Aug

On This Day: Cameroon’s Killer Lake

By Tamahome Jenkins · August 21, 2009

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Lake Nyos after the eruption

On August 21, 1986, Lake Nyos, a crater lake in northwest Cameroon, belched a toxic cloud of carbon dioxide into the air, killing over 1700 people. Lake Nyos sits atop a pocket of magma that leaks carbon dioxide into the water. Most lakes are shallow enough, or have enough surface area to allow for this gas to naturally disperse into the air, but Lake Nyos is different. Lake Nyos, along with only 2 other lakes in the world (both in Africa), is so deep that the gas never dissipates, and just collects at the bottom of the lake. On the evening of August 21, 1986, a landslide or other disturbance displaced the carbon dioxide, causing it to rise to the surface, and rapidly flow along the countryside.

Within minutes the gas had killed all who came in contact with it. Victims were found with their hands over their noses, trying to seal out the noxious fumes. Others had torn off their clothes in an attempt to escape the burning sensation caused by the gas, and hand then collapsed a few yards away. In Nios, the community nearest the lake, only 2 people out of a population of roughly 1000 survived.

Grazing cattle killed at Lake Nyos

Because of the lake’s remote location, with no electricity or paved roads, news of the disaster did not reach the rest of the world for days. I was able to find the article from TIME magazine that covered this event, and it wasn’t dated until September 8; nearly 3 weeks after this disaster. Still, you get an essence of the horror that the scene must have been, as this disaster affected every animal near the lake. As one rescue worker put it, “The silence is so deep, I try not to listen.”

Cameroon the Lake of Death – TIME