The Killer Lakes

Podcast: Disturbing History · Disturbing History-True Stories

Opublikowano: 2026-10-09

On the night of August 21, 1986, a small crater lake in the highlands of northwest Cameroon released something close to a quarter of a cubic mile of carbon dioxide in a matter of minutes. The gas was heavier than air. It poured over the rim of the crater, ran down the valleys the way water would have, and passed through the villages of Nyos, Cha and Subum while people were finishing supper or already asleep. The official death toll is one thousand seven hundred and forty-six. That number is an estimate, because soldiers and relatives buried the dead before...