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Methane Bubbles Could Sink Ships

Posted by timothy on from the loose-methane-bubble-lips dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Joseph J Monaghan and David May, of Australia's Monash University, have proposed a novel theory for Bermuda-Triangle-like disappearance of ships at sea: They were swallowed in giant methane bubbles released by undersea vents. Monaghan & May point to sonar of a ship wreck that's sitting in the center of a known methane eruption site, and they've developed a mathematical model that predicts how an eruption could take down a ship. Hey, we ain't talkin' bovine flatulence here..."

4 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Re:this reminds of my undergraduate days... by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First you say these tanks are the perfect place to murder/body disposal. Then you say it's underutilized. How do you know, then ?

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    Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
  2. Just checkin... by mojoviper · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I doubt it, but I have to ask. Since they mentioned the Bermuda Triangle; any possible linkage w/ planes flying through these methane-bubble infested waters? *shrug*

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    Si hoc legere scis nimum eruditionis habes sed iliud latine dici non potest.
  3. Silly by quandrum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The real mystery of the Bermuda Triangle is why it's a mystery at all. Modern record keeping shows there haven't been more lost ships then one should expect for an area that large (500,000 square miles) with as much traffic as it gets (which is a lot, though no figures for you today!)

    It's just one of those weird cultural meme's that people shouldn't waste time trying to explain.

  4. Re:No Discovery Channel Down Under? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Curiously, for the amount of air and sea traffic that regularly passes through the bermuda triangle, compared to the number of sinkings, it's not all that remarkable an area for disappearances. A vessel is no more likely to go down there than it is anywhere else. It is however, a rather busy area when all things are considered, and in the past 100 years was even more so.