El Triángulo de las Bermudas es una región enigmática delimitada por Miami, las Bermudas y Puerto Rico, famosa por las misteriosas desapariciones de barcos y aviones a lo largo de la historia. Aunque no existen estadísticas precisas, se estima que en el último siglo, numerosos embarcaciones y aeronaves han desaparecido sin dejar rastro en este triángulo imaginario. Este fenómeno ha despertado la curiosidad tanto de investigadores como de entusiastas del misterio, alimentando teorías que van desde lo científico hasta lo sobrenatural.
Los avistamientos de características inusuales en la zona, como corrientes marinas fuertes y fenómenos meteorológicos extremos, han generado hipótesis sobre las causas de estas desapariciones. La mezcla de mitología y hechos históricos, junto con las historias de supervivientes, contribuyen a la creciente fascinación por el Triángulo de las Bermudas. Explorar este tema proporciona una visión de cómo los mitos pueden influir en nuestra comprensión del mundo natural.
Para aquellos interesados en la historia, la ciencia y el misterio, el Triángulo de las Bermudas sigue siendo un lugar que invita a la exploración y el debate. Descubre más sobre esta enigmática zona y sus secretos ocultos. #TriánguloDeLasBermudas, #MisteriosMarinos, #DesaparicionesMisteriosas
**Keywords:** Triángulo de las Bermudas, misterios, desapariciones, barcos, aviones, fenómenos, Miami, Bermudas, Puerto Rico, historia.
Los avistamientos de características inusuales en la zona, como corrientes marinas fuertes y fenómenos meteorológicos extremos, han generado hipótesis sobre las causas de estas desapariciones. La mezcla de mitología y hechos históricos, junto con las historias de supervivientes, contribuyen a la creciente fascinación por el Triángulo de las Bermudas. Explorar este tema proporciona una visión de cómo los mitos pueden influir en nuestra comprensión del mundo natural.
Para aquellos interesados en la historia, la ciencia y el misterio, el Triángulo de las Bermudas sigue siendo un lugar que invita a la exploración y el debate. Descubre más sobre esta enigmática zona y sus secretos ocultos. #TriánguloDeLasBermudas, #MisteriosMarinos, #DesaparicionesMisteriosas
**Keywords:** Triángulo de las Bermudas, misterios, desapariciones, barcos, aviones, fenómenos, Miami, Bermudas, Puerto Rico, historia.
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DiversiónTranscripción
00:00December 1945. A squadron of American military aircraft vanishes off the coast of Florida.
00:10March 1918. A huge US Navy cargo ship heading for Baltimore disappears without a trace.
00:19Over the years, many ships and planes have disappeared in an area of the ocean with an extension of 725,000 square kilometers.
00:28Giving rise to mystery, legends and fear.
00:34It is the Bermuda Triangle.
00:38Now, using new technologies, we can make the waters completely withdraw to reveal a hidden landscape.
00:49We are going to empty the Bermuda Triangle.
00:54We will descend to the depths to explore its darkest corners and to investigate some of its greatest mysteries.
01:04When the waters have completely disappeared, what will we find at the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle?
01:13Bermuda is an oasis of islands 1,050 kilometers from the east coast of the United States.
01:20For centuries, it was a refuge for the ships that crossed the Atlantic.
01:25But the waters that surround it hide a deadly threat.
01:30Apart from being very attractive, they represent a serious threat to the sailors who do not have specific experience in the area.
01:37The name of the Bermudas came to infuse fear in the hearts of the sailors, who gave their main island the name of Devil's Island.
01:46The paradox of this paradise is that it was a ship cemetery during its first two or three hundred years.
01:53As a shipwreck conservator, the work of Philippe Rouya consists of locating and monitoring the historical sites of the archipelago.
02:01And there are enough to keep it occupied.
02:04In fact, up to 300 ships may have sunk in these waters.
02:10But why did they shipwreck so many ships in these clear and crystalline waters, so close to land?
02:21Today, Philippe is going to visit the remains of several shipwrecks that could shed some light on the mystery.
02:28The first is the Mary Celestia, a ship that transported supplies during the American Civil War.
02:45She left Bermuda, followed the south coast and sank here.
02:48Something very curious, because we are 800 meters from the shore.
02:52And it happened on a flat calm day.
02:54It's something really intriguing.
02:56And we're going to try to figure out how this came to be.
03:03The remains are only 15 meters deep.
03:09And you can still recognize the characteristic paddle wheel.
03:17A little further along, following the coast, there is another shipwreck, the Constellation.
03:23And a little further on, another one, the Montana.
