TIL What A Limnic Eruption Is
In 1984, 37 people mysteriously died on a road next to Lake Monoun in Cameroon. Two years later 1,746 people and thousands of animals died around their village in the same fashion at nearby Lake Nyos. Scientists later discovered the deaths were caused by what they named a limnic eruption.
Both of these lakes are deep crater lakes, water filled remains of ancient volcanic activity. Both of these lakes still have the old magma tubes, which slowly leak CO2. Because the lakes are so deep the water pressure keeps the CO2 from coming to the surface. After hundreds of years the pressure gets so great that any disturbance will set off the ‘limnic eruption’ and cause a cloud of deadly CO2 gas to blanket the low lying areas, as the gas is denser than air. Without oxygen to breathe animals and humans will fall unconscious and die.
The cause of the eruptions at these lakes was thought to be a landslide that sent rocks down to the bottom and disturbed the pressurized gas down below.
These eruptions are the only two to have been known to happen in the recorded history of humanity, so they are extremely rare. Although there was a local legend that said evil spirits would occasionally leave the lake to kill people, so maybe an historical limnic eruption started that tale.
Don’t worry about it happening near you unless you live near a lake that meets three criteria:
- 1. THE LAKE MUST BE DEEP – Every 10 meters of depth adds 1 atmosphere of pressure to keep the gas ‘corked’.
- 2. THE CLIMATE MUST BE STABLE – If the temperature of the water changes the colder water will sink to the bottom and the gas filled water will rise to safely release. In a tropical environment like Cameroon the water stays the same temperature year round and doesn’t mix - causing a dangerous buildup.
- 3. A TRIGGER – Landslide, earthquake, cold rain, or just too much gas built up to overcome the water pressure holding it down.
Scientists advised that a pipe be installed in the lakes to pump up the saturated water and mix it to prevent accumulation, creating a visually pleasing fountain. These pipes were eventually installed, and a third lake was discovered to have a potential for a methane based limnic eruption. Nearly two million people live near that lake, named Kivu, so a limnic eruption there would be catastrophic. Pipes have been placed to harvest the methane for power production, thereby turning the deadly gas into useful energy.
Sources:
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@getonthetrain
That is really scary stuff, bro. I live in London so hopefully I'm in the safe zone... for now anyways.
Yea, you're probably safe from this but you have other dangers, like Peckham!
I thought Ireland (or was it Iceland) had an eruption a few years ago and even London airports had to close.
That's true, buddy. But bottom line, we don't host the actual volcano itself! :)
That's good but when it goes down bad unfortunately there's no escape.
Geez, the things we don't know and take for granted. Thankfully I live in a 4 seasons climate around the Great Lakes in Canada. I couldn't imagine what it might be like to live in 3rd world villages and not have access to information like this. Thank God for the scientists who figured out how to harvest the deadly gases into energy but also stop a potential catastrophe.
I enjoyed reading this post - very informative.
It would be terrifying! CO2 is an odorless and invisible gas, so it would just be that suddenly you can't breathe. You wouldn't know what was going on, since you would only have seconds. Horrible thing for those people.
You know what's sad? In first world countries we have C02 detectors available but way too many don't use them and end up losing their lives and their families bc of the odourless gas.
It really is a horrible thing for those people. My heart always hurts for those less fortunate and I feel such a helplessness when I hear about things like this. But I do need to be informed at the same time.
Wow that's nuts, one minute you are fine, the next you are being suffocated by CO2.
I could definitely see tribal people saying the spirits were angry or something similar to explain it.
It is good that we know about that now (personally, I did not before reading your article) and can take preventive decisions to avoid the worst...
Hopefully it never happens again
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We almost died turning on our furnace the first time in an apartment in Houston. The chimney pipe was rusted almost shut, which deprived the furnace of oxygen and caused it to start slowly pumping out carbon monoxide. Should have been inspected by the owner before we moved in but wasn't. Fortunately my wife had bought the smoke detectors with the built-in CO alarm, which woke us from a sound sleep at 2am, telling us by recording to open the windows immediately.
OMG, what year did this happen?
Oh, probably 2003 (having a small child at the time means that there were lots of other sleep-related reasons for fuzzy memory). We were lucky. CO is toxic to almost all cells, but because brain cells are such energy hogs they usually see the damage first.