Man and nature have always tested and perfected each other. We fear nature not only because of the need for circular development, but also because of the "inside story" of nature that we cannot understand.
In 1986, in a small village in Cameroon, Africa, a terrifying scene occurred: overnight, only 6 people of the 650 people in the village were left!
What's going on? When the Cameroonian government launched an investigation into the local area, it was found that behind this earth-shattering "massacre" was nothing more than an accidental bloody case caused by a small "stretching movement" of nature.
It turns out that there is a natural lake near the village of Camnyo in Cameroon, which has an average water depth of 200 meters, and when it is calm, it is like a mirror, which is breathtakingly beautiful.
But only those who know the inside story know that Lake Nyos comes from next to the mountain pass, leaving a deep pit for the volcanic eruption, and after being washed away by the accumulated rain, it has its current size.
It looks calm and beautiful, but in fact, the insole is "choppy", and it is possible to have its own "little temper" at any time, thus making the locals pay the price of their lives.
The tragedy in the village of Gamunho was due to the butterfly effect caused by Lake Neo stretching his loins and turning over. Moreover, it was only the village of Gamunio, and several small villages near the lake were attacked to varying degrees.
"It was a nightmare, and it still feels terrible when I think about it, when Death stood in front of me... For more than thirty years, no one has dared to go near that lake..."
Survivors recall the tragedy of 1986, and even though nearly 40 years have passed, they still have palpitations. Because they couldn't believe that the seemingly calm and beautiful lake would suddenly launch an "attack".
That summer night was so common that every local didn't see it as a special day. After a day of hard work, I fell asleep on the starry night.
But no one thought that it was the last night of many people on earth, they did not have time to say goodbye to their families, and they did not even know what was happening, and they died directly in their sleep.
Survivor Alhaji Magagji Jani later recalled that he was awakened by a loud noise, and when he looked out the window, he saw a huge column of water rising straight up into the sky.
Alhaji said: "I heard a terrible, very abnormal sound coming from my daughter's mouth, and I tried to walk to the side of her bed, but I fell to the ground and couldn't get up at all..."
In the process, Alhaji smelled a pungent stench, felt that he had difficulty breathing, and slowly lost consciousness. When he woke up, it was already 9 o'clock the next morning.
Bursts of knocking made Alhaji try to climb to the door, and when he opened it, he was so weak that he could say a word.
It was only then that Alhaji discovered: "My daughter is dead, my neighbors are dead, and I saw almost no signs of life when I left the Nyos Source." ”
Alhaji also learned later that after the night of the terrorist "attack", a total of 1700 people died in their village and the surrounding villages, and the familiar flocks of sheep, birds, and even insects almost lost their chances of survival.
For humanity, it is more cruel than war. But what exactly caused such a fatal injury? What makes people so caught off guard?
In response to this matter, the Government of Cameroon conducted a comprehensive investigation before targeting Lake Nyos. According to the survivors' recollections, the huge column of water came from Lake Nyos, and the smell emanated from there.
At the same time, the villages that really had survivors were actually relatively far away from Neos, and the closer they were to it, the more serious the casualties, and the small villages on their sides were almost completely destroyed.
The once calm lake surface has also changed its appearance after the "awakening", and the clear, blue water has disappeared and replaced it with a rusty color with a dark red.
At first, investigators thought it was a leak of poison gas from a volcanic eruption, after all, someone heard a loud noise and saw a huge jet of impact water.
But the problem is not so simple, if the volcano under Lake Nyos erupts and the poison gas is discharged, it will not become a short-lived environmental reality. It will persist in the air and will have a long-term impact on the environment.
In fact, Lake Nyos almost returned to normal after that night, and although the water color changed, the environment did not harm people anymore.
According to the continuous, vigorous investigation and research of the expert group, an important clue was finally found: there was no volcanic eruption at the bottom of Lake Nyos, but it continued to emit a large amount of carbon dioxide.
Later, the University of Michigan professor Zhizhi Kling and scientist Bill Evans also went to investigate, they found that the lake surface at about 6 o'clock in the morning, the lake surface seems to be shrouded in smoke, and with a smell, if inhaled continuously, it will feel dizzy, nauseous, unable to breathe normally.
Usually, this situation lasts until about 8-10 o'clock, the smoke on the lake surface begins to slowly dissipate, and the smell begins to disappear, basically after 11 am, it will return to the normal lake surface.
It seems understandable that carbon dioxide is the root of the "evil" of Lake Nyos, which not only suffocates people, but also has a foul smell, and a high concentration of odor will directly kill people. That is to say, it is not a poison gas, but it has the same lethality as a poison gas.
Experts have given data on the carbon dioxide content of Lake Nyos: the amount of carbon dioxide flowing into the lake every year is as high as 5 million cubic meters.
So much carbon dioxide is almost absorbed by the lake water, but after accumulating over time, it suddenly causes tragedy at a suitable opportunity: the carbon dioxide that is dormant at the bottom of the lake sticks to the volcanic wall, and when it encounters volcanic shaking, or when the earth's crust changes, it breaks away from the lake and directly erupts.
However, Lake Nyos itself is a volcanic lake, and the nature of its water is different, and its regular stratification can allow the lake to maintain a special chemical balance: the gas in the lake water 9 becomes carbon dioxide, and 10% is hydrogen oxide and other gases, if this balance has not changed, or the lake environment has not changed, the Neo period lake will remain normal.
However, if the lake environment suddenly changes, such as strong agitation and tremor, it will trigger an increase in the carbonic acid of the lake, which will trigger a large amount of carbon dioxide to rush upwards.
Naturally, under such circumstances, the depth of carbon dioxide has also reached a super high, and human beings cannot withstand this test, fainting lightly and dying heavily.
However, in the eyes of experts, these are a very normal natural degassing phenomenon, which is called "lake eruption", which can also be called "lake flipping". However, for the most normal "flip" of Loch Ness itself, it is the tragedy of the lives of thousands of local people.
Some people will wonder, then why the color of the lake has become dark red? Experts have also investigated this, the deep water of Lake Nyos contains a large amount of iron carbonate, which is what we call rhombite, when the lake erupts, they are stirred up, thus changing the color of the lake.
This is nature, it is mysterious, it looks calm but it is turbulent. The so-called strength of our human beings is actually vulnerable in front of it.
In 2008, Guinness Century Records recognized Lake Golf Nyos as "the most desirable lake in the world", which means that although humans can use scientific means to reduce the carbon dioxide content of Lake Nyos, the occurrence of tragedies is reduced. But in fact, there is simply no way to really address its riskiness.
Because of this, Lake Nyos, although it looks beautiful, can only be viewed from a distance. Locals see it as a "killing lake" and move away from its surroundings early.