So I searched Cameroon to see what I found and I discovered a rather interesting historical moment that faced Cameroon in 1986. Lake Nyos (pictured) is a crater lake (which is a lake that occupying a crater beside a volcano) along the Cameroon Line of volcano's which is a chain of mountain ranges and volcano's known as the Cameroon Range or Cameroon Highlands. What makes this even more interesting that it is located in the region where people speak Oku, one of the languages that we will be working with. The magma beneath the lake leaks carbon dioxide (CO2) into the waters. It is important to note that CO2 heavier then air so when released on land it falls to the ground pushing oxygen upwards, thus suffocates life since oxygen is not available. On August 21,1986 the lake Nyos emitted a large cloud of CO2 and caused 1800 people and 3500 animals to suffocate. The release of the gas was possibly triggered by a landslide. After this happened many scientists went to work to try to prevent from this happening again and researching other lakes to see if they had similar properties. In 2001 degassing tubes installed that cause the water with the CO2 to come to the top so that the CO2 can release in safe quantities but additional tubes should be added to make it more safe.
What fascinated me most about this situation was the questions that came to my mind since this happened only 25 years ago. There are probably people who are still effect by this disaster and possibly had relatives that died or are affected by this incident. Does this situation have an effect on how the culture works today? Does this impact the way that the Cameroonians think? Will we encounter stories of this while we are there? Are there now folk tales and religions associated with this disaster?
It will be interesting to see if these questions are answered even as we learn more about Cameroon leading up to this trip.
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