A theory on the Bermuda Triangle claims that large methane bubbles rising unexpectedly from the sea floor may have sunk the thousands of ships said by myth to have been lost in local waters.

But according to the director of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), Dr. Tony Knap, the theory is ?highly speculative? at best.

Last week Bloomberg News ran an article on two scientists from the Monash University School of Mathematical Sciences in Melbourne who claimed the odourless, colourless gas methane could cause a ship to sink unexpectedly.

The scientists put forth the evidence as a possible explanation for boats alleged to have vanished in the Bermuda Triangle ? the area of the Atlantic ocean that forms a triangle with Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Florida at the points.

?The physics of methane at the bottom of the ocean melting enough to erupt and cause unexpected waves is a valid theory,? Dr. Knap said of the study.

But he added that other events would be necessary to cause the methane to become unstable and that the North Atlantic region was not known for having a lot of methane production.

The calatherate, or the gas in its frozen state, has to melt to become a gas and rise to the surface, he explained to .

But such a reaction would only happen under specific and rare circumstances.

The Australian scientists ? Dr. David May and Dr. Joseph Monaghan ? published their findings in the a recent American Journal of Physics.

?One proposed sinking mechanism attributes the vessel?s loss of buoyancy to bubbles of methane gas released from an erupting underwater hydrate,? they wrote.

And they said that a sunken ship was found at Witches Hole in the North Sea resting in the centre of a site of methane bubbles that were shooting to the water?s surface.

But Dr. Knap said conditions in the North Sea were very different from those found in the waters of the infamous Bermuda Triangle. ?In the North Sea you would expect there to be a high area of methane because of the oil and gas being produced in that region,? he said. In the seas in the triangle, however, the production of methane had not been found. ?The theory has been around for a while and when it came out it was pooh-poohed pretty heavily and I wouldn?t put a lot of emphasis on it explaining disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle,? Dr. Knap said.

He said many incidents of disappearing ships in the Bermuda Triangle had been examined and found to be a sham and that the disappearances had actually never happened.

?It is a great theory but there needs to be a reason for the area of methane to become unstable so it would take some heating or underwater activity for the methane to be released,? Dr. Knap said.

?It?s a highly speculative theory and for it all to be linked to disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is a real reach.?