03:31In fact, according to Philippe's records, the Bermudas are completely surrounded by sunken ships.
03:39Here there is clearly something that represents a deadly threat to navigation.
03:44To reveal this and other ancient mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, we need to see what is under the water.
03:56We need to drain the ocean completely, to be able to contemplate an extraordinary landscape,
04:05never seen before.
04:19Now it is possible to observe the depths of the Bermuda Triangle,
04:23thanks to a technology called batimetry, or mapping with sonar.
04:28The method consists of launching a sonar probe,
04:31the signals that bounce in the background reveal the shape and depth of the earth below.
04:37And it is this technology that can help us discover the cause of the hundreds of shipwrecks around the island.
04:47Geologist Nick Hutchings is a prospector of marine backgrounds.
04:51Today, he is going to use sonar batimetry to look for specific underwater formations.
04:56in the areas where some of the shipwrecks occurred.
05:01What we are looking for are mineral deposits that could have formed in extinct hydrothermal fountains,
05:08the so-called black chimneys.
05:14Nick believes that these extinct hydrothermal fumaroles could contain rare metals and minerals.
05:20We would be looking at gold and copper.
05:23In the crusts there may be platinum, cobalt, nickel, and especially rare earths,
05:30which are now very important because they are vital for many modern technologies.
05:36To be able to find these valuable metals, Nick is going to use a sonar multiradio.
05:41The data reveals an extraordinary place in the Bermuda Triangle.
05:45He is going to use a sonar multiradio.
05:48The data reveals an extraordinary underwater landscape around the Bermudas,
05:53including what appears to be the edge of a mountain.
05:56We have a big sort of flat plateau, and suddenly we get to what we call the edge.
06:02And from there the terrain descends in a slope of about 60 degrees to almost 600 meters.
06:08It's a fascinating fact.
06:10But why do we find the edge of a mountain right in front of the coast of Gran Bermuda?
06:16To understand it, we need to see the complete image.
06:21Using the latest data taken with sonar around the Bermudas,
06:26we can empty this entire area completely.
06:32When the water disappears, the small archipelago appears located on top of a colossal mountain,
06:39a 4,000 meter high marine mountain, isolated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
06:46Mandy Shaila, cartographic analyst at the Government of the Bermudas,
06:51was amazed to learn about this new data.
06:54It's wonderful to have this technology that shows us the image of what's underneath the marine surface.
07:00What we can see here is an incredible view.
07:03It's as if we were standing on top of the Bermuda Mountain,
07:07looking south, towards the Caribbean, towards the Bermuda Triangle,
07:10without a drop of water, with this endless plain in front of us.
07:16It's extraordinary to think that we're here, on this mountain, in the middle of nowhere.
07:26But how did it appear here?
07:29The reason why these islands are here is that there was a very significant volcanic eruption in this place,
07:35relatively isolated from the oceanic plate that has been formed
07:39since the oldest phase of the development of the Atlantic Ocean.
07:43The volcano continued to grow non-stop for millions of years,
07:47until it vertically erupted over the surface of the ocean.
07:52It erupted until it formed a huge volcanic island
07:56that rose 1,000 or 1,200 meters above sea level.
08:00When the volcano extinguished 30 million years ago,
08:03the wind and rain eroded the mountain until it became a flat plateau.
08:08And later, as the sea level rose after the Ice Age,
08:12Gran Bermuda became a small island at the top of a submarine mountain.
08:17On the slopes of this ancient volcano,
08:20reefs were formed that currently surround the Bermudas almost completely.
08:25The reefs are a natural barrier that protects us from the ocean's fury,
08:30but they have also caused the tragic end of many sailors.
08:34These reefs are potentially fatal for ships,
08:38but it is what they hide that represents the greatest threat.
08:42They are the shells.
08:47They are formations created by a type of rocky algae
08:51and by the shells of millions of tiny molluscs.
08:55Together they form an incredibly hard limestone structure
08:59that can rise up to 12 meters above sea level.
09:01And whose edges sometimes appear on the surface with low tide.
09:06These shells are much harder than the reef that surrounds them,
09:10hence they have survived and the processes that created them continue to advance.
09:14And when a ship hits one of them,
09:17whether it is made of wood, metal or other material, the impact is very strong.
09:21Sometimes these shells have sharp tips
09:24and can pierce the hull of a ship like a can opener,
09:28sinking it in a few minutes.
09:31And when they are more treacherous, it is in the calm sea days.
09:35One of the ironies of the shells is that they are more visible when there is a wave and storms.
09:40In fact, the calm sea days are much more dangerous because there is no way to see them.
