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、飞机、直升机和人——他们全部都在特定的时间里被吸进了百慕大三角，没有人回来。第一次出现这样的“失踪”时，由于几年间飘忽不定不可信的记录，无法提供更多的细节。是美国海军第一次把百慕大三角之谜带入众人的视线。

  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，美国海军的五艘“复仇者号”鱼类轰炸机从劳德代尔堡出发执行飞越大西洋的常规训练任务。他们没有返回。派出去搜寻失踪飞机的大型“水手号”飞艇也没有回来。没有六架飞机和27个机务人员的任何踪迹。因为这起事故，人们发现已经有一些船和飞机失踪，显然没能对美国东南海域由（英属）百慕大群岛、（美属）波多黎各和佛罗里达州所构成的三角区做出任何解释。

  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.

  每一个名副其实的调查者都假设了很多理论，试图令人满意地解释在百慕大三角发生的神秘事件。甚至还有更奇怪的解释，包括外星人、存在一个巨大的磁铁，月亮的位置，巨浪的突然出现，时间/空间扭曲，静电荷，以及迷失之城亚特兰大的居民的返回。关于在这个地区发生的不寻常现象已经写了无数的书。

  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·麦基弗博士的理论似乎更可靠，他将解释重点在于甲烷水合物的存在。人们第一次遇到甲烷水合物是在20世纪20年代和20世纪30年代美国和苏联天然气工业早期。天然气（在地壳中发现的可燃气体的混合物，包括甲烷，乙烷，丁烷和丙烷）通过管道被输送过大西洋，但是非常偶尔地，管道神不知鬼不觉地被堵住了。

  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、氢和氖的气体都可以形成水合物，只要存在足够的气体及水，而且压力足够高，温度足够低。这些条件在地球上可以很自然地发生，因此甲烷水合物在许多海底部分大量存在，并集中在大陆斜坡上一些地方，如百慕大三角。甲烷水合物的分子结构是这样的，即它促进了大量气体的捕获。如果有一个漏洞，那么即使小面积也可能会导致大量气体的泄露。

  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.

  在大陆斜坡堆积的泥沙容易在大陆板块边缘的坡上积聚起来。但它是不稳定的，会滚落下来。当发生这种情况时，它会引起的水合物层的消失，被困在下面的甲烷气体便释放出来。冒出海面的甲烷气体，会导致海面海水密度下降；船将会下沉一些，更容易被小波浪淹没；同样，当甲烷气体和一定比例的空气混合时具有高度爆炸性。这可以解释船舶和飞机神秘失踪的原因。

  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.

  所有这些活动都发生在地壳构造板块边缘的海床，那里由于地壳之下的压力有恒定的活动，任何下沉到海底的残骸将永远消失在移动的版块之下。

  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.

  最新迅速传开的传言是在印度洋和太平洋也相继发生（船舶飞机）失踪事件，这意味着百慕大三角的范围正在扩大。