Vile Vortices
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The Vile Vortices are twelve roughly evenly distributed geographic areas that are alleged to have the same mysterious qualities popularly associated with the Bermuda Triangle. The best-known vortices are the the Bermuda Triangle itself, the Devil's Sea near Japan and the South Atlantic Anomaly. However, none of these (including the Bermuda Triangle itself) have been demonstrated to have any of these qualities, and the claims are not taken seriously in the scientific community.
Five of the twelve vortices fall on a latitude close to the Tropic of Capricorn, while another five fall close to the Tropic of Cancer. The remaining two are located on the North and South Poles. Together they form the vertices of an icosahedron.
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[edit] Initial Hypothesis
The existence of the Vile Vortices was first advanced by naturalist and author Ivan T. Sanderson. Sanderson thought conflicting air and sea currents in the regions covered by the Vortices contributed to the anomalous phenomena he observed there. These phenomena included strange sky and sea conditions, mechanical and instrument malfunctions, and mysterious disappearances.
In 1973, a Soviet science magazine published a more detailed version of the theory (Hitching, 1978). Three scientists, Nikolai Goncharov, Vyacheslav Morochov and Valery Makarov, in the article "Is the Earth a large Crystal?" in Khimya i Zhizn, posited "a matrix of cosmic energy" covering the Earth, made up of twelve pentagonal plates. The junctions of any three of these plates (62 junctions in all) had, they claimed, strange properties. For instance, several were sites of advanced prehistoric cultures, such as at Mohenjo-Daro, Egypt and Peru; and some areas had much unique wildlife, for example at Lake Baikal.
[edit] New Age and alternative explanations
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Some advocates have interpreted the Vile Vortices in terms of New Age and Earth Mystery metaphysics, citing their proximity to ancient civilizations and sacred sites. Others advance that the Vortices are connected via earth radiation lines contributing to a global, or planetary energy grid. Still others think that the Vortices may be entry and/or exit points connecting to a hollow earth or to other dimensions. However, the location of most of these sites (many are at sea) would appear to undermine some of these explanations .
[edit] Critics and skeptics
Paul Begg, in a series of articles for The Unexplained magazine, criticized the methodology of writers on the subject of unexplained disappearances.[citation needed] He checked original records of the alleged incidents. Often, he found, the ships which were claimed to have 'mysteriously disappeared' had a mundane reason for their loss. Some were lost in storms, although the vortex writers would claim that the weather was fine at the time. In other cases, locations of losses were changed to fit the location of the vortex. Sometimes no record of the ship even existing in the first place was found.
[edit] Further reading
- Begg, Paul. "Tales from the Bermuda Triangle" and succeeding articles, reprinted in Out of This World (Caxton, 1989), pp 8-22.
- Berlitz, Charles. The Bermuda Triangle. Doubleday, 1974.
- Hitching, Francis. the World Atlas of Mysteries. Pan, 1978, pp56-7, 243.
- Kusche, Lawrence David. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery–Solved. Harper & Row, 1975.
- Quasar, Gian. Into the Bermuda Triangle. International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2005.
[edit] External links
- Deepinfo.com More information on the Vile Vortices
- [1] Mostly about the Bermuda Triangle, but the analysis applies here as well.
- Interactive Planetary Grid Map
