In Cameroon, in west-central Africa, there is a lake called Lake Nyos. Although the scenery is pleasant enough to make you feel like you're in paradise, it's actually a deserted no-man's land.
It's not that it's too remote, it's because 1,700 people lost their lives in that disaster more than 30 years ago, so Cameroon** locked down the place.
Even in 2022, there are many survivors of the disaster of that year, and every time they think of the tragic situation of that night, they shudder. So, what really happened more than thirty years ago?
How did the beautiful Lake Nyos take the lives of 1,700 people?
The death toll on Lake Nyos is disturbing, with villagers congregating around the lake to enjoy the scarce water and livestock thriving. However, the villagers found a problem: every once in a while, animal carcasses appeared, at first just small animals, but over time, more and more animals died, including even large domestic animals.
This alarmed the villagers, who thought that there was the wrath of the gods in Lake Nyos. To appease the gods, the villagers began to perform regular sacrifices around the lake.
After the sacrifice began, the villagers spent two days of tranquility, but the deaths of livestock and animals did not improve significantly, so the villagers began to intensify the sacrifice.
Despite this situation, people who are accustomed to living in this land have no intention of leaving. However, it wasn't until 1986 that the villagers realized that the land was no longer habitable for humans.
Disaster struck, and thousands died. On the night of August 21, 1986, the people of Africa had fallen asleep, and only Alhaji, who lived the farthest from the lake, was still on his way home.
When Alhaji returned home and was about to lie down in bed and sleep, a loud train whistle suddenly sounded outside the window. This baffled Alhaj, who had seen trains but had never heard of them near his hometown.
Out of curiosity, Alhaji walked out the door to see what was going on.
As soon as Al Haji arrived at his doorstep, he noticed that his surroundings had changed dramatically. Yellow smoke filled the area, and an unpleasant smell of rotten eggs came to my nose.
Suddenly, a huge column of water appeared on Lake Nyos, causing Alhaji to fall to his knees and beg the gods for forgiveness. But this was not the work of the gods, and the gods would not have come to his rescue at this time.
A few minutes later, Alhaji lost consciousness. The next day, when the sun was high, he slowly regained his senses, and wondered that although it was time to work, there was no one in the village.
He rushed home and wept bitterly when he saw the tragic situation inside the door.
Image source network, Alhaj's 31 relatives all lost their lives in their sleep, including his family. When he walked out of the room and tried to find the survivors, he found that no one in the entire village was alive except for him, not even the livestock of every family.
What was once a thriving village was turned into a dead cemetery overnight. What is even more frightening is that the clear Lake Nyos suddenly turns blood-orange on this day, and the surrounding villages also suffer disaster, many of which are left without a single survivor.
According to statistics, the disaster caused at least 1,700 deaths, more than 4,000 livestock deaths, and the number of small animal deaths cannot be counted.
Cameroon: A small but cultural melting pot, the tragedy of Lake Nyos draws global attention Cameroon, a small African country with a unique geographical location, spanning multiple regions and a variety of cultural and geographical characteristics, is the first choice for many people to travel to Africa.
Lake Nyos has attracted many photographers from Western countries. However, a horrific incident took place around this beautiful lake that attracted global attention.
Cameroon** attaches great importance to this case and immediately sent someone to investigate. At first, investigators thought it might be a case of poisoning.
According to the situation at the scene and the autopsy report, the poison required to poison so many people and livestock is far more than can be provided around Lake Nyos.
Did *** put poison gas? After all, such a scenario would only have occurred during World War II. However, according to survivors, no planes passed by that day, and it was even less possible to drop gas bombs.
The investigators decided to first ask the survivors what they had experienced. A group of survivors, represented by Alhaji, told investigators what had happened the night before.
However, Alhaji and the other survivors insist that this is the gods' punishment for them because of the lake's blood-orange color. Investigators certainly won't accept the results, but the investigators became alarmed when they heard Alhaji describe the smell of rotten eggs he smelled.
According to the investigators' experience, rotten egg odors are usually released when sulfide volatilizes, and sulfide gases are lethal to humans. But where do these large quantities of sulfide gas come from?
