Bermuda Triangle: Science of the Abyss Page #3

---

the sediment freezes,

and as the methane molecules

rise up through this layer,

they can get trapped

inside ice crystals.

The result is

a subterranean layer

of gas-rich snow

called methane clathrate.

What it is is it's

like a water cage of ice.

And this ice cage

can actually house 170 times

the volume of gas

into this cube of ice.

Somehow, when you disrupt that,

it can cause the methane

to just boil out of it.

And as this rises

in the water column,

it'll actually lower

the density of the water

and ships sailing over that can

actually fall through that water

because of the density change,

suddenly.

In theory,

the pressure of gas built up

inside these icy deposits

could create an explosion

of methane from the seabed.

Bubble, boosh,

instant disappearance.

To investigate the theory,

Martin devised an experiment

using the closest thing

to rare methane clathrate...

dry carbon dioxide ice.

So what I need to do

is make a big gas explosion,

and to do that,

I have a two-liter bottle,

and we put some of this dry ice

in the bottle.

And the beauty is,

is once you lock this cap,

the dry ice is subliming,

so it's going straight to a gas,

and you can see that it starts

working the pressure up.

It's going to get up

to about 300 psi

before this thing

finally cannot take it.

Boom! And that's our

big bubble of methane

that we want to simulate

to see if we can sink that ship.

For safety reasons,

Martin first wants to

first test his experiment

using a half-filled bottle.

This is something

you should not try at home,

because it is very explosive,

and if you don't understand

the power of this,

it can actually take off

fingers, take out an eye.

It's very dangerous.

All right.

He pulls the bottle

to the bottom

of the ten-foot deep test area

using a weighted pulley system

and waits for

the pressure to build.

Look at that!

The whole dock jumped!

Could terrifying

gas explosions like this,

but on a much bigger scale,

really be sinking ships

in the Bermuda triangle?

That is impressive.

A significant clue lies in

the frozen wasteland of Siberia.

In 2014, reindeer herders

discovered huge holes

blasted out of the icy tundra.

Scientists investigated

the holes and discovered

unusually high levels

of methane at the bottom.

They're finding these pockmarks,

and the only thing that makes

sense is that these clathrates,

because of the rising

temperatures around the earth,

they're starting

to boil so quickly

that they're forming pressures

right underneath

the ground level,

and so they get to

a pressure like this

and finally just, boom,

they explode,

leaving this giant crater

in the earth.

With the safety test complete,

pepper preps a new experiment,

filling a plastic tub

with 33-pound building blocks.

So what we're doing is...

with this plastic tub

is we're simulating

a loaded cargo ship.

So cargo ships

are filled with goods

to the point where there's

just a little bit of 'em

sitting above the surface.

He wants to see what effect

a explosive release of gas

will have on this heavily

weighted floating target.

So we really don't know

what's going to happen.

It could go down because

of the density change.

It could go up because of that

vertical water flow coming up.

Or it could just tip over

on the edge of the bubble.

Are you ready to do this?

I'm ready.

All right.

So I've now positioned the tub

right out here in safety,

and you can tell

that it's really deep.

So what I want to do

is be here in this kayak

and keep it positioned

while we wait for the pressure

to build in that

two-liter bottle.

Fully loaded and primed,

the gas bomb is dragged to

the bottom of the test area

and the barge

maneuvered on top of it.

A boat hook keeps

the target in place

against the changing tide.

Now we wait.

Look at that!

It's like a magic trick!

Just gone.

The rising gas rips

open the surface of the water,

and in a puff of icy vapor,

the barge appears to vanish.

Aw, wow!

Slow-motion cameras

reveal what happened

to the model cargo ship.

First, a shockwave of water

traveling ahead

of the rising gas

lifts the barge

clean out of the water.

A camera inside the barge

shows how the heavy craft

drops like a stone

through the hole

left by the rising gas.

The experiment proves that

a large enough gas explosion

could sink a heavy

floating ship,

but there's a problem.

Nobody has ever seen

a methane gas explosion

in the Bermuda triangle.

You don't see these

big explosions of bubbles

coming up all the time,

and you would expect to see that

if this were a real problem.

It would have to be one

heck of a coincidence

for one of these bubble fields

to form right underneath

a big ship and sink it.

And you would have seen

other bubble fields

going up in the...

in the sea lanes elsewhere

and not take down a ship if this

were a common phenomenon.

I don't think that

there is much chance

that methyl hydrates are...

are sinking a lot of ships.

Maybe one ship way back when

as a heck of a coincidence,

but I don't think

it's a regular phenomenon

and is something

that we have to worry about.

If it's not all gas explosions,

what else could be

sinking ships?

The Bermuda triangle

is one of the busiest patches

of ocean in the world.

Cargo ships, yachts,

and cruise liners

all fight for space.

On a good day, it's paradise.

But on a bad day,

these warm tropical waters

can stir up the most

destructive storms on earth...

hurricanes.

At the university of Miami,

the world's most advanced

hurricane simulator

generates the kind of winds

that slam into

the Bermuda triangle

during hurricane season.

Okay,

we're going up to category 5.

Professor Brian haus

heads up the facility.

All right, now we're

seeing an 150-mile-an-hour-wind,

what that would look

like at the ocean surface.

I mean, just all

that water in the air,

all the bubbles

down here in the water.

I mean, it's what the sailors

will actually call

whiteout conditions.

You know, you just can't see

anything out there

if you're on the water.

And so, if you were

unfortunate enough

in a vessel to be caught out

in these conditions,

you can't send out a signal,

your power goes out, your...

your ship loses steerage,

you're done.

And nobody is going to

find the pieces.

Hurricane season

lasts from early June

to late November,

almost half the year.

Hot water vapor rises

from the tropical Atlantic,

sucking in the air around it

and condensing at altitude

to form a vast,

spinning cloud system.

These storms gain in strength

as they head west

along a well-trodden path

known as hurricane alley.

By the time they reach

the Bermuda triangle,

the hurricanes can be

1,000 miles wide

with wind speeds

of over 150 miles per hour.

Recreating that kind of

climatic violence in the lab

takes industrial-scale

equipment.

We start out really big,

three-story-high intake

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes