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Lake Nyos suffocated over 1,700 people in one night
- scarygliders 10y agoScroll down to the bottom of that article and... "Find a hotel near lake Nyos". Er, no, thank you.
- MollyR 10y agoWow, the lake turning red and so many people dying sounds like a biblical style event. It's great to have a scientific explanation of what happened.
- CPLX 10y agoOr perhaps the Bible is full of Biblical-style tellings of poorly understood at the time natural events.
- DanielBMarkham 10y agoDidn't James Cameron narrate a TV show a few years back which had the premise that the biblical Exodus was in fact the eruption of a nearby volcano?
- ZanyProgrammer 10y agoAh the famous archaeologist and scientist James Cameron?
- ferentchak 10y agoHe did an extensive study of that tribe of blue people
- DanielBMarkham 10y agoTwo hours, and I never liked that. I kept rooting for the technological overlords.
- dzolvd 10y agoHis name is James, James Cameron The bravest pioneer No budget too steep, no sea too deep Who's that? It's him, James Cameron James, James Cameron explorer of the sea With a dying thirst to be the first Could it be? Yeah that's him! James Cameron --credit: South Park
- trhway 10y agoThe Tigris/Euphrates basin (Mesopotamia) was flooded regularly, and given that it was a cradle of our agricultural civilization 5-10K years ago i, being an atheist who sees Jesus story as an alien visit record, read the Noah story almost as just a real ship's log :)
- donkeyd 10y ago> who sees Jesus story as an alien visit record Could you elaborate on this? I've never heard or read anybody say anything like this before.
- trhway 10y ago>I've never heard or read anybody say anything like this before. that would be strange. A lot of science fiction contains a notion of an alien(s) perceived as a God(s) by native people of the planet being visited. In case of Jesus we have all the typical stuff - medical nanobots and food replicators, alien species in the "skies" who conquered space and time, and we have pretty clear message (well, we have millions of pages of philosophy written about it, so it is my brief short take on it) - take control over and minimize your violence and develop empathy, and that would speed up (or remove the main obstacles to) the development of your civilization to be able to join the others. Tightly managed, if not abolished, violence and high communication capabilities (direct mind to mind like) are what we think as among the characteristics of developed civilizations. May be it is not the result, may be it is the tool to get there? Anyway, such attempts to help the development of native civilizations is known to be futile (again, well explored in science fiction) and Jesus obviously was an inexperienced eager to help and frustrated by what he observed observer who went rogue. And thus we have the "Cup of Wrath", the communication with the Mission Command when the Command orders that to minimize consequences of the perpetrated Prime Directive violation the "god scenario" would proceed to completion (which probably didn't include real or full death, yet it was obviously something that one would be happy to avoid - may be something like real death with upload moments before, again going along science fiction lines one can interpret that way the communication with "God" during the crucifixion as well as obvious initial weakness/discomfort with the the new body ("don't touch") when Jesus met Mary after the resurrection (also the 2 angels [dressed] in white busy with some chores right there in the cave after Jesus was resurrected) while some time later he gets used to the body and lets Tomas to inspect it). There is a lot in the story that can be clearly interpreted in the science fiction style, and between God and aliens i bet on aliens :) Now, here is the really fun part - an idea that we probably do have sample of the Jesus' alien DNA somewhere around (despite the aliens' precautions taken like the hard ultra-violet cleaning of all the biological material in the cave tomb of Jesus) - the "Holy Grail" whatever it is, like say the Dan Brown's child/ancestors of Jesus. Would you like to sequence that DNA? And according to the legends the medical nanobots were still on/with the Holy Grail and still functioning.
- ansible 10y agoYou mean like the re-flooding of the Black Sea being the source event of the Great Flood story in Genesis?
- 205guy 10y agoThere are many candidate theories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth#Claims_of_historicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth#Claims_of_historici... I like the Persian gulf one, after all the Sumerians who lived there later had a myth of which the Noah story seems like a retelling.
- empath75 10y agoImagine how you'd attempt to describe it without knowing anything about chemistry or volcanism.
