The Lake Nyos Disaster - Africa's Killer Lake - A Short Documentary

On August 21st 1986 over 1700 people were killed when Lake Nyos in Cameroon exploded, releasing over 1 cubic km of invisible deadly CO2 gas. We take a look at one of the strangest natural disasters to have occurred in modern history and the danger of this happening again on a much bigger scale...

 Although focused primarily on disasters, this channel is all about the interesting, the strange, the unsolved, the tragic. Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. I hope you enjoy some of the fascinating stories we have here.

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[theravenseye]

One of the strangest natural disasters I have come across, and a warning for an even greater tragedy which may still occur... Sorry for the poor audio quality on this - it was my first attempt at making a video!

[MountainCry]

It's difficult to imagine something more terrifying than waking up to your family dead in your house, going to your neighbor's house and they're dead too, continuing through the area and all people and animals you find are also dead. A waking nightmare.

[freddieclark]

I was onboard a research vessel that had left Douala, Cameroon just 18 hours before the tragedy. We heard the news on the radio while passing through Nigerian waters. It was quite a shock, particularly to the three Cameroonian crewmembers onboard.

[joselineayikoru]

Thank you for covering a disaster from Cameroon, Africa.
I am from Uganda & I dint even know about this.
Few of these incidents from the continent are covered in general.

[blacksabbathmatters]

Mother Nature can be a very cruel mistress.
I feel so bad for the amazing people who silently lost their lives.
Thank you for the great story.

[PiXie]

This was such a horrific event. And what’s even scary, how you mentioned about lake Kivu, when the huge volcanic eruption went off last year at the volcano that sits right to the right of lake Kivu, (that ended up killing many people) there was an extreme amount of worry that it would finally set off the massive amount of trapped carbon dioxide at the bottom of the lake. And they still haven’t set up any form of degassing pipes in lake Kivu yet to this day as far as I know. At least the last time I looked into it. Which is incredibly terrifying, considering how many people live at the base of the volcano/around the lake. Very terrifying indeed. Great video. Very informative:) I have now officially watched all of your videos lol;) Love your work!!💕

[MrSwj]

The speed of death thru poison gas is quite scary. I remember a PBS documentary on forensic medicine first being used to solve crimes at the turn of the 20th century. A hotel had called an exterminator company to spray one of their suites for rat infestation.. They sprayed a deadly dose of cyanide gas inside the vacant sealed room. Unfortunately the gas seeped in the room above and instantly killedl a middle aged couple as they were dressing. The bodies were discovered long after the exterminator company left and the couples instant death remained a mystery until an autopsy revealed cyanide in their systems. Sadly, the hotel and the exterminating company were both absolved because this type of forensic evidence was too new to be considered legal.

[omnibussy]

please keep returning to Africa for these videos. less so for this case, but i know how hard that can be due to the lack of a free press and such thorough censorship of any disaster or tragedy that major corporations or governments could be responsible for but... yeah. people should know.

I'm really enjoying the videos so far, keep it up ❤️

[shaymorcormick]

Mother Nature is truly terryfying with a burp she wiped out a village without a trace.

[flamethrowerflufsalisbury]

Gases are scary as hell, man. I work for a bar. I went to our bar cooler to change a keg out. I remember opening the door & smelling gas, by the time I took 5 steps towards the keg, I was knocked out cold & hit my head on a shelf. I woke up about 6 mins later with ppl standing over me

[davejones]

If there's one thing we can learn from history, it's that we never learn from history.

[alanemarson]

Really enjoyed watching all your videos and your channel deserves to be promoted by the mystic gods of the YouTube algorithm soon!

[tummyfungus]

Wow, I'd never heard of anything like this 😞 how devastating

[taripari]

Holy shit man, I would be scared even standing 10 steps away from that lake

[scarletamazon]

Wow - what a terrifying, horrifying disaster that I'd never heard about. Seeing the photos of the cattle, wiped out and dropped where they'd stood, while thinking of the thousands of people who were affected in exactly the same way - utterly haunting. That survivors story will remain with me. I have a fear of CO2 poisoning, but connected with ordinary gas leaks and house fires, and have CO2 alarms etc. But this... as you said, no warning, and no escape. At least death would have been incredibly quick, with no real time to feel dread or horror, and very quickly overcome. Small mercies and little comfort though.

Hearing about the risk posed by that third lake though, 2000 time larger! 2 million people! Let's hope that the government is taking the right steps to install those de-gassing pipes there as well... but imagining the work and expense involved there, and the history of governmental corruption... fills me with dread.

Just discovered your channel, a hidden gem! Incredibly well done videos, beautifully narrated and paced, and clearly thoroughly researched and explained. This new sub will be watching your old videos and waiting for new ones! Your channel will grow fast I'm sure, and you deserve it for providing high quality content. Thank you!

[theresagura]

I love this channel. I will be watching this forever.

[HurricaneJD]

wow this is crazy I can't imagine what the survivors were thinking, before they understood what had happened. I picture them waking up from a nightmare into a new nightmare. ( speaking about ones that may have went unconscious first and then woke up to escape)

[exrobowidow]

There's a carbon dioxide area in California, near Mammoth Lakes. One or two of the small mountain lakes sometimes has to be closed, and there are warning signs and monitoring equipment. After the horrible event in Africa, I think people everywhere became more aware that stuff like this can happen. Last time we visited Mammoth Lakes in 2019, there were people visiting the lakes and fishing and hiking. Without the monitoring equipment there, I would probably refuse to go there. The whole region is geologically active, too.

[ellenbryn]

Great video as always. Following up your final observations, I looked up to see the latest on Lake Kivu — I thought I remembered some project to deal with it as well. But it's complicated, because that lake has a huge layer of methane and quite a lot more poisonous hydrogen sulfide on top of the Co2 layer.
Scientists have calculated the CO2 concentration on its own is not yet enough to cause an eruption — obviously, the water has to be carbonated to a certain degree — and that in Lake Kivu's case, the problem is methane.

An energy company has been tapping the methane to generate electricity, but demand in the area is insufficient to make a dent in the amount of danger posed by the methane for decades.

Furthermore, as this lake's chemistry is unique, and scientists can only model based on existing data and past event, there's a lot of debate about whether removing the methane and putting processed water back into the lake is a good idea. It will change the lake's chemistry and promote layer mixing, which may then set off a limnic eruption.

Predictably, the energy company's experts insist there is no danger of this, while outside scientists sound the alarm.

Finally, the article notes a fourth small "carbonated" lake has been found in Italy.

Article:

[corvus]

Thank you for covering this. This sort of degassing event is called lake overturn, or more technically, a limnic eruption. Here's hoping we never witness a repeat overturn event in the future.