A few years ago I wrote a poem loosely based this event.<p>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.<p>So I hope you enjoy it, too:<p><pre><code> 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.</code></pre>
Horseshoe Lake, in Mammoth Lakes, California, had a substantial CO2 vent in the early 2000s:
<a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs172-96/" rel="nofollow">http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs172-96/</a><p>300 tons per day at the time.<p>I visited in 2002. There were danger signs everywhere, advising people to stay away from the lake itself, and away from low-lying depressions.<p>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.<p>The whole situation was so eerie that I bugged out even without taking any pictures.
Wow, 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.
"Also worrisome is Lake Kivu, a lake over 1,000 times larger than Nyos and in a much more populous area."<p>I stayed on the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu and had a great relaxing time. Met many peace core volunteers.<p>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.
>As the CO2 settled, every flame and fire was immediately extinguished, a sign of the doom descending all around Lake Nyos<p>Despite being relatively enlightened due to living in a modern society, I would be freaked the fuck out if I witnessed this personally.
bad 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.
Given 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.
Maybe geologic sequestration of excess CO2 isn't a good idea.[1]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.undeerc.org/pcor/sequestration/whatissequestration.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.undeerc.org/pcor/sequestration/whatissequestrati...</a>
"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.
This 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.
<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event</a><p>Hydrogen sulfide caused Permian extinction.<p>My favorite theory is that it was caused by massive increase in volcanic activity which was itself caused by a giant meteor hitting earth.
One of my favorites podcasts did a great episode on this! <a href="http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-can-a-lake-explode/" rel="nofollow">http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-can-a-lake-ex...</a>
This is hardly HN material, but this article included the best application of the Cloud To Butt browser extension I've seen yet.<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/J230zHa.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/J230zHa.png</a>