Bermuda Triangle mystery could finally be explained, scientist claims

A scientist claims to have finally solved the age-oldBermuda Triangle mystery. The infamous scene of shipwrecks, plane crashes,and paranormal sightings has puzzled humans for over 500 years.

Dr Simon Boxall, an oceanographer from the University of Southampton, argued that the loosely defined geographic region in the Atlantic Ocean has been battered by a natural, but extreme, phenomenon.

Colossal man-eating "rogue waves" around 100-feet high that develop from the merging of storms in the region have engulfed ships - sometimes snapping them clean in half - andobliterated the evidenceby their sheer force, Dr Boxall said.

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"There are storms to the south and north, which come together," he said. "And if there are additional ones from Florida, it can be a potentially deadly formation of rouge waves.

"So you end up with, rather than a 10-metre wave, a 20-metre wave. If you get three different wave systems coming together, you can get a 30-metre wave,"

"Something like a supertanker or a big cargo vessel can be destroyed by one of these rogue wave systems," Dr Boxall told the Daily Mail.

To prove the point, Dr Boxall and his team recreated the wreck of the USS Cyclops, an aircraft carrier that disappeared while sailing through the so-called Devil's Triangle in 1918 - wiping out all 309 passengers without a trace.

"If you can imagine a rogue wave with peaks at either end, there's nothing below the boat, so it snaps in two. If it happens, it can sink in two to three minutes," he said.

In the test, the towering walls of the "rogue waves" lifted the vessel on port and stern so dramatically that the ship's hull was left hanging in mid-air. The oceanographer claimed that the force of this pressure on vessels triggers their collapse, and causes the swift sinking.

Dr Boxall further suggested that these waves could explain the approximately 20 aircraft that have vanished whilst traversing the region, including a 1945 Navy bomber training exercise which resulted in the loss of a rescue aircraft."

The Bermuda Triangle, an unofficial term for the zone between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Miami, has sparked fierce debate since Christopher Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1492, Columbus recorded in his journal that he and his crew witnessed "strange dancing lights on the horizon" and documented peculiar compass readings in the region.

While hundreds have died in incidents within the area, one man insists he survived a paranormal encounter during a 1970 flight.

Pilot Bruce Gernon, operating a single-engine Beechraft Bonanza, alleged he travelled through an eerie mist flying from the Bahamas to Florida. The aviator, and outspoken supporter of supernatural theories, insisted he had flown through a "worm hole" whilst crossing the enigmatic airspace.