The legendary Bermuda Triangle – it's where ships go to disappear. The mysterious circumstances have been long considered inexplicable, but new research off the coast of Norway may offer an explanation after all. 

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Scientists at the Arctic University of Norway dove deep into the Barents Sea and what they found could offer a viable scientific reason behind the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon.

"Multiple giant craters exist on the sea floor in an area in the west-central Barents Sea ... and are probably a cause of enormous blowouts of gas," researchers told the Sunday Times.

The craters in question were a half a mile wide and 150 feet deep, the Daily Mail reports. The researchers think methane leaking up through natural gas deposits caused the craters, meaning there wasn't just the gradual erosion but explosions of gas as well.

It would be enough to take out a ship, or even an airplane flying overhead, they argue.

But, as the Guardian points out, the research does not prove that these gas explosions are common – let alone that they exist – in the area that the Bermuda Triangle encompasses, between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico. 

Some say there's nothing mysterious about the Bermuda Triangle at all; the myths were exactly that. Others blame the strange disappearances on the region's tendency for tropical storms, as Atlas Obscura reports.

Still, the new theory is expected to be discussed when the study is released at the next European Geosciences Union meeting next month.

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