To do this, investigators began to compare the survivors' profiles. After comparison, investigators found that in this incident, only people who lived far from Lake Nyos survived.
Could it be that the beautiful Lake Nyos is to blame for the 1,700 deaths? What's going on with that blood-orange lake? Experts first compared similar events, such as the eruption of Mount Pere on the island of Martinique in 1902 and the eruption of Mount Slila in Indonesia in 1979.
Both extinct eruptions were accompanied by massive toxic gas leaks, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. The reason for the contrast with these events is that the appearance of Lake Nyos was also due to volcanic eruptions.
Could it be that the strange orange-red color that exerted its magic that led to this tragedy?
Source: Why did the lake turn orange-red? Investigators reveal the truth! In Lake Nyos, investigators discovered the presence of iron, which was taught in chemistry class to show that many forms of iron are orange-red.
So, where does this iron come from? Investigators revealed that it may be related to the large amount of siderite at the bottom of the lake. This siderite is taken out of the ground in the huge ** of the lake, which in turn turns the lake water is orange-red.
Although the orange-red water of the lake was not the cause of death, Cameroon** decided to seek support from other countries in order to uncover the truth of the incident. Soon after, the U.S. state of Oregon provided information on a huge crater lake resembling Lake Nyos, which gave Cameroonian investigators important clues.
Although the volcano has become extinct, the magma beneath it is still flowing, which may be related to the appearance of the orange-red color of the lake.
Image source network: These magma will release large amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide during movement, and the gushing of gas will form columns of water on the surface of the lake, just like the case of Lake Nyos.
As a result, investigators began to study whether Lake Nyos had a large amount of carbon dioxide gas. Cameroon** fully supported and used large machinery to pump away a large amount of water from the lake.
From the bottom of the lake, a large amount of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide are emitted from it every day. So why don't these gases surface, but instead accumulate at the bottom of the lake?
This is because the water at the bottom of the crater lake is hot, making it difficult to dissolve carbon dioxide, so carbon dioxide can only be pressed by the water to collect in the ground, causing water jets to eject.
Although we inhale and exhale carbon dioxide every day, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air is only close to 003%, but this carbon dioxide can cause a large number of deaths.
Why is there such a terrifying phenomenon in the originally calm Lake Nyos? The answer is not simply gas killing, but carbon dioxide suffocation. Although carbon dioxide is not toxic, large amounts of carbon dioxide can inhibit the breathing of oxygen by living organisms, causing life to suffocate.
Lake Nyos is located at the equator, there is no winter and no summer, and the difference in temperature between the bottom and the surface of the lake creates a gas cycle. In other volcanic lakes, the low temperature at the bottom of the lake causes the gas to be carried away by the lake water, creating a small column of water.
However, due to the lack of winter, carbon dioxide and other gases continue to accumulate in Lake Nyos, and once it erupts, it forms a huge column of water, which is terrifying.
According to expert estimates, Lake Nyos contains enough carbon dioxide to cover the surrounding 25 kilometers of villages. Thus, on that disastrous day, the countryside around Lake Nyos fell silent.
As for the cause of the suddenness of Lake Nyos, experts speculate that a huge rock may have fallen to the bottom of the lake due to a landslide. The stone fell into Lake Nyos, like a Mentos thrown into a Coke bottle, which immediately changed the unstable state of the lake, triggering a huge **.
At the same time, some experts believe that this is due to a small eruption of the volcano under Lake Nyos, which caused carbon dioxide to gush out of the bottom of the lake. However, the reason for this remains a mystery to this day, but carbon dioxide is still accumulating in the interior of Lake Nyos, and this potential time bomb still hangs over local life.
Lake Nyos, a hidden time bomb, killed 1,700 people due to excessive levels of carbon dioxide at the bottom of the lake. However, thanks to the efforts of Cameroon**, the installation of CO2 pumping equipment and CO2 detection devices has made it a haven for wildlife.
This event has made us deeply aware of the power of nature, and while we can prevent such events from happening again, reverence for nature is still indispensable. Today, Lake Nyos has regained its calm and is a beautiful lake, the result of generations of hard work.