Killer Lakes

1) Why are the lakes of Cameroon killer? 2) What limnological phenomenon has taken several human lives on the Great Lakes?

3) How did poor communication turn a shallow lake in Louisiana into a Killer Lake?

Cameroon, Africa

www.montageplus.co.uk/commonlink/ findout/cameroon.htm

www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/ Nyos.html

15 August 1984 In the vicinity of Lake Monoun 37 people died mysteriously

www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/ Nyos.html

Rumors of terrorism and chemical and/or biological weapons quickly spread Cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation

Lake Nyos Tropical Maar Lake Probably only a few hundred years old

www.school2.ru/~V.Mazin/ Nyos/Nyos1.html

www.mala.bc.ca/~earles/ nyos-feb01.htm

About 1100 m wide, 1900 m long and 208 m deep

21 August 1986 At about 9:30 pm, a series of rumblings were heard

Hundreds of people suddenly lost consciousness

The few survivors woke 6 to 36 hours later

1700 people and 3000 cattle were killed by asphyxiation

www.disasterrelief.org/Disasters/ 990901lakenyos/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/487514.stm

No birds, insects or small mammals were seen for 48 hours Areas up to 10 km away from the lake were impacted

24 August 1986 Swiss missionary helicopters in the area report the disaster to the outside world

www.geology.sdsu.edu/.../Thumblinks/ nyos_page.html

The once clear lake is now redbrown

What happened??? George Kling

http://www.eeb.lsa.umich.edu/eebfacultydetails.asp?ID=74

In 1985, he went to Lake Nyos to collect sediment cores

In 1986 international team of scientists rushed to the site

Hypothesis 1: A volcanic eruption at the bottom of the lake released toxic gas. Evidence: Survivors had felt warmth Survivors had smelled rotten eggs Some victims had burns and sores

Problems with Hypothesis 1: No sulfur was detected in the lake water, around the lake or on the dead bodies

Kling et al. 1987

No evidence of craters at the bottom of the lake

No hot water present at the bottom of the lake

Hypothesis 2: Limnological processes resulted in the disaster

CO2 (which is lethal in high concentrations) built up in the deep water and was somehow released.

How did the gas build up and why was it released?

Kling et al. 2001

Tropical Maar Lake

Soda springs beneath the lake release CO2 in the monimolimnion

At 200 meters, water can hold 5 times its own volume in CO2

CO2
CO2

CO2

Prior to the explosion, it is estimated that 1 L of water contained 1-5 L of dissolved gas
98-99% of this was CO2

Estimates are that 1.2 km3 of CO2 was released

Lake level dropped by over a meter

What triggered the gas release? Seismic shock

Internal seiche

Heavy rain and/or flood

Landslide

What about the fact that. Survivors felt warm and had smelled rotten eggs

Some victims had burns and sores

How to keep this from happening again? Solution De-gas the lake

Problem Who will pay for it? How to de-gas in a controlled way?

The Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, USAID The Cameroonian Inter-Ministerial Committee for the NyosMonoun Degassing Program The French Embassy in Cameroon Degassing began March 2001

www.mala.bc.ca/~earles/ nyos-feb01.htm

It will take 1 pipe 15 years to de-gas Nyos

There is also now a pipe degassing Manoun

Even bigger problem is Lake Kivu, Rwanda

Two thousand times bigger than Nyos and two million people live around its shores CO2 and methane
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/ a002300/a002353/

www.ucl.ac.uk/geolsci/research/ sed-basin/introduc.htm

Paleoecological evidence suggests that Lake Kivu has exploded at least 5 times

In January 2002, a volcano poured molten lava into Lake Kivu

Lake Michigan

Montrose Harbor, Chicago 26 June 1954

BIG TIDAL WAVE HERE!

Many Swept Into Lake; Fear 10 Killed Mother of 11 Among Victims 3 Divers, Boats Hunt Others
Three Bodies Already Found

From the Chicago Daily News:

Witnesses claimed: 25-mile-wide tidal wave

3 to 10 feet high

Many were swept off the pier, 8 died

Supercharged surface seiche

Coroner cites algae in teen's death

By DON BEHM, Sept. 5, 2003
http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/notedevents/bluegreen/bluegreen_9-5-03.html

After a yearlong investigation, the Dane County coroner has concluded that the mysterious death of a Cottage Grove teenager last summer likely was the first in the nation caused by exposure to a toxin released by algae.
Another teen also was in the pond with Rogers and later became sick, complaining of severe diarrhea and abdominal pain. He survived. Tests of blood and stool samples from both boys found the common bluegreen algae, known as Anabaena flos-aquae, and its toxin, Anatoxin-a

Lake Peigneur, New Iberia, Louisiana

www.acadianmuseum.com/ annex.html

5.3 km2 in surface area, but only 1-2 m deep

Lake has Jefferson Island, which has the Rip Van Winkle Live Oak Botanical Garden

November 1980

www.long-intl.com/company.htm

Wilson Brothers Co. had been hired by Texaco to drill for oil. Rig is out in the middle of the lake

At 1,228 ft problems started. The rig started to tilt

The lake turned into a giant whirlpool

and went down drain that had been punched in the bottom of the lake

The lake was connected by the Delcambre Canal to the Gulf of Mexico, twelve miles away

So the water just kept flowing

The ever-emptying lake caused the canal to lower by 3.5 feet and to start flowing in reverse.

A fifty foot waterfall (the highest ever to exist in the state) formed where the canal water emptied into the crater.

Within 7 hours, the lake was gone

Gone also were the $5 million oil rig a second drilling rig a tugboat

eleven barges from the canal

a barge loading dock seventy acres of Jefferson Island and its botanical gardens

What happened?? The lake was on top of a salt dome Salt domes tend to be the home of salt mines Diamond Crystal Salt Mine Texaco knew about the salt mine, they asked the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers

The Corp contacted Diamond Crystal but.

Freshwater in a salt mine is a big problem

www.paul-deakin.freeserve.co.uk/ salt_mine.htm

the 50 mine workers all escaped

Seven lawsuits were filed, including: Diamond Crystal sued Texaco for ruining its very lucrative mine (they got $32M in out-of-court settlement)

Texaco sued the salt company for not telling them where the mine was (they lost)

The drilling company (Wilson Bro) sued Texaco for the loss of their oil rig

Rip Van Winkle Gardens sued both Diamond and Texaco for the loss of buildings and plants, including 30,000 poinsettias ready to bloom for Christmas (got $12.8 M out-of-court settlement)

3 dogs died in the incident Lake Peigneur is now 1,300 feet deep

Concepts to know
What limnological processes resulted in the the Lake Nyos gas disaster? How do surface sieches become killer?