The deadly cloud, which likely formed within a span of just a few minutes, killed people, livestock, and other animals within a 15-mile (24-kilometer) radius. A sudden landslide of rock or an increase in heating from below by volcanic activity appears to have forced bubbles of CO 2 gas to the surface, where the bubbles combined to form a suffocating cloud whose volume could have been as large as 0.3 cubic mile (1.2 cubic kilometers). Since the surface waters of this tropical lake did not cool enough to descend, concentrations of dissolved CO 2 gas built up in the water, hovering close to the lake’s floor. ![]() In the case of Lake Nyos, however, mixing did not occur, because in the tropics temperatures remain relatively warm year-round. In the predawn hours of August 21, 1986, a volcanic lake in Cameroon belched a cloud of carbon dioxide (CO 2) that asphyxiated more than 1,700 people. The CO 2 was likely generated by volcanic activity. In other volcanic lakes the turn of the seasons alters the density of the water at the surface so that it periodically mixes with the waters below.
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