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Article: Cameroon's killer lakes: a rising threat. (carbon dioxide buildup in Lake Monoun and Lake Nyros, Africa)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- April 2, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In August 1984, little Lake Monoun in the African nation of Cameroon briefly captured international attention when it suddenly belched a cloud of carbon dioxide gas that asphyxiated 37 people. Scientists might have written the event off as a freak occurrence except that it happened again just 2 years later at nearby Lake Nyos. That time, more than 1,700 people perished.
Lake scientists who have studied Monoun and Nyos now say that carbon dioxide is building up in the lakes so quickly that it raises the risk of new catastrophic releases. The gas comes from springs of carbonated groundwater that percolate upward into the bottom of these volcanically formed crater ...