Exploding lakes in myth and reality: an African case study

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Abstract In the night of 21 August, 1986. Lake Nyos, a crater lake in the Cameroon Grassfields of West Central Africa, ‘exploded’ and sent out a cloud of carbon dioxide that killed more than 1800 people. Ultimately the causes of the explosion were scientifically determined to have been limnological. They were part of a process, much like the opening of a champagne bottle, in which carbon dioxide that has collected at the bottom rises quickly to the top and, following the ‘pop’ of the cork, sends out a liquid mixture of wine and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide at the bottom of small Lake Nyos (roughly the size and shape of New York's Chrysler Building; 319m in height) was disturbed by an unknown force that caused it to ‘pop’ out as a deadly cloud about 700 m long, deep and wide. Stories about ‘misbehaving’ or exploding lakes had circulated in the region for many years before the 1986 explosion, and continue to circulate. This article summarizes eighty years of myth collection carried out by ethnographers, historians, administrators and missionaries who visited prior to the 1986 explosion. It also adds information about myth transformations and new folklore explanations for the Nyos explosion over 13 years following the explosion, and contributes to the discussion of implications for disaster relief in any large-scale catastrophe.