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: ORGANIZATION

United States Geological Survey

// OVERVIEW

A single dispatch references the United States Geological Survey in the context of the 1986 Lake Nyos disaster. Nexor reports that the agency employed geochemist Bill Evans, who was deployed to investigate the catastrophic carbon dioxide release that killed 1,746 people. The USGS is framed as the institutional backing behind the scientific response to the event, with Evans cited as a key figure in understanding the limnic eruption mechanism and its potential recurrence at larger scales elsewhere.

// 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