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- The Lake That Exploded
- Episode 2
The Lake That ExplodedEpisode 21:32
The Invisible Weapon Under the Water
Scientists descend into the chemistry of Nyos to explain how water can store enough carbon dioxide to become catastrophic.
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Transcript
Large amounts of carbon dioxide accumulated in Lake Nyos.
On August 21st, 1986, Lake Nyos released its accumulated carbon dioxide.
About 1,700 people died in a disaster blamed on that carbon dioxide.
Lake Nyos occupies a maar in the southern continental Cameroon Volcanic Line.
William C. Evans is listed as an author of the Lake Nyos final report.
A sampling cable reached into Nyos's deepest water.
The record places the stored gas in Nyos's deep water.
Scientists call this kind of release a limnic eruption: carbon dioxide escaping water.
Stillness fills the frame as the camera drifts onward.
Gas saturation of water is thought to increase the chances of a limnic eruption.
Earthquakes are also thought to raise the chance of that release.
But the precise trigger at Nyos remains unknown.
A 1989 BMJ study found 845 survivors showed signs compatible with asphyxiant gas.
Some survivors were found alive after the gas passed.
The same event killed 3,500 domestic animals, widening the invisible path of destruction.
Where it leaves off
Lake Nyos was not the country's first warning. But the trigger remained unproven—and another Cameroonian lake had already delivered the same warning two years earlier.
Sources
- New thermoluminescence age estimates for the Nyos maar eruption ...pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govsecondary
- Clear and Present Dangers: The Multiple Health Hazards of Volcanic Eruptions - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govsecondary
- Lake Nyos disaster, Cameroon, 1986: the medical effects of large scale emission of carbon dioxide? - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govsecondary
- The 21 August 1986 Lake Nyos gas disaster, Cameroon; final report of the United States scientific team to the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance of the Agency for International Development | Uusgs.govprimary
- Bill Evans, PhD | U.S. Geological Surveyusgs.govsecondary
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