Massive gas bubbles rising from the sea floor may be capable of sinking ships and could explain the disappearance of a vessel in a North Sea "Bermuda Triangle", Melbourne researchers have concluded.

In a report published in the September issue of the American Journal of Physics, Monash University's Professor Joseph Monaghan and honours student David May said that a trawler discovered resting in a large methane crater off the east coast of Scotland may have been sunk by a huge gas bubble. The possibly lethal gas bubbles are created by underwater deposits of methane that have built up over thousands of years.

"It's long been known that there are pockets of methane gas, known as methane gas hydrates, beneath the ocean floor that could erupt if they're disturbed or if their internal pressure becomes too large," Professor Monaghan said.