Mystery Spots: Places Where Bizarre Forces Obscure Reality

By Anna Goldwater Alexander  

Lat: 25°12'26.43" N || Long: 69°30'17.93" W
 
Bermuda Triangle

Atlantic Ocean—Vanishing ships and planes
The Mystery: On December 5, 1945, five torpedo bombers took off from a US Naval base in Florida for a routine training flight and were never seen again. That's just one of about 70 such incidents that have fueled the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, a roughly 450,000-square-mile area of sea between Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Mariners and aviators alike fear an "electronic fog" in the region's atmosphere that some say spins compass needles, jams radar signals, and consumes planes and ships.

The Reality: Statistical coincidence and sloppy research, according to the US Navy, which doesn't recognize the existence of the Bermuda Triangle.
Photo Portfolio: Uta Kögelsberger

In broad daylight, the Bermuda Triangle just looks like the ocean. So photographer Uta Kögelsberger waited until nightfall to coax whatever creepy aura she could from the mysterious deep. "When we are in the darkness," she says, "the brain fills in what the eye can't see. Darkness is a fundamental instrument to induce terror, it can trick our minds into thinking a simple creak in a floorboard is an intruder."

Uta photographs the Bermuda Triangle from Miami Beach. She and assistant Uwe Zirpner scouted locations along the Florida coast as far south as Key West to look for the right spot for the shoot.
Photo: Uwe Zirpner

A woman sunning herself on Miami Beach, the Bermuda Triangle in the distance.

The Bermuda Triangle at dusk, as seen from Miami Beach before the sweepers arrive.

A cruise ship sets out into the Bermuda Triangle from Miami Beach.


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