Lake Nyos: The Night a Lake Killed 1,700 People

Podcast: Yore Town · Beard Laws Studio, Bleav

Opublikowano: 2026-08-17

On the night of August 21, 1986, families living beneath Lake Nyos in Cameroon went to sleep with no reason to believe they were in danger. By morning, roughly 1,700 people were dead. There was no massive fire. No flood had swept through the villages. No lava had destroyed their homes. In many places, almost everything was still standing. The killer was the air itself. Lake Nyos had suddenly released an enormous amount of carbon dioxide stored deep beneath its surface. Invisible and heavier than the surrounding air, the gas traveled downhill into valleys...