Exploding Lakes!!!

 I learned something new about a couple of lakes in Cameroon today! Lake Nyos and Lake Mynoun are in Cameroon, They sit atop volcanic ground. I learned that the carbon dioxide dissolves into the lake water. Normally, lakes will release carbon dioxide gradually, but these two lakes don't! It was compared to a shaken soft drink bottle. The reason they are called exploding lakes is that in 1986, this carbon dioxide spontaneously "exploded" out of the water. The problem with that was that CO2 is heavier than oxygen. The massive CO2 cloud wiped out oxygen and suffocated 1700 people! It also killed thousands of animals. Following that incident, there were giant pipes installed in the lakes to release CO2 so that does not happen again. To learn more, watch the YouTube video or click the image below!


 


 

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