09:45These shells have been the cause of many shipwrecks in the Bermudas,
09:50including the Mer y Celestia.
09:54This hidden threat surrounds the archipelago as a mortal legacy of its volcanic past.
10:02Draining the Bermudas region has allowed to explain the hundreds of sinkings that have occurred here.
10:09But this is nothing more than a vertex of the gigantic triangle that extends between Bermudas in its north angle,
10:16Puerto Rico in the south and the coast of Florida in the west.
10:22And it was an air mission that departed from Florida after the Second World War,
10:26which gave rise to the best-known myth of the Bermuda Triangle, Flight 19, The Lost Patrol.
10:34Now a team of submariners is going to look for a plane related to the mysterious events of that day.
10:41And if we continue to drain the sea, could we find evidence that contributes to solving the mystery?
10:48December 5, 1945.
10:50Five Avenger planes take off from Fort Lauderdale Naval Air Base in Florida.
10:56Flight 19, according to its codename, is a routine training mission along the Atlantic coast.
11:06In command is US Navy Lieutenant Charles Taylor, a pilot with plenty of experience.
11:13He has conducted dozens of training missions,
11:16but he is not familiar with this coastline in particular.
11:23In the middle of the mission, things get complicated.
11:27Lieutenant Taylor reports problems with the navigation instruments.
11:32The weather conditions worsen rapidly and soon after they disappear without a trace.
11:39A Martin Mariner PBM-5 departs on a rescue mission to try to locate the planes and bring the pilots back home.
11:48The mariner emits a routine message, but then he is never heard from again.
11:57No remains of Flight 19 or the rescue plane were found.
12:04All kinds of strange and fantastic theories have tried to explain the disappearance of these planes.
12:12From extraterrestrial abductions to the effects of electromagnetic fog.
12:19Most likely, the pilots simply got lost, ran out of fuel and fell somewhere in the ocean.
12:27The mariner and Flight 19 had some kind of problem in the area around the Bahamas.
12:36And for the first time, it is possible to empty this area to a depth of about 5,000 meters.
12:46The landscape that is revealed to us is a vast and uniform submarine extension known as the Abyssal Plain.
12:53It is like an immense underwater desert.
12:58So it is easy to understand that no remains of the planes have been found.
13:03But now, 70 years later, it is possible that we are about to find the Martin Mariner rescue plane.
13:14Mike Barnett is a diver specializing in the search for lost planes.
13:20It's been years investigating the mystery of Flight 19.
13:25And now he believes he knows exactly where the Mariner crashed.
13:30I tried to recreate mentally his route, where he could have gone and where he fell into the sea.
13:36The plane left the Naval Air Base of Banana River, traveled north to Cape Canaveral,
13:43and then it drifted off the coast to the search area assigned to it.
13:50We know that about half an hour after takeoff, a freighter reported that it had seen an explosion.
13:57But when a ship arrived in the area, it did not find any remains.
14:01Either the plane sank, or the Gulf Stream took the remains.
14:07Today, Mike and his team are going to start looking for the remains of the missing plane.
14:13The price is about 70 meters deep and about 80 kilometers off the coast.
14:19We think there are some remains there that are worth examining, because it is inside the area.
14:24Although due to the effect of the Gulf Stream, it may be a little further north.
14:32Fishermen in the area say they have seen remains in this area, and Mike is looking for them with the sonar.
14:39We just ran over it, it's pretty small, which is to be expected if it's a plane.
14:45Let's put on our suits and go down to see it.
14:49Down, down, down.
14:55The remains are 69 meters deep.
14:59Mike thinks it may be a plane, but it is still too early to know if it is the mariner.
15:05Visibility at this depth is very limited, and the strong current complicates the search even more.
15:11We know we're close, there are many fish.
15:13The remains of shipwrecks always attract many fish.
15:15Suddenly, the submariners see something in the darkness.
15:19That's the front wheel of the plane.
15:24And a stone shot.
15:27The rusted fuselage of a large plane.
15:31It's very interesting.
15:33Much of the structure is intact.
15:35Typically, over time, there are only small fragments left on the seabed.
15:39So to see something like this is quite spectacular.
15:41Could it be the remains of the rescue plane?
15:47The next step is to take images of any detail that allows you to identify the plane.
15:53In the wings you can see pylons that could have been supports for floaters.
15:58It seems to be the remains of a hydroplane.
16:02The windows to the doors.
16:05It seems to be the remains of a submarine.
16:07And the shape of the horizontal stabilizer matches the photos they have seen of the plane.
16:16Everything indicates that it could be the remains of the rescue plane.
16:20But they have not yet found any conclusive evidence.
