Lake Nyos Research Paper
The Lake Nyos Limnic Eruption occurred on August 21, 1986, in Cameroon, Africa. It happened 2 years after the Lake Monoun eruption, which killed 37 people. Both Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun are crater lakes, which means they were created by an eruption around 500 years ago. They are the only volcanic lakes in the world other than Lake Kivu in Rwanda, Africa. A limnic eruption is created by a large amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. It releases no heat, no fire, no smoke, but the gas suffocates everything in the area. The Lake Nyos eruption released around 20 billion gallons of gas. The gas cloud lingered for 2 and a-half days, then wind blew away the remaining carbon dioxide. Most scientists believe a landslide caused
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I became unconscious. I could not open my mouth because then I smelled something terrible ... I heard my daughter snoring in a terrible way, very abnormal.... When crossing to my daughter's bed ... I collapsed and fell ... I wanted to speak, my breath would not come out.... My daughter was already dead." These are the words of Joseph Nkwain, one of the six people of Nyos who survived the deadly eruption. Crater Lakes usually have large amounts of carbon dioxide. Normally, these gasses dissolve as the lake water releases the gas, but over the years, the deep water can become a high-pressure storage unit, with even more CO2. As the gas builds up it adds more pressure. When something disturbs it, it explodes. The effects of the Lake Nyos Limnic Eruption were disastrous. 1,746 people were killed and more than 3,500 cattle were lost. Not only cattle were lost, 3,324 fowl died, 364 sheep, and 561 goats were killed. The land around Lake Nyos was abandoned, resulting in all the crops dying. The people of Nyos, and the surrounding villages, Cha and Subum, suffered not only from loss of people and livestock, but a severe starvation as well. The lack of crops and their farmers caused a great drop in the area’s
I became unconscious. I could not open my mouth because then I smelled something terrible ... I heard my daughter snoring in a terrible way, very abnormal.... When crossing to my daughter's bed ... I collapsed and fell ... I wanted to speak, my breath would not come out.... My daughter was already dead." These are the words of Joseph Nkwain, one of the six people of Nyos who survived the deadly eruption. Crater Lakes usually have large amounts of carbon dioxide. Normally, these gasses dissolve as the lake water releases the gas, but over the years, the deep water can become a high-pressure storage unit, with even more CO2. As the gas builds up it adds more pressure. When something disturbs it, it explodes. The effects of the Lake Nyos Limnic Eruption were disastrous. 1,746 people were killed and more than 3,500 cattle were lost. Not only cattle were lost, 3,324 fowl died, 364 sheep, and 561 goats were killed. The land around Lake Nyos was abandoned, resulting in all the crops dying. The people of Nyos, and the surrounding villages, Cha and Subum, suffered not only from loss of people and livestock, but a severe starvation as well. The lack of crops and their farmers caused a great drop in the area’s