A New Hydrogeochemical and Geotectonical Interpretation of the Lake Nyos Disaster in Cameroon

Lake Nyos covering an area of 275 ha is situated at an elevation of about 1,400 m in Cameroon in Central Africa. In the evening of Aug 21, 1986, an enormous volume of gas suddenly escaped from the lake, the gas raising above the lake as a heavy cloud and continuing to move downwards a valley. On its...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:GeoJournal 1991-12, Vol.25 (4), p.367-370
Main Author: Kvet, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa
Bgi / Prodig
Cameroon
Carbon dioxide
Disasters
Earth crust
Earthquakes
Equatorial Africa
Freshwater
Geysers
Hydrogen
Lake water
Mineral water
Water cycle
Water pollution
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Summary:Lake Nyos covering an area of 275 ha is situated at an elevation of about 1,400 m in Cameroon in Central Africa. In the evening of Aug 21, 1986, an enormous volume of gas suddenly escaped from the lake, the gas raising above the lake as a heavy cloud and continuing to move downwards a valley. On its path it traversed several villages to leave some 1,700 human victims. About 3,000 head of cattle and other animals perished, too. The gas eruption in Lake Nyos allows solely a deep inorganic origin of the CO sub(2), and CO sub(2) ascent along intersecting ruptures to be considered. Enormous gas volumes can be liberated from ascension paths with voids in the deep sections of the Earth's crust rather than from the water-dissolved phase (a lake) on the Earth's surface. In this case, rupture activity rather than volcanic activity was probably involved.
ISSN:0343-2521
1572-9893
DOI:10.1007/BF02439486