On August 21 , 1986 , tragedy happen upon Cameroon asLake Nyos explodedkilling yard of people andwildlifefor miles around . The eruption was drive by a surge of deadly gas that , having been released from theEarth’smantle , had been ramp up up at the bottom of the lake for hundreds of old age .
A rockslide within the lake , landslip , or volcanic activity may have been to find fault for finally set it free as a sudden noise of the lake facilitated the release of 1.24 million tonne of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) . The ruinous emission suffocated the great unwashed in the vicinity as the natural gas causesasphyxiation by hypoxiaas well as being toxic . In such in high spirits absorption , CO2can knock a person out at once and can stop them from being able-bodied to breathe within a minute .
First - mortal calculate from the disaster shared by survivors to theSmithsonian Magazinetalk of how the blowup began with a rumble curtly after which frothy spray burst one C of foot into the melody and a gust blew through home in the local settlement . The gas kill thousands of people and swathes of wildlife and livestock , and an enormous livid cloud formed over the pee .
A photo of the exploding Lake Nyos eight days after the deadly eruption. Image credit: United States Geological Survey
alas , the devastation did n’t stop there . The sullen cloud sink into a valley and made its way to nearby settlement 15.5 mile ( 25 kilometers ) aside from the website of the explosion induce asphyxiation and death wherever it went . Only those on high ground were capable to avoid it .
Desperate to understand how such a tragedy could open , scientists from across the globe joined forces in Cameroon to carry investigations on the crater lake . They revealed that Nyos , along with another volcanic crater lake nearby , were both strange in that they contained CO2 - rich layer at the bottom indicating that there was a continuous gradual leak into the water .
We now eff that the Cameroon Volcanic Line is house to 43 inscrutable volcanic crater lakes like this , all of which have the voltage to contain deadly volume of toxic gas . Elsewhere in the globe , similar lake can be find in Italy , Tanzania , and on the moulding of Rwanda .
A cow killed by the CO2 released when Lake Nyos exploded. Image credit: Photo by Jack Lockwood of the US Geological Survey, Public Domain
The weight of the pee keep it at bay until a disturbance rumble the waters in such a fashion that the gas was suddenly belched into the melodic phrase . A exchangeable explosion had occurred at Lake Manoun two years before the 1986 disaster , though not on the same scale .
The lakes can be pull off with pipework that provide an escape for the gas so that it can be liberate into the air easy , rather than in one mammoth eruption . However , scientist fear that this may not be enough to prevent future disaster .
write forThe Conversation , Disaster Management Scholar , researcher , and educator , Henry Ngenyam Bang of Bournemouth University has shared concerns that a like disaster may be brew at Lake Kuk , also in Cameroon . Its waters have turned from blue to a dull loss , something that was seen in Lake Nyos before the explosion .
To prevent further loss of life , Bang ’s recommendations are that the lakes in the part be tested again with initial checks for most bodies of water system in the Cameroon Volcanic Line having taken post over three decades ago . indicator like caloric profile ( how temperature changes with depth ) , concentration of unfreeze gases , Earth’s surface area , weewee volume , and profundity can all be used to assess a lake ’s likelihood of holding monumental CO2deposits .
While examine for these would be logistically challenging , tell Bang , preserve on top of monitoring is the only room to ready for and prevent future lake explosion . While the changing atmospheric condition at Kuk are currently being tacked up to rainfall , he urge on that its placement along the Cameroon Volcanic Line mean a gas wetting could strike at any clock time .
Another protective tool could be to place CO2detectors near worrying lake like Kuk and Nyos so that changing conditions could be notice and carry through as and when they take place . Equipping these with alarum could discourage citizenry living nearby to point for high land where large CO2struggles to reach out .
“ The Directorate of Civil Protection is the designated way creditworthy for coordinating tragedy risk direction in Cameroon , ” conclude Bang . “ The representation should liaise with other stakeholder in the government and individual sphere to ensure the base hit of Cameroon ’s dangerous lakes . If the authorities are not proactive , the Lake Nyos disaster scenario may reprize where thousands of people and livestock are suddenly killed . ”
