite recognized the storms.
  • The Pride of Baltimore sank on May 14, 1986, after the crew noticed a sudden increase in wind velocity from 32 kph to 97-145 kph.
  • The National Hurricane Center confirmed this. According to its expert, James Lushine, the downburst of cold air can hit the surface like a bomb exploding outward.

Methane Hydrates

  • Large fields of methane hydrates, a type of natural gas that causes the density of water to decrease, can be found in the region.
  • Because the ship was floating due to the known density of seawater, a decrease in density could theoretically cause the ship to sink.

Criticisms

  • In 1975, Larry Kusche wrote The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved, where he described many claims of Gaddis as exaggerated. He revealed inaccuracies and inconsistencies between the accounts of the Triangle writers and the statements of the people involved in the incidents.
  • One of Kusche’s conclusions was that it was not mysterious for ships and aircraft to disappear in an area frequented by tropical cyclones.
  • In 1992, John Simmons produced the UK Channel 4 television program The Bermuda Triangle. He asked Lloyd’s, a marine insurance market in London, about the ships that sunk in the region, but it was claimed the number of sunken ships within the Triangle was not large.
  • The Coast Guard also found the Triangle authors’ incidents contradictory. One author claimed that, except for the captain, all the bodies in a 1972 explosion vanished, but the Coast Guard had photographs of the wrecked tanker V.A.Fogg and recovered several bodies. Most importantly, the tanker went down off the coast of Texas rather than in the Triangle.
  • On June 27, 1976, Nova/Horizon aired the episode The Case of the Bermuda Triangle, which debunked the region’s alleged mysteries.

Bermuda Triangle Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about the Bermuda Triangle across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Bermuda Triangle worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Bermuda Triangle, which is a zone in the western North Atlantic Ocean, and is well-known for the mysterious disappearances of several aircraft and ships that have passed through it.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

  • Bermuda Triangle Facts
  • Draw A Triangle
  • Word Search And Rescue
  • Mumble Jumble
  • The Boat is Sinking
  • What Flight Number?
  • Matching Titles
  • Think like a Theorist
  • Reporting for Duty
  • True or False
  • Movie Review

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens in the Bermuda Triangle?

The Bermuda Triangle, a zone in the western North Atlantic Ocean, is well-known for the mysterious disappearances of several aircraft and ships that have passed through it. It was dubbed the Devil’s Triangle in urban legend, but most experts dismiss the idea of a mystery and instead try to prove it scientifically.

Where is the Bermuda Triangle?

In the Argosy article, Gaddis identified the triangle’s vertices as Miami, San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Bermuda.

How big is the Bermuda Triangle?

The area was estimated to be larger than 1.2 million square kilometers.

Is the Bermuda Triangle really a dangerous place?

Several Atlantic hurricanes passed through the region, and ships were not warned of them until the weather satellite recognized the storms. The National Hurricane Center confirmed this. According to its expert, James Lushine, the downburst of cold air can hit the surface like a bomb exploding outward.

Is Bermuda Triangle a myth or reality?

In 1975, Larry Kusche wrote The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved, where he described many claims of Gaddis were exaggerated. He revealed inaccuracies and inconsistencies between the accounts of the Triangle writers and the statements of the people involved in the incidents. One of Kusche’s conclusions was that it was not mysterious for ships and aircraft to disappear in an area frequented by tropical cyclones.

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Use With Any Curriculum

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