- snarkyturtle 10y agoConsidering that only 8 people survived, I'd imagine they would've thought they were the chosen ones and God smited the rest.
- centizen 10y agoThe eight survivors in this case survived because they understood what was happening and fled to high ground though.
- Ericson2314 10y agoIf you knew stories about the lake, wouldn't you try to get away from it? And by the pictures away <==> up in most cases. Also, I feel like at least my flight instinct prefers higher ground. Not saying the 8 survivors didn't know what's up, but stuff like this is definitely how religious stories get formed in general.
- mjevans 10y agoNatural instinct is to run away. It's like how the smart thing to do is run to the side of a tree that's starting to fall over (perpendicular to it's projected fall). A good way of describing it to the locals might be that 'bad gasses come from the lake and cling to the ground, like a leaden miasma from hell'.
- fanf2 10y agoYou don't want to be very close to a tree that is falling over because of the way the roots tear up the ground. Or, if the tree has been cut down and its direction of fall is not clear of obstructions, the cut end of the trunk could fly around in unexpected ways. Best to be well clear on the far side of the direction of fall.
- donretag 10y agoLake Tovel in Italy used to turn red in the summer. Here is both the reason why from both a legend and a scientific viewpoint: http://www.albergolagorosso.it/eng/perche_lago_rosso.php http://www.albergolagorosso.it/eng/perche_lago_rosso.php
- bnjmn 10y agoI wish I'd known about this image when I wrote the poem I posted above!
- nilved 10y agoThis is hardly HN material, but this article included the best application of the Cloud To Butt browser extension I've seen yet. http://i.imgur.com/J230zHa.png http://i.imgur.com/J230zHa.png
- xeromal 10y agoOh man. What a destructive extension!
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- the_duke 10y agoConsidering the upvotes, it seems to be of interest to the HN crowd. It was certainly interesting for me. That said, "my butt spread far and wide, killing people ..." is hilarious.
- nilved 10y agoSorry, to be clear, the article is great; my post was juvenile.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoAs a long-time user of the Cloud-to-Butt extension, I appreciate your comment. Good to know I'm not alone. :).
- tvmalsv 10y agoAgreed! I installed it a long time ago and always forget that it's there until I run across a substitution, and can't help but chuckle. Yeah, it's sophomoric, but it makes me laugh and I like that.
- broahmed 10y agoI find it fascinating that when sufficient time has passed, it becomes acceptable to joke/make light of an event that killed 1000+ people. By the way, I don't make this comment to embarrass or shame you; just making an observation. Sometimes I too grin at such jokes, but reflecting on the very real lives lost (and the countless family/friends of those who were connected to them) quickly sobers me. And thanks for mentioning the plugin; downloaded! (I don't care for its use in this particular article but I'm sure it'll give me some chuckles when browsing tech articles)
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- bnjmn 10y agoA few years ago I wrote a poem loosely based this event. I know unsolicited poetry from strangers on the internet is almost always awful, but this poem still holds up for me, which is pretty unusual for anything I've ever written. So I hope you enjoy it, too: NYOS You took me in on dusky breath, tasted me, tasted nothing, gathered by my easy take that I was oxygen enough for idle inspiration. How swiftly my lack became your lack; my misgiving, your mistake. Your eyes flashed a baffled petition as you fell limp in a thousand different doorways, cribs, embraces, fits and fields, yet I pressed after whatever it was I thought to find in the lowest parts of Cameroon, as foolish in love as a gas trapped in a lake.
- x2398dh1 10y agoI have wondered if the 1986 Ladysmith Black Mambazo / Paul Simon song, "Homeless," is about this tragedy, but I have not been able to find anything online confirming it. The only things I have supporting this are the fact that it came out in 1986 and has the lyrics, "Moonlight sleeping on the midnight lake," and "Strong wind, many dead tonight it could be you." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy3YVyh3mYE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy3YVyh3mYE
- qq66 10y agoThe lyric does fit perfectly but it's not based on Lake Nyos. The Lake Nyos CO2 outgassing was on August 21 and Graceland was released on August 26.
