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The Vile Vortices are said to be twelve areas distributed more or less evenly around the globe that are alleged to have the same qualities as claimed for the Bermuda Triangle. Five are located on a latitude near the Tropic of Capricorn; Five on a latitude near the Tropic of Cancer; and one each at either of the Poles. Together they form the vertices of an icosahedron. The best-known Vile Vortices are the Bermuda Triangle itself, the Devil's Sea near Japan, and the South Atlantic Anomaly.

Contents 1 First postulated by Ivan T. Sanderson 2 "New Age" and alternative explanations 3 Critics and skeptics 4 Further reading 5 External links

The existence of the Vile Vortices was first advanced by noted naturalist and author Ivan T. Sanderson. Sanderson thought that 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.

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.

Skeptics dismiss the Vile Vortices and any associated New Age or esoteric phenomena as pseudoscience because many "Vile Vortices" are presented with little or no evidence.

Many of the qualities associated with the supposed sites are also true of other, Normal sites. Madagascar teems with unique life, but is not stated as a location. Ancient cultures developed in Mesopotamia and Mexico, far from any vortex.

Paul Begg, in a series of articles for The Unexplained magazine, criticised the methodology of writers on the subject of Unexplained disappearances. 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 - the whole incident being a work of fiction presented as fact.

• 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.

• 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