Skip to main content

Up Next

Back to Show
Reactions

The Invisible Tsunami That Killed 1,500 People in One Night

Season 6 Episode 10

On August 21, 1986, violent explosions rocked Cameroon’s Lake Nyos. A wave of water over 15 meters high flattened vegetation along the southern shore, but a second deadly, nearly invisible wave of carbon dioxide blanketed the nearby towns, suffocating residents and animals. In this episode, we investigate how a lake could explode and shoot out a gigantic wave of deadly carbon dioxide gas.