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- zeroer 10y agoIf it means anything to you, I enjoy being hyper-critical, and shitting on strangers on the internet has a special place in my heart, but that poem is pretty good. I'd read more if you published it.
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- wcummings 10y agoI like the ad for hotels "Near Lake Nyos" below the article about how dangerous it is.
- charlesism 10y agoI had a laugh when I noticed that, too. https://twitter.com/charlesismcom/status/764176760355196928 https://twitter.com/charlesismcom/status/764176760355196928
- aandrewc 10y agoOne of my favorites podcasts did a great episode on this! http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-can-a-lake-explode/ http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-can-a-lake-ex...
- Diederich 10y agoHorseshoe Lake, in Mammoth Lakes, California, had a substantial CO2 vent in the early 2000s: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs172-96/ http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs172-96/ 300 tons per day at the time. I visited in 2002. There were danger signs everywhere, advising people to stay away from the lake itself, and away from low-lying depressions. In such forested areas, there is always a background of natural sounds, but that day, there was almost complete silence. Large swathes of trees, especially those nearer the lake itself, were standing, dead and dying. I found a couple of dead birds on the ground, completely undisturbed. The whole situation was so eerie that I bugged out even without taking any pictures.
- DigitalJack 10y agoWhat killed the trees? Was the water acidic from the CO2?
- zymhan 10y agoFrom the article: > Although leaves of plants produce oxygen (O2) from CO2 during photosynthesis, their roots need to absorb O2 directly. The high CO2 concentrations in the soil on Mammoth Mountain are killing trees by denying their roots O2 and by interfering with nutrient uptake. In the areas of tree kill, CO2 makes up about 20 to 95% of the gas content of the soil; soil gas normally contains 1% or less CO2.
- m_mueller 10y agoIs the O2 intake needed by fungi that interact with the tree? Or is it really the plant's own organism?
- science4sail 10y agoThe O2 is consumed by the plant - root cells are dependent on aerobic respiration for their energy.
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- lanius 10y ago>As the CO2 settled, every flame and fire was immediately extinguished, a sign of the doom descending all around Lake Nyos Despite being relatively enlightened due to living in a modern society, I would be freaked the fuck out if I witnessed this personally.
- jdhawk 10y agoVery briefly - then you'd be dead.
- tantalor 10y ago"1.2 cubic kilometers" is a ridiculous unit, because it obscures the cubic power on the kilometer. "1.2 billion cubic meters" would be much better.
- effie 10y agoI'd rather say 1.2 cubic kilometers is easily visualizable, 1.2 billion of whatever not so much.
- nucleardog 10y ago1.2 cubic kilometres is definitely more intuitively visualized, but I'd prefer it taken even further. "Enough CO2 to blanket a 35km by 35km area at 1 metre deep." or "Enough CO2 that, settled at 1 metre deep, it would blanket the land to nearly 20km away." I think either really paints a more easily understood picture of what a colossal amount of gas this actually is.
- vacri 10y agoYou'd probably want to increase the depth in that measure, because phrased that way, it sounds like you could just stand up to avoid the CO2.
- kijin 10y agoAccording to the article, you could actually stand up to live if you were far enough from the lake. People lying on the floor, on the other hand, died.
- ScottBurson 10y agoEven better would have been to give the mass instead of the volume, because the volume depends on the temperature and pressure. Assuming STP, I get 2.16 billion kg, which I guess most people would call 2.16 million tonnes, though I'm rather inclined to write it as 2.16 Tg :-) That's .01% of worldwide annual emissions from burning fossil fuels. (Someone should check my arithmetic -- it's been a long time since I last applied the ideal gas law.)
- teslaberry 10y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event Hydrogen sulfide caused Permian extinction. My favorite theory is that it was caused by massive increase in volcanic activity which was itself caused by a giant meteor hitting earth.
- donretag 10y ago"Also worrisome is Lake Kivu, a lake over 1,000 times larger than Nyos and in a much more populous area." I stayed on the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu and had a great relaxing time. Met many peace core volunteers. Lake Kivu is a major source of methane gas, which powers much of Rwanda. I am assuming they are very aware of the dangers. If something like that would happen at the scale of Lake Kivu, it would be a major catastrophe. That said, I encountered nothing regarding the potential of disaster. Nothing like tsunami/flood zone warnings. Rwanda tends to be a bit more western (aka not chaotic African) in its safety precautions. The DRC on the other side would definitely be more lax.
