August 1986. A terrifying noise breaks the silence of the night and immediately a poisonous gas cloud emerges from the Lake Nyos.
Most residents of villages that were nearby the lake died of suffocation during sleeping, and there were few of them who tried to run away from the poisonous gas, but in the morning they were found dead.
The few who survived speak of an intense feeling of heat, and people began to cough and spit blood. Also many animals died.
The death toll is unknown but the UNO claimed that they are 1746 but they did not count the dead who were buried by the survivors residents in mass graves immediately after the disaster, before the UNO reaches the area .The authorities did not give the necessary attention and minimized the disaster as a similar incident had occured in August 1984 in Lake Monoun with 37 dead people.
Scientists were asked to unravel the situation but they did not know the explanation of the disaster. Some scientists claimed that there was underground lava and that hydrogen sulfide caused the death of people.
A French volcanologist said that hydrogen sulfide is lighter than air, so it could be dissolved in the atmosphere. He argued that a large amount of odorless carbon monoxide emerged from the lake and killed the inhabitants and animals.
Another scientist from the University of Maryland supported the theory of hydrogen sulphide and explained that this gas 'kills' smell.
Another volcanologist from America rejected both theories of hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide and gave another theory which says that the lake absorbs carbon dioxide and expels it when appropriate conditions creating.
All the theories support pretty much the existence of poisonous gas that emerged from the lake. Some people and animals did not die from the poisonous gas, while the same time other people around them died...
Professor Weiner, head of the medical mission of Israel thinks that the gas was not compact and followed some trails. Thus those people and animals that were in clean areas survived.
No one can tell what stimulated the waters of Lake Nyos, but we can see that the water has reddish brown color after the incident. Maybe there might have been cracks at the bottom but we will never know exactly what happened and how...
Sources: wikipedia, geo.arizona.edu, science.howstuffworks.com
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