10 Things You Didn't Know About The Bermuda Triangle Craze Of The '70s

By Sophia Maddox | May 23, 2023

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Left: The legendary Lost Squadron & plane 'Flight 19' that supposedly vanished into Bermuda Triangle shortly after WWII. Right: cover art from Argosy, August 1968.Sources: The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images; eBay

The Bermuda Triangle, that plane- and ship-swallowing mystery zone in the Atlantic, fascinated us in the '60s and '70s. Magazine articles, books and TV shows looked into the phenomenon -- along with UFOs, quicksand and killer bees, the Bermuda Triangle was cause for concern and wild speculation, including paranormal theories about sea monsters and aliens. But should it have been? While some people fretted over the causes of the bizarre phenomenon, others began to question whether it was a phenomenon at all.

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One assumption about the location of the Bermuda Triangle. Source: (Bermudian.Kolmio/Wikipedia)

The Bermuda triangle is an area of about 500,000 square miles of ocean and the points of the triangle are approximately Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, however sources differ with regards to the exact location of the Bermuda Triangle. The stories surrounding the Triangle date back to Christopher Columbus, who reported that a great flame of fire crashed into the ocean and that he had erratic compass readings while in the area, but just as the ball of fire could be explained as a meteor, the compass readings may have been caused by the fact that, at the time, a sliver of the area was one of the places that true north and magnetic north lined up.