16:24It's definitely a plane.
16:26I have to be very careful with what I say.
16:29It's definitely a plane.
16:31It's definitely a plane.
16:33It's definitely a plane.
16:34It's definitely a plane.
16:36I have to be very careful with what I say.
16:38But there are very interesting details.
16:40There are many things typical of a rescue plane.
16:42I want to go back and see the photos and videos in detail.
16:46I'm excited, very excited.
16:48This deserves a more thorough examination.
16:55Mike needs the opinion of an expert to identify the plane.
16:59And he's going to show the images of the immersion to the historian Roy Stafford.
17:03Roy is a former pilot of the US Navy and an authority on American military aircraft.
17:09This is the beginning of the immersion.
17:11We've made our way to the bottom and we swim against the current to the deck.
17:15As you can see, here you can see some debris.
17:18We were hoping to find the Martin Mariner.
17:21But as we were examining the remains, we saw some things that did not fit.
17:26So right now we're not sure what model it is.
17:33Well, judging by the braking system that has the wheel that you see there,
17:37it's a plane after World War II.
17:40I can tell you that.
17:43That obviously looks like part of the cabin.
17:45The top part of the windows.
17:49Roy is 100% sure that these remains do not belong to the Mariner they were looking for.
17:55But if it's not the lost rescue plane, what plane is it?
17:59The answer could contribute to solving another mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
18:05What we see here is important.
18:08It could be a window for a camera.
18:10Exactly. In fact, we saw several inside.
18:13And they looked a lot. They caught our attention.
18:15You can see it's a twin-engine.
18:17It's clear. There are only two possibilities.
18:19Two pylons, one on each side.
18:22It could be an RB-66, which would not have to be in that area.
18:26Or a Marine 3.
18:28Roy does not take long to conclusively identify the aircraft model.
18:34Without a doubt, it's an A3 Skywarrior.
18:37If we look at the fuselage and the pylons under the wings,
18:42at the details that are seen from the tail,
18:45and that the landing gear is retracted in the fuselage,
18:48everything indicates that it is undoubtedly an A3 Skywarrior.
18:52The A3 Skywarrior was the largest aircraft of the American Navy
18:56that could take off from a aircraft carrier at that time.
19:00And the archives of the Navy collect that in 1960,
19:04one of them sank when trying to land in an aircraft carrier in the area.
19:10It is very likely that the remains that Mike and his team have found,
19:14belong to that A3.
19:17But Flight 19 and the Marine Rescue Aircraft are still lost.
19:23The search continues to find Circa.
19:26We know it's out there, it's just a matter of finding the exact place.
19:31If we could dry the great abyssal plain that surrounds the Bahamas,
19:36almost certainly, somewhere we would find the lost patrol.
19:43And based on the conditions of the remains of other aircraft found on the sea floor,
19:49they could look very similar to this one, after seven decades at sea.
19:57As we continue to empty the triangle of the Bermudas and descending more and more,
20:02we find other strange phenomena.
20:08In the Bahamas, ancient legends speak of sea monsters
20:12hidden in deep underwater caves.
20:15Beasts that devour sailors and ships.
20:18Now science is discovering the extraordinary truth that is hidden behind those legends.
20:35Only 80 kilometers from the Florida coast,
20:38at the western tip of the Bermuda Triangle,
20:41are the Bahamas.
20:43An archipelago of more than 700 islands.
20:48This is where we find one of the most mysterious natural forces of the triangle.
20:56Whirlpools that, according to local legends, can swallow people and ships.
21:02By emptying the ocean up to almost five kilometers deep,
21:06we find an extraordinary landscape.
21:11The Bahamas are located on a vast limestone plateau that rises above the sea floor.
21:16It is known as the Great Bank of the Bahamas.
21:22Hills higher than any known formation on land,
21:26rise up to 5,000 meters, almost three times that of the Great Canyon.
21:32Here myths and legends emerged many centuries ago.
21:39The islands of the archipelago closest to the United States are
21:42Bimini del Norte and del Sur.
21:45Their waters were famous centuries ago,
21:48when pirate ships sailed the seas.
21:53And according to the mythology of the triangle,
21:56in ancient times there was a legendary place here.
22:00Some think that the proof is still submerged five meters
22:04opposite the island of Bimini del Norte.
22:06It is something that looks like a stone road on the seabed.
22:11This strange formation is known as the Bimini Road.
22:15It is so straight and uniform that many underwater explorers
22:19affirm that it has to be human work.
22:22But if they are right, what does a road do at the bottom of the sea?
