BERMUDA TRIANGLE SIZE The Delusion Hidden in Plain Sight
“Trying to figure out what’s real and what’s just in my head.” “Old Plank Road,” sung by Robin and Linda Williams A Prairie Home Companion Soundtrack
“It is what it can be made to look like.” From Edge of Darkness, a 2010 Mel Gibson movie.
The Bermuda Triangle “mystery” has long been accepted at face value, with little analysis or skepticism, and few questions asked. Most everyone probably had their first unknowing encounter with the Bermuda Triangle delusion when they are “informed” of the Triangle’s location and size. That usually comes near the beginning of the Mysteryan’s stories, up front and in plain sight.
The Bermuda Triangle has a variety of names, shapes, and sizes, depending upon the book or magazine writer or the TV program. The Florida to Bermuda to Puerto Rico Triangle is the universally known basic version -- the area normally shown in books and documentaries, and on the internet. That basic Triangle surely is the area most readers and filmmakers have in mind for the Triangle, despite all the other shapes, sizes, and areas that are mentioned.
The Triangle is sometimes described as “a tiny wedge of the ocean,” a “relatively limited area,” or as being “within the boundaries.” The Florida to Bermuda to Puerto Rico is neatly equilateral, very close to 1000 miles on a side. One thousand miles is the distance from New York City to the center of Missouri, or from Los Angeles to Dodge City, Kansas. A triangle 1000 miles on a side consists of approximately 433,000 square miles. Go to Triangle/Atlantic in the DETAILS section to see its size relative to the east coast of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean.
The Continental U.S. is 2,957,967 square miles. The Triangle is one seventh that size.
The Triangle is three-fourths the size of Alaska, one and two-thirds the size of Texas, almost four times the size of Arizona.
If the Bermuda Triangle is “tiny” or “limited,” as the Mysteryans claim, does that mean Alaska is tiny plus a small fraction, Texas is teensy, and Arizona, home of the Grand Canyon, is itsy bitsy? Go to Triangle/Continental U.S and Triangle/Alaska in the DETAILS section where copies of the Triangle have been superimposed.
The map on page 126 of theNational Geographic Atlas of the World, Seventh Edition, includes the following note: “The term Bermuda Triangle refers to a vast area of open sea traditionally bordered by Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and the Florida Keys.”
The mystery writers refer to the Triangle as tiny, restricted, and with boundaries, while National Geographic Society says it is vast. Who has more credibility?
11/12/13 Larry Kusche (Kusche rhymes with bush) The Bermuda Triangle