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.