22:27According to legend, the Bimini Road could be a remnant of the submarine mystery
22:32by this legend.
22:33Bimini could be a remnant of the submarine mystery par excellence,
22:37the fabulous city of Atlantis.
22:43But despite its artificial appearance,
22:46science has shown that they are formations of completely natural limestone plates.
22:54If we drained the waters that cover the Bimini Road,
22:58this is the look it would have.
23:00The door of Atlantis continues in other places in the world.
23:05But this road is not the only strange thing in the waters that surround the Bahamas.
23:10On the Long Island, one of the southern Bahamas,
23:13we find some even stranger geological accidents.
23:20Tom Iliff is a professor of marine biology
23:23and has been studying this region for more than 25 years.
23:26He may not have found the door to Atlantis,
23:29but his discoveries can be just as deep and mysterious.
23:36Right now we're in a very unusual place.
23:39It's called the Grotto.
23:41It's back behind an abandoned Spanish church in the middle of the forest.
23:45This is one of the numerous blue holes
23:48or submarines that are in the Bahamas.
23:50They were formed when the ground gave way
23:53to areas previously emptied by erosion.
23:59A submarine full of salty water,
24:02a mixture of sweet and salty water,
24:05is not what one would expect to find in the middle of an island.
24:08It's very unusual because it contains a large number of very interesting animals.
24:12There is a population of large red shrimps that live in the cave.
24:16In the blue hole, there is a great abundance of underwater life.
24:20The question is, how did this happen?
24:23Where does the salty water come from?
24:26Why is there such a concentration of underwater life?
24:29The answer could be found in another blue hole,
24:32one that is much closer to the coast.
24:37Located a few meters from the sea,
24:40it is a giant hole compared to the Grotto.
24:42Even from the air it is possible to peek into its depths
24:45and extends hundreds of meters below sea level.
24:52It is the Blue Hole of Ding,
24:55the largest and deepest known.
24:59And being one of the people who has explored it the most,
25:02Tom Ayliffe is very aware of the dangers it contains.
25:05There have been cases of people who have been trapped in the cave
25:08and there is a very steep slope of sand.
25:11If you are not careful, a false step on the edge
25:14is enough to slip and fall into it.
25:17Over the years, the Blue Hole of Ding has claimed several lives.
25:21The inhabitants of the area maintain the distances
25:24because of the stories about supernatural events.
25:27In the Bahamas, there is a large number of fish,
25:30and there is a great abundance of fish.
25:33It is the largest and deepest cave in the world.
25:36In the Bahamas, there are many stories and popular legends
25:39about the Blue Holes.
25:42One of them tells that there is a monster,
25:45the Lusca, who lives there,
25:48and that the water that comes in and out of the hole
25:51is the water that inhales and exhales the monster.
25:55There are stories of ships
25:58that got too close to the Blue Hole
26:01and were swallowed by the inhalation of the Lusca.
26:05Incredibly,
26:08Tom has observed whirlpools in the Blue Hole of Ding
26:11like the ones mentioned in the legends.
26:14When the tide was going down,
26:17I saw as many as three whirlpools
26:20sucking water at the same time
26:23on the surface of the hole.
26:26Tom has proposed to find a rational explanation
26:29for this strange phenomenon.
26:32Tides affect the water in the cave,
26:35and the water that comes in and out of the hole
26:38is the water that comes in and out of the Blue Hole.
26:41The only way to find out is by diving.
26:44Tom has been exploring Blue Holes in the Bahamas
26:47for more than 20 years,
26:50but they have never ceased to impress him.
26:53They are portals to another world.
26:56When you dive here,
26:59you enter a unique place on the planet.
27:02Blue Holes are a strange natural phenomenon
27:05that geologists believe to have given an explanation.
27:08During the last glaciation,
27:11the sea level was lower,
27:14so all this limestone rock was on the surface.
27:17Acid rains filtered through the stone,
27:20eroding it
27:23and forming large empty underground vaults.
27:26At some point,
27:28the roof of the vault sank,
27:31giving rise to the characteristic bottle shape
27:34of the Blue Holes.
27:37And later, when the sea level rose again
27:40after glaciation,
27:43the structure was completely submerged.
27:46As soon as you dive into the Blue Hole of Ding,
27:49Tom sees how it suddenly widens.
27:52When we get down to a depth of 18 meters,
27:55the camera has a diameter of about 30 meters.
27:58And as we keep going down,
28:01at about 25 meters, it widens even more,
28:04probably to reach
28:07about 90 meters in diameter.
28:12And at a depth of 36 meters,
28:15Tom sees what appear to be side tunnels
28:18coming out of the main chamber.
