Contributed by the Fluids Engineering Division for publication in the JOURNAL OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING. Manuscript received by the Fluids Engineering Division January 16, 2002; revised manuscript received November 13, 2003. Associate Editor: M. W. Plesnial.
On August 21, 1986, a large quantity of water and gas, mainly was released from Lake Nyos in Cameroon, leading to the deaths by asphyxiation of more than 1700 people, Freeth and Kay 1. Based in part on eyewitness reports made to an international team of volcanologists and biologists that visited the site, the event was initiated by a very large column of water and gas that suddenly erupted from a point in the lake. The gas desorbed from the water filled the lake basin to a great height and then flowed into the populated valleys below. The earliest reports by the volcanologists are collected in 2. More recent...
