Lake Nyos

In African mythology, several Cameroonian tribes believe that the souls of the dead reside below the surface of rivers and lakes waiting for their chance at revenge and to haunt the living for years to come. One such lake is Lake Nyos, known to the locals as “the bad lake.” In August of 1986, Lake Nyos claimed the lives of over 1,800 men women and children along with thousands of wild and herded animals in an event that both baffled and scared scientists worldwide. Twenty years since that incident, scientists say that Lake Nyos is as much as a threat to human life as it ever was, and that, “Everyday we wait is just an accumulation of the probability that something bad is going to happen.” Scientists need to figure out what caused the deaths, how to fix it and prevent future inevitable disasters.

After the initial report of the catastrophe, it took medical and government officials two days to arrive because of the lake’s remote location in the small Cameroonian farming town of Wum. When they did arrive they were shocked by what they found: not only had thousands of cattle died along