28:21They are small, but they exert a powerful suction force.
28:24We noticed some very strong tidal currents
28:26that dragged us.
28:29We only went a few meters,
28:32but when we got out, we had to grab each other's hands
28:35and pull each other to get out of there.
28:38At 45 meters,
28:41Tom reaches the limit of immersion.
28:44He has never ventured lower.
28:47A small number of specialists have done it.
28:50One of them descended to the amazing depth of 202 meters.
28:53But the depths of the cave
28:56are completely unexplored.
28:59Tom is sure that there is much more down there.
29:02Hidden channels that connect different blue holes,
29:05allowing water and marine life to reach the interior of the island.
29:08At deeper depths,
29:11where there is a greater volume of water,
29:14the force of those currents must be enormous,
29:17so great that it is probably impossible to fight it
29:20when the tide begins to act.
29:26But as far as we know,
29:29if we emptied Dean's blue hole,
29:32not only the huge bottle-shaped cave would appear before our eyes,
29:35but also a network of tunnels and cracks
29:38that penetrate the depths.
29:41It is the flow of water
29:44when entering and leaving these tunnels
29:47that generates the whirlpools,
29:50and not a mythical sea monster.
29:53Without a doubt, Dean's blue hole
29:56is absolutely, but completely natural.
29:59The blue holes of the Bahamas
30:02are revealing their secrets little by little.
30:05But there are still many other phenomena
30:08without explanation in the Triangle of the Bermudas.
30:11Strange stories of giant water walls
30:14that suddenly appear.
30:17And a strange substance
30:20that covers parts of the seabed
30:23and that can destroy ships.
30:27March 1918.
30:30A US Navy cargo ship
30:33hits Barbados.
30:36The USS Cyclops is a huge cargo ship
30:39of 19,000 tons.
30:42It carries a load of manganese mineral
30:45and there are 309 men on board.
30:48The next day it enters one of the deepest waters
30:51of the entire Triangle of the Bermudas.
30:53And the Cyclops simply disappears.
30:56No trace of the giant ship
30:59or its crew was found.
31:08For Marvin Barras,
31:11the story is linked to a personal tragedy.
31:14My great-uncle, Lawrence Merkel,
31:17was a fireman on the ship.
31:20He was only 20 years old
31:23when the ship was lost
31:26he always found something.
31:29Part of a lifeboat or part of the cargo.
31:32Some remains of the wreck.
31:35In the end, something always appears.
31:38But in this case, nothing.
31:41The absence of remains of the wreck
31:44did not take long to lead to fantastic theories.
31:47All kinds of bizarre stories appeared.
31:50There was a Washington newspaper
31:53about the disappearance of the wreck.
31:56Others said it had been captured
31:59by a German submarine.
32:02It was even said that it had been
32:05some kind of sea monster.
32:08And there were illustrations of incidents
32:11of that kind in newspapers all over the country.
32:14Marvin has dedicated his life
32:17to investigating what really happened to the Cyclops.
32:20He has examined in great detail
32:23but now he believes he has identified
32:26a potentially fatal weak point in the design of the ship.
32:29She was at one time
32:32the largest and fastest ship of the US Navy.
32:35She had a flat keel, she could turn relatively easily.
32:38On one occasion, she came to tilt about 50 degrees to one side
32:42and 40 and many to the other.
32:45Given these circumstances, most of the ships
32:48would have completely overturned, causing a catastrophe.
32:50Given the tendency of the ship to overturn,
32:53was it possible to turn it over
32:56and make it tilt?
32:59Something extraordinary?
33:02For centuries, sailors have told stories
33:05of wild waves.
33:08Huge walls of water that suddenly appeared,
33:11rolling any ship they found in their path.
33:14The idea of wild waves
33:17has been a material of legends for hundreds of years.
33:20They have been told that they had met them
33:23and that they had survived.
33:26According to Dr. Simon Boxall,
33:29we cannot continue ignoring these old sailors' stories.
33:32Using satellites,
33:35we can observe the entire planet in a few days.
33:38And during the last 20 years,
33:41we have observed and measured wild waves
33:44which sometimes exceeded 30 meters in height.
33:47So they exist.
33:50We have managed to film giant waves.
33:53This one, recorded in the winter of 2012,
33:56crashed against a lifeboat
33:59in the North Sea.
34:02Taking into account the meteorology
34:05of the Bermuda Triangle,
34:08could giant waves occur here
34:11at a similar scale?
34:14We have the North Atlantic,
34:17equatorial storms,
34:20which form regularly,
34:23and we have storms coming from the Gulf of Mexico.