- gene-h 10y agoThe Lake Kivu gas extraction project or Kivuwatt as it is called is some what new actually, and there is an interesting article about it here[0]. It is probably one of the strangest energy extraction projects in the world. [0]https://www.technologyreview.com/s/536656/lake-kivus-great-gas-gamble/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/536656/lake-kivus-great-g...
- Ericson2314 10y agoThat was a great read, thanks!
- ashaikh 10y agoI was going to work on this. It's really interesting how it works and it is now producing 26 MW of electricity (40% of Rwanda's supply). It's estimated to have capacity to generate another 800 MW. The technology started with a local brewery needing a stable power source. It's super cool. The platform they use is huge.
- donretag 10y agoThanks indeed for the link.
- waqf 10y agoIsn't CO₂ poisoning in humans supposed to cause a panic reaction which would serve as a defence? Why didn't that happen here?
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 10y agoI've never heard of this. Do you have a source? I recently learned that CO2 is toxic to human in large concentrations. It doesn't just displace oxygen in your lungs.
- waqf 10y agoSource: can't find a single really good explanation but https://www.google.com/#q=hypercapnic+alarm+response https://www.google.com/#q=hypercapnic+alarm+response gives you the idea.
- gruturo 10y agoThere is normally still plenty of O2 left in the air, so you are conscious and panic when too much CO2 is around (actually, in your bloodstream rather than around). If a huge amount of CO2 displaces everything else quickly, there is suddenly no O2 at all and you just faint, then die.
- arrosenberg 10y agoThat's why CO2 poisoning is the humane way that lab specimens are put to sleep.
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- _audakel 10y agobad choice of ads - at the end of the article there was a little date widget to "find a hotel near lake Nyos" and choose your departure date and return date.
- DanWaterworth 10y agoWhen will the machines learn...
- Myrmornis 10y agoI mean it was just a small bug, the date selector widget should have been showing departure date only.
- Buge 10y agoWell some people might be interested in visiting it to study it. People visit volcanoes. At least in this case you could wear an oxygen mask and be fairly safe.
- Animats 10y agoMaybe geologic sequestration of excess CO2 isn't a good idea.[1] [1] https://www.undeerc.org/pcor/sequestration/whatissequestration.aspx https://www.undeerc.org/pcor/sequestration/whatissequestrati...
- ScottBurson 10y agoGiven that CO2 levels in the lake have now built up again to be even higher than they were in 1986, according to this article, I wonder if they shouldn't evacuate the area and see if they can set the thing off intentionally. Seems like explosives might do it -- like shaking a soda can.
- eCa 10y agoThat reminded me of an old Alistair McNeil novel set in another geographic area where a natural catastrophy can be expected at some point in time[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_California
- tikhonj 10y agoPretty similar to the plot of A View to a Kill[1] too (an okay Jame Bond movie set in Silicon Valley back when it was aptly named). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_View_to_a_Kill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_View_to_a_Kill
- fastball 10y agoI dunno, last time scientists tried to jumpstart a natural process to alleviate danger, they ended up with a flaming pit that hasn't stopped burning for more than 40 years... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_to_Hell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_to_Hell
- dpark 10y agoAn interesting question is whether this is better than the alternative: methane leaking into the atmosphere for 40 years. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, so unless there was a viable plan to cap the crater, this might have been the lesser of evils. But maybe not. I don't know what the other options were. Maybe it would have self-extinguished the methane leak if it weren't literally on fire.
- Pinatubo 10y agoDid anyone else find the juxtaposition of "over" and a very precise number in the title a bit strange?
- notyourwork 10y agoProbably 1746 confirmed but undoubtedly more.
- yincrash 10y agoThis was an extremely carbonated lake. Seltzer water is about 4 volumes (4:1 CO2 to water measured in volume). The article places the lake at 5 volumes.