August 21, 1986, was a busy market day in the village of Lower Nyos and that evening most people went to bed early. The next morning, some 1,700 people and 3,000 domestic animals were discovered lying dead on the ground. Nobody could explain what happened.
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After the incident,
Rumors of “secret government experiments,” strange “invisible superweapons” or even a series of “atomic explosions” soon started to circulate. Only later the real killer was identified as a strange and rare volcanic phenomenon, associated with the nearby Lake Nyos.
Lake Nyos is located along the Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL), a 950-mile long chain of volcanoes and volcanic crater lakes extending from the Gulf of Guinea into Cameroon and Nigeria. The origin of the CVL is still not completely understood. It is possible that during the breakup of Africa from South America some 150 million years ago, a third rift started to develop, but failed to become an oceanic basin like the Atlantic Ocean. Today, the only active volcano of the CVL is Mount Cameroon. However, there is still a large magma chamber found at a depth of 50 miles under the CVL. From this magma chamber, large quantities of gases are released. Following faults, the gases flow into the crater lakes or maar lakes, as collapsed volcanic craters filled by water are called by geologists.
Lake Nyos, like other thirty lakes of volcanic origin found in the region, is very deep (more than 650 feet) and surrounded by rocky cliffs. In the tropical climate of Cameroon, the warm superficial water layer will form a sort of cap covering the entire lake.
Volcanic gases, like sulfur- and carbon-dioxide, coming from the ground, become more and more concentrated at the bottom of the lake. Geologists are still not sure why the cap of warm water, holding the gases on the bottom of the lake, failed that night. Perhaps an earthquake or volcanic eruption on the bottom of the lake disrupted the water stratification. A rumbling noise reportedly was heard from the vicinity of Lake Nyos just before the catastrophe. Perhaps rain disrupted the water stratification or caused one or more landslides to fall into the lake. The gas-rich water from the bottom reached the surface, an explosive degassing of 1.6 million tons of carbon-dioxide occurred, forming a 160 feet thick layer of carbon-dioxide above the lake. The cloud, with a density higher than the surrounding air, traveled as far as 15 miles from the lake into the surrounding valleys. At a level of 6 to 8 percent, carbon-dioxide can lead to almost immediate unconsciousness and death. Some survivors later reported a strange smell, a white-translucent cloud and family members who suddenly and without apparent cause collapsed.
It is curious to note that folktales helped to discover the mechanism that caused the catastrophe. According to tales of magical springs found in the region , as soon as a small animal, like a toad or bird, approaches the water, they will drop dead, as happened at Nyos. Geologists discovered that the supposed haunted springs are hot springs with a very high level of volcanic gases. It seemed reasonable to assume that at the bottom of Lake Nyos similar springs exist, releasing large quantities of toxic gases into the lake. Other folktales include haunted lakes that will explode or drown people. Maybe such old stories about killer lakes are based on past disasters similar to what happened in 1986. As people didn’t know of the volcanic origin of the lakes, they attributed the lake’s misbehavior to supernatural powers, like gods, spirits or enraged ancestors. For a long time, the shores of Lake Nyos were considered haunted and taboo. Only later people, ignoring the local traditions and taboos, settled there.
“Killer lakes” like Nyos are very rare. On August 15, 1984, an explosion, probably caused by a sudden gas eruption, killed 37 people at Lake Monoun, also located in Cameroon. The shores of Lake Kivu, located at the border of Rwanda and Congo, are densely populated. The levels of carbon-dioxide measured in Lake Kivu, of volcanic and bacterial origin, are also extraordinarily high.
To prevent future catastrophic events, degassing pipes were installed in Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun. However, this solution works only for smaller lakes and Lake Kivu, with its gas concentration slowly rising, is still considered by many experts as a potentially dangerous lake.
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