34:26All this together gives rise to a very chaotic and turbulent sea
34:29with wild waves.
34:32So could the turbulent waters of the triangle
34:35produce a wild wave
34:38big enough to sink the Cyclops?
34:41The Bermuda Triangle
34:44has been a place shrouded in mystery for centuries.
34:47Now we are using the most advanced technologies
34:50to make the sea disappear,
34:53dismantling myths
34:56and investigating what really happened.
34:59But sometimes experimental science is enough
35:02to solve an old enigma.
35:05We are at the University of Plymouth in England
35:08and this is the Coast Laboratory wave tank,
35:11one of the most advanced in the United Kingdom.
35:14It can simulate a wide variety of ocean conditions
35:17that can occur in the Bermuda Triangle.
35:20Are wild or giant waves serious?
35:23Let's go to a focal location of 16 meters.
35:26Today, this team of oceanographers
35:29is going to carry out an experiment
35:32to determine if a giant wave
35:35could have sunk a large ship
35:38like the American ship, the Cyclops.
35:41The team places in the tank
35:44a scale model comparable in size to the Cyclops
35:47and they are going to subject it to the effect of a giant wave.
35:50First, they generate a normal wave pattern.
35:54With the equivalent of waves of 8 meters,
35:57the ship remains afloat.
36:02But when they simulate the impact
36:05of two converging storm fronts,
36:08interferences begin to occur in the wave pattern.
36:11And suddenly, as if it sprang out of nowhere,
36:14a giant wave.
36:17It is the equivalent of a wave of more than 5 meters
36:20or 15 meters high.
36:23And its effect on the scale model is more than evident.
36:33This is the proof that, in theory,
36:36a wild wave could have sunk the Cyclops.
36:43But there is another strange phenomenon
36:46that could have caused the sinking of the ship.
36:49To see it, we have to empty even more
36:52the triangle of the bermudas.
36:55On the seabed, more than 350 meters deep,
36:58there are large deposits of a strange
37:01white and porous material.
37:04A single of these spots can cover
37:07a larger area than Manhattan.
37:10It is a substance called methane hydrate.
37:13These methane hydrates are formed
37:15when dead fish, dead plants, plankton
37:18are deposited on the seabed and degraded
37:21by the effect of bacterial and microbial activity.
37:25These images show real agglutinations
37:28of methane hydrates on the seabed.
37:31But methane can also be trapped
37:34in bags under the ocean floor.
37:381981, in the South China Sea.
37:41A ship perforates a bag of surface gas
37:43that explodes.
37:46The large gas bubbles that rise to the surface
37:49affect the stability of the ship,
37:52which turns and ends up sinking.
37:56Any great turbulence that occurs on the seabed,
37:59such as an earthquake or an earthquake,
38:02can release a substantial mass of methane hydrates
38:05that would turn into gas as it rises to the surface.
38:07So a methane hydrate leak
38:10could have caused the sinking of the Cyclops,
38:13even more so considering that its design
38:16was prone to overturn.
38:19But the only way to determine
38:22what really happened to the ship
38:25is to find its remains.
38:28After studying everything I found
38:31about the approximate course
38:34that the ship could take from the starting point,
38:37I came to the conclusion that it would be
38:40a day out of port and should be
38:43in the northwest of Puerto Rico.
38:46Marvin does not lose hope
38:49that one day the remains will be found.
38:52Finding the place where the remains of the Cyclops
38:55and my uncle Abuelo and all those who served with him
38:58would mean a lot.
39:01But if Marvin's calculations are correct,
39:04it would not be easy to recover the ship.
39:07There is a pit that reaches 8 km deep.
39:10It is the Puerto Rico pit.
39:13This is where the deepest point
39:16of the triangle is located.
39:19In fact, it is the deepest point
39:22of the entire Atlantic.
39:25When exploring this gigantic
39:28underwater geological accident,
39:31scientists are discovering that it could hide
39:34the most fearsome of the secrets
39:37of the future.
39:42The deepest part of the Triangle of the Bermudas,
39:45the Puerto Rico pit,
39:48could hide its most destructive secret.
39:51That is why scientists work against the clock
39:54to explore this inaccessible submarine region.
39:57Here, in the remote imaging laboratory
40:00of the National Geographic Society,
40:03a new technology has been developed,
40:05a key to be able to film
40:08in the deep ocean.
40:11It is called DropCam.
40:14Sending a camera to the deepest parts of the ocean
40:17entails several challenges.
40:20When you put anything underwater,
40:23the weight of the water column above it
40:26exerts pressure on that object.
