Lake Nyos in Cameroon has been described as one of the deadliest water bodies in the world, responsible for a deadly natural disaster that took the lives of many as well as domestic animals on August 21, 1986.

Lake Nyos is located along the Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL), a 950-mile long chain of volcanoes and volcanic crater lakes extending from the Gulf of Guinea into Cameroon and Nigeria.

Geologists are still not sure why the of warm water, holding the gases on the bottom of the lake, failed that night since volcanic gases, like sulfur- and carbon-dioxide, coming from the ground, become more and more concentrated at the bottom of the lake.

People, therefore, ignored Lake Nyos and its surrounding for a long time until later.

The researchers also discovered that the disaster could happen again at Nyos and at least one additional lake nearby – Lake Monoun, which on August 15, 1984, recorded an explosion, most likely caused by a sudden gas eruption, killing 37 people.