Bermuda Triangle

Everyone’s heard of the mysterious [cue echo-y scary voice] Bermuda Triangle.  If the Triangle were as dangerous as the stories would have you believe, there would be piles of shipwrecks jutting out of the water.  How many sunken ships would it take to fill the Bermuda Triangle?

According to various websites, the Bermuda Triangle covers 500,000 square miles with depths ranging anywhere from a few hundred feet to about 30,000 ft.  Assuming an average depth of 15,000 ft, we can compute the total volume we’ll need to fill with sunken ships

volume = (depth) · (area)

= (15,000 ft) · (500,000 square miles)

= 5.9×10¹⁵ m³.

Ships come in all different sizes.  Since it’s the sunken ship everyone knows, I’ll assume we’re dealing with Titanic-sized ships¹.  According to Wikipedia, the Titanic had a length, beam, and height given by 269.1 m, 28.0 m, and 53.3 m respectively.  This gives a volume of approximately 4.0×10⁵ m³.  We can then easily compute the number of Titanic-sized ships that would fit in the Bermuda Triangle,

# of ships = (volume of ocean) / (volume per ship)

= (5.9×10¹⁵ m³) / (4.0×10⁵ m³ per ship)

= 1.5×10¹⁰ ships.

That’s 15 billion ships.  If you sunk one million ships per day, it would take 40 years to fill the Bermuda Triangle.

[1] Yes, I know there are no icebergs in Bermuda.  Work with me, people.  Work with me!