40:29And if we imagine the weight of 8,000 meters of water
40:32above a glass bubble,
40:35the weight of 8,000 meters of water
40:38is equivalent to the weight of the ocean.
40:41After years of development,
40:44its chief engineer, Eric Bergenpass,
40:47is about to test his camera in the ocean in front of Chile.
40:50It has no propulsion,
40:53so a weight sinks the camera to the bottom.
40:56We had a knot in our stomach
40:59at the time of throwing it into the sea by the edge.
41:02When the team released it on the Puerto Rico pit,
41:05it was programmed to spend several hours
41:08on the seabed, return to the surface
41:11and transmit its position.
41:14You feel an incredible relief when you finally hear the VHF signal
41:17from the beacon on the radio transmitter
41:20and you see that the satellite detects it.
41:23These are some of the first real images
41:26of the bottom of the Puerto Rico pit,
41:298 kilometers deep.
41:32The remote image project of the deep ocean
41:35is the largest in the world.
41:38But its images are a series of instants
41:41that capture an area of few square meters in each immersion.
41:44To completely empty the entire Puerto Rico pit,
41:47we need much more data.
41:50The geological service scientist
41:53from the United States, Uri Tenbrink,
41:56is trying to create a complete map of the pit
41:59and believes it is an extremely urgent task.
42:02We started researching this pit
42:05because it is very similar geometrically
42:08to the Sumatra pit,
42:11where the earthquake and the great tsunami
42:14occurred in 2004, and that worries us a lot.
42:17Because a magnitude 9 earthquake
42:20in the Puerto Rico pit
42:23could cause a tsunami that would affect
42:26the east coast of the United States
42:29and even Europe.
42:32Uri's team has deployed submarines
42:35called ROVs to scan the pit
42:38and assess the risk level of a tsunami.
42:41The ROV emits sound impulses
42:44to get as accurate readings as possible.
42:47The 3D map reveals the almost vertical walls
42:50of the gigantic submarine canyons.
42:53In some of the valleys and ridges
42:56we see vertical walls
42:59that can be thousands of millimeters high.
43:02Geologists have known for a long time
43:05that it is possible to sink the edge
43:08of the North American tectonic plate
43:11under the Caribbean plate
43:14and slide against it simultaneously.
43:17But what these new data reveal
43:20is that it could be an area
43:23prone to earthquakes.
43:26They can move rock masses
43:29of many hundreds of square kilometers,
43:32the size of large cities,
43:35and it can even move sometimes.
43:38A submarine landslide of this scale
43:41could threaten the east coast of the United States
43:44with a tsunami like Uri had.
43:47When you think of Boston, Charleston, Baltimore
43:50and all the nuclear power plants along the coast,
43:53you have to prepare for it.
44:01Now, after the Fukushima disaster in 2011,
44:03we know well the consequences
44:06of the impact of a tsunami
44:09against a nuclear power plant
44:12insufficiently protected.
44:15For a tsunami equivalent
44:18to reach the United States,
44:21an earthquake of magnitude 9
44:24would have to occur in the pit.
44:27To calculate the possibilities
44:30of an earthquake of that magnitude,
44:33the results will be an immense relief
44:36for the inhabitants of the North American east coast,
44:39although for those who live closer to the pit
44:42they could be disastrous.
44:45From what we currently know,
44:48we are not sure that earthquakes of that magnitude
44:51may occur, which does not mean
44:54that there may not be large earthquakes
44:57of magnitude 8 or 8.5
45:00that may not reach the North American east coast,
45:03which would cause tremendous damage
45:06in the Caribbean.
45:09It is also possible that an earthquake
45:12originated in the pit caused the release
45:15of methane hydrates, and there is the possibility
45:18that this phenomenon is responsible
45:21for some of the disappearances
45:24that occurred in the area.
45:27The data collected by Uri
45:30has allowed us to empty 800 kilometers
45:33of water in the Atlantic Ocean.
45:36It is surprising that many of the ships
45:39and planes landed in the triangle
45:42have never appeared.
45:45There are spectacular vertical cliffs
45:48of several kilometers high.
45:51It is a truly imposing landscape
45:54at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean,
45:578 kilometers deep.
46:00Draining the waters of the Bermuda Triangle
46:03allows us to see for the first time
46:06an amazing variety of landforms
46:09and some of the strangest phenomena
46:12observed in our oceans.
46:15The myths and legends of the triangle
46:18are deeply rooted in history,
46:21but we have discovered that the dangers
46:24that this region contains
46:27do not seem to be due to any supernatural phenomenon,
46:30but to the very real and fearsome forces
46:33of Mother Nature.