新概念文化大爆炸:百慕大魔鬼三角之謎
Ships, airplanes, helicopters and men - they have all been sucked into the Bermuda Triangle at some point of time or the other. None of them have ever returned. It is impossible to provide details of the first such disappearance because of erratic record keeping over the years, but it was the U.S. Navy that first brought the Bermuda Triangle mystery into the limelight.
船舶、飛機、直升機和人——他們全部都在特定的時間裏被吸進了百慕大三角，沒有人回來。第一次出現這樣的“失蹤”時，由於幾年間飄忽不定不可信的記錄，無法提供更多的細節。是美國海軍第一次把百慕大三角之謎帶入衆人的視線。On 5 December 1945, five Avenger torpedo bombers of the US Navy took off from Fort Lauderdale on a routine training flight over the Atlantic. They did not return. A large Mariner flying boat sent to search for the missing aircraft also failed to return. No trace has ever been found of the six planes or the 27-crew members. As a result of this incident, it was discovered that quite a few ships and aircraft had also been lost, apparently without explanation in the triangular area off the south-east coast of the United States bounded by Bermuda, Puerto-Rico and Florida.
1945年12月5日，美國海軍的五艘“復仇者號”魚類轟炸機從勞德代爾堡出發執行飛越大西洋的常規訓練任務。他們沒有返回。派出去搜尋失蹤飛機的大型“水手號”飛艇也沒有回來。沒有六架飛機和27個機務人員的任何蹤跡。因爲這起事故，人們發現已經有一些船和飛機失蹤，顯然沒能對美國東南海域由（英屬）百慕大羣島、（美屬）波多黎各和佛羅里達州所構成的三角區做出任何解釋。Every investigator worth his salt has postulated a number of theories that attempt to satisfactorily explain the mysterious happenings at the Bermuda triangle. Some of the more bizarre explanations include extra-terrestrials, the presence of a huge magnet, the position of the moon, sudden appearing of giant waves, time/space warps, electrostatic charges, and the return of the inhabitants of the lost city Atlanta. There have been innumerable books that have been written regarding the unusual phenomenon which take place in this area.
每一個名副其實的調查者都假設了很多理論，試圖令人滿意地解釋在百慕大三角發生的神祕事件。甚至還有更奇怪的解釋，包括外星人、存在一個巨大的磁鐵，月亮的位置，巨浪的突然出現，時間/空間扭曲，靜電荷，以及迷失之城亞特蘭大的居民的返回。關於在這個地區發生的不尋常現象已經寫了無數的書。
One of the more credible theories seems to belong to Dr Richard McIver, who centers his explanation on the presence of methane hydrate. Methane hydrate was first encountered in the 1920s and 1930s in the early days of the American and Soviet gas industries. Natural gases (a mixture of flammable gases found in the Earth's crust, methane, ethane, butane and propane) were being piped across the Atlantic but occasionally the pipes would become mysteriously plugged up.
理查德•麥基弗博士的理論似乎更可靠，他將解釋重點在於甲烷水合物的存在。人們第一次遇到甲烷水合物是在20世紀20年代和20世紀30年代美國和蘇聯天然氣工業早期。天然氣（在地殼中發現的可燃氣體的混合物，包括甲烷，乙烷，丁烷和丙烷）通過管道被輸送過大西洋，但是非常偶爾地，管道神不知鬼不覺地被堵住了。All gases except for helium, hydrogen and neon can form hydrates if enough gas and water are present, if the pressure is high enough and if the temperature is low enough. These conditions can be found naturally occurring on earth, and methane hydrate has been found to exist in huge quantities in many parts of the sea floor and is concentrated in some places on continental slopes such as the Bermuda Triangle. The structure of the molecule of methane hydrate is such that it facilitates the capturing of a large amount of gas. If this were to break-up, then even a small area could cause a large gas release.
所有除了氦、氫和氖的氣體都可以形成水合物，只要存在足夠的氣體及水，而且壓力足夠高，溫度足夠低。這些條件在地球上可以很自然地發生，因此甲烷水合物在許多海底部分大量存在，並集中在大陸斜坡上一些地方，如百慕大三角。甲烷水合物的分子結構是這樣的，即它促進了大量氣體的捕獲。如果有一個漏洞，那麼即使小面積也可能會導致大量氣體的泄露。Sediment piles on continental slopes have the tendency to accumulate on the slopes of the edge of continental plates. But it is unstable and can tumble down. When this happens, it can cause the removal of the hydrate layer, releasing the methane gas trapped below. Methane gas bubbling up through the sea will cause an area of decreased density; ships will lie lower in the water and will be swamped by the least wave; also methane gas when mixed with air in the correct proportions is highly explosive. This could account for the mysterious disappearances of both ships and aircraft.
在大陸斜坡堆積的泥沙容易在大陸板塊邊緣的坡上積聚起來。但它是不穩定的，會滾落下來。當發生這種情況時，它會引起的水合物層的消失，被困在下面的甲烷氣體便釋放出來。冒出海面的甲烷氣體，會導致海面海水密度下降；船將會下沉一些，更容易被小波浪淹沒；同樣，當甲烷氣體和一定比例的空氣混合時具有高度爆炸性。這可以解釋船舶和飛機神祕失蹤的原因。All this activity on the sea bed occurs at the edges of tectonic plates, where there is constant activity as a result of the pressures beneath the earth's crust; any wreckage sinking to the bottom would be lost forever beneath the moving plates.
所有這些活動都發生在地殼構造板塊邊緣的海牀，那裏由於地殼之下的壓力有恆定的活動，任何下沉到海底的殘骸將永遠消失在移動的版塊之下。The latest myth that is doing the rounds is that there have been disappearances in the Indian and Pacific oceans, this means that the Bermuda Triangle is widening in scope.
最新迅速傳開的傳言是在印度洋和太平洋也相繼發生（船舶飛機）失蹤事件，這意味着百慕大三角的範圍正在擴大。
