Skip to content
SYS_TIME: 00:00:00.00//LATENCY: 24MS//NODES: 142//BTC_HASH: 000000000000//TZ: UTC//
X: -100Y: -100
All dispatches
// ENTITY_RECORD  //  TYPE: PERSON

Michel Halbwachs

// OVERVIEW

Nexor's dispatch on the Lake Nyos disaster identifies Michel Halbwachs as the French engineer responsible for designing and field-testing the degassing pipe prototype intended to safely vent the lake's lethal carbon dioxide buildup. According to the broadcast, Halbwachs conducted successful tests of the prototype in 1990, 1992, and 1995, and subsequently spent years lobbying alongside American scientist George Kling to secure full installation funding for a permanent degassing system.

// 1 APPEARANCES IN THE ARCHIVE

How Lake Nyos Killed 1,746 People in One Breath — and Why Lake Kivu Could Do It at 250 Times the Scale
// FILE
2026-04-17

How Lake Nyos Killed 1,746 People in One Breath — and Why Lake Kivu Could Do It at 250 Times the Scale

On the night of August 21, 1986, Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon released an estimated 1.2 cubic kilometers of dissolved carbon dioxide in approximately 20 seconds, suffocating 1,746 people in the surrounding villages. The phenomenon — a limnic eruption — was unknown to science until 1984. A degassing solution existed within years, but took 15 years to fund. Lake Kivu, 55 miles long and holding 250 times the CO2 of Nyos, remains only partially addressed.

// RELATED ENTITIES