Lake+Nyos

__Lake Nyos__

Cameroon is a country in Africa which borders the Gulf of Guinea. It is surrounded by countries such as Chad and Nigeria. Lake Nyos, located in North West Cameroon, about 322km Northwest of Yaounde, is a deep crater lake on the edge of an inactive volcano. (See image one). Underneath this lake lies magna. This leaks carbon dioxide into the water, changing it to carbonic acid. There have only been two cases of this happening, the other at Lake Monoun, which is only 100km away from Lake Nyos. This was a much smaller disaster, killing 37 people.

The Lake Nyos disaster occurred on August 21, 1986. Possibly triggered by a landslide, about 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide was suddenly emitted, suffocating 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in close villages. The gas rose at nearly 100km an hour, until spilling into two valleys and travelling quickly to the nearby villages.