With a Venezuelan stamp: Cariaco and its "Bermuda" triangle

Did you know that Venezuela has its own abyss, known as the Venezuelan Bermuda Triangle? Stay tuned, I'll tell you more!

Today we'll talk about the Cariaco Trench, a place popularly dubbed the "Venezuelan Bermuda Triangle." Local myths, urban legends, missing ships, and even the supposed panicked escape of Jacques Cousteau himself (the French naval officer, explorer, researcher, oceanographer, inventor, and documentary filmmaker who studied the sea) fuel the region's unique character. Beyond superstition, the true nature of the trench reveals a biological and geological laboratory unlike any other on the planet—and, if it's ours, it's ours too.

25 kilometers off the coast of Cumaná, in eastern Venezuela, in the heart of the Caribbean Sea, lies our own abyss, which reaches depths of nearly 1.400 meters and hides, beyond mysteries, a beautiful scientific passage of great global importance.

The most fascinating feature of the Cariaco Trench from an oceanographic perspective is its status as a permanently anoxic basin (a deep body of water with no dissolved oxygen). In fact, it is the second largest in the world, surpassed only by the Black Sea.

Any ordinary marine animal that fell into this pit could suffocate in just minutes. Paradoxically, the abyss is not dead; instead of being inhabited by fish or coral, the depths of Cariaco are teeming with extremophile microorganisms (organisms capable of living in conditions far more demanding than those tolerated by most life forms on Earth). Bacteria and archaea adapted to anoxia metabolize compounds such as sulfur and nitrate to survive, playing a critical role in global biogeochemical cycles.

The Earth's climate archive

The incredible things don't stop there. This basin allows sediments—microscopic remains of algae, windblown dust, and minerals—to be deposited year after year in perfect, millimeter-thick layers, like the pages of a book. Scientists from around the world have extracted mud samples dating back more than 15.000 years. By analyzing the chemical composition of each layer, researchers from the historic Cariaco Project (active on a large scale since 1995) have been able to reconstruct the planet's temperature variations and global climate changes with astonishing historical accuracy.

Due to its restrictive geological structure—a deep depression enclosed by shallow underwater barriers—and the lack of vertical currents that renew the water, oxygen exchange stops drastically at a depth of 140 meters. Below that depth, absolute darkness and a total absence of dissolved oxygen prevail.

Despite this, it is a driving force for life in the eastern part of the country. During the trade wind seasons, a phenomenon known as upwelling occurs: deep waters, rich in accumulated nutrients, are forced to the surface.

Upon contact with sunlight, these nutrients trigger a phytoplankton bloom that feeds immense schools of fish, making the region one of the richest and most vital fishing grounds in Venezuela, creating a perfect space for almost all species to live harmoniously.

The Cariaco Trench doesn't need sea monsters or dimensional portals to captivate. Its true mystery lies in how a place devoid of air and light safeguards the world's climatic memory and indirectly sustains life on the surface.

The Cariaco Project: A Global Milestone

The acronym CARIACO stands for Carbon Retention in a Colored Ocean. It was an international program (involving institutions such as the University of Oriente, the Intecmar at USB, and international agencies like the NSF and NASA). It succeeded in establishing one of the longest continuous oceanographic data series in the world, making this corner of Venezuela an essential reference in any modern global oceanography textbook.

Myth about the triangle: The ferry and Cousteau

There's a maritime legend that some may remember about the tragic shipwreck of the Santa Margarita II ferry, a story that gained traction in 1987 claiming that the abyssal trench "swallowed" the vessel and that no trace of it was ever found. The scientific and hydrographic reality is simpler: the abyssal depths, the absence of light, and the difficult access conditions make locating wrecks in such a rugged underwater landscape extremely complex.

Similarly, popular legend tells that the famous French explorer Jacques Cousteau went to the site to investigate the shipwreck, but after diving he saw something so terrifying that he fled the country and refused to be paid for the work he had been commissioned to do.

Although it makes for an excellent mystery story, no historical record or scientific journal validates such panic. The real fear that the pit can instill in a diver stems from strictly physical factors: venturing into waters laden with hydrogen sulfide—common in anoxic zones—and enduring the crushing pressure of a vertical abyss.

While legend is captivating, science once again proves its superior allure. Especially when it bears a Venezuelan stamp.