Episode 102: Silent But Deadly (Lake Nyos Disaster)

In this week's episode, Abby tells the crew all about the natural disaster at Lake Nyos.
In Cameroon, West Africa during the month of August in 1986, a crater lake called Lake Nyos abruptly erupted a large cloud of mysterious white gas which traveled into the nearby villages, wreaking death and destruction on whatever it touched.
Listen in to hear all the details on this devastating natural disaster and how scientists cracked the case and worked to ensure it never happened again.

**If you listen to this episode you will hear a very important announcement at the beginning so don't skip ahead!
It's been an honor and a privilege to take this journey with you all and we can't thank you enough for your support.
Until next time, good ep and good night!

Credits:
Smithsonianmag.com
Wikipedia.com
www.washingtonpost.com
Seattletimes.com
www.worldatlas.com
Volcano.oregonstate.edu
www.britannica.com
www.bbc.co.uk

Music By:
Brokeforfree.com
Matt Edwards


Edited By:
Michael


Website:
https://anxiousandafraid.com/


Support the show by purchasing our merch!
https://www.teepublic.com/stores/anxious-and-afraid-the-pod?ref_id=13121

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
That's like you, I can seea person that. Yeah, I didn't
think good paint this door white?Cute? Yes, yes, nice,
fresh, so bright and such.Yeah. So it's like it's a grayish

(00:23):
bolish. Yeah, this really good. Yeah. I couldn't tell it was
like wish or greenish, yeah,or like Danish, but yeah, I
love it. Hello, Hey guys, Welcome, Welcome. I'm Abby and

(00:58):
I'm Shaana And this is Anxious andAfraid the podcast. Do you put most
likely earbuds in your ears or somesort of speaker out of your car and
you listen to us talk yep aboutspooky things and creepy things and things that
make you anxious. All things thatmake us anxious for sure, and we

(01:19):
bring you along for the ride cantorture you. You probably haven't heard of
a lot of stuff that we cover. I feel like we try and look
for more obscure stuff. Yeah forthe most part. But yeah, so
we do SUPs ups up, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome. So
we're gonna talk about what made usanxious or afraid. Yes, while we've

(01:42):
been away, what's going on inour little personal lives? Um? Well,
I mean in the beginning, wewere talking about the nursery. Been
working on Babetho. Yeah, baby, the open painting his nursery. So
that's been fun. You're still workinghard, always getting it ready. Um.
I had the twenty week scan.Oh that's the big one. Yes,

(02:05):
it was very fun to see.It was really exciting. We gotta
see his little bought in there.He's moving around his legs. Yeah.
Just before this recording, he waskicking the shit out of my bladder.
So that's been fun. Um.Yeah, everyone to know that he is
here. He is here. Heis ready to party at all hours at

(02:27):
the day. We had twenty weekscan. Really well, everything looked really
good. Um, he's measuring righton and you're feeling pretty good. I
mean yeah, things suck, butit's fine manageable. Yeah. Right now
I'm going through a very itchy stage. My skin is super itchy. Interesting.
Um yeah, I've had supports ofthis before and then it goes away.

(02:50):
But like it's funny because you haveall this extra blood when you're pregnant,
and so when you scratch at yourself, like the scratch marks stay behind
like a lot more. Yeah,early pink and stuff. Well like even
after like days later, I stillhave these like really days like I've been
attacked by a demon. I've scratchedall over my bo So interesting, so
just super itchy right now dealing withthat and the beginnings of stretch marks,

(03:14):
which is so cute. Hey Roriorstripes. Girl. Yeah, I just
like disappointed because I would put onso I just would slather myself in lotion.
I mean, they say nothing isgoing to prevent them. I know,
I was, like, for sure, I thought I started so early,
like way before I was showing.I was slathering like fucking bluegil like

(03:36):
stop smeary oil all over myself.Didn't matter, It didn't matter. I
guess it's genetics. But what areyou gonna do? Girl, I'm covered
in them. It's fine. Yeah, we'll match. It's well match match
even more. But yeah, umbut yeah, everything's going going all right,
um over halfway. We're exciting thisweek of banana sized banana banana so

(04:00):
cute. Yeah, it's good.What about you? Oh, you know,
just life's been crazy where it's beencrazy. Yesterday I had a migraine
which was raw. I know youwere telling me about that sounded awful.
I just like woke up with it, which usually I either have like inklings
of a migraine before I go tobed or or something, but I didn't.

(04:21):
I like woke up at one amwith my head pounding and it was
just a rough night. So Ihad to do with that. That sucks.
I feel like my worst ones usuallyvisit and they sneak up on me.
I'll like wake up with the worstones because you definitely have more severe
situations with migraines than I do.But I don't know, but I'm pretty

(04:41):
severe too, bar more than Ido. Yeah, I wasn't gonna mention
that detail, but yeah, thisone made me berth. But the birth
chirt, the birth chirt was earthhurt of the shirt. Yeah, yeah,
that one made me birth So yeah, they can get pretty intense.
Yeah, what is I mean?They just attack your whole body. It's
really unfair. Yeah, because Iwas feeling nauseous, my head was pounding.

(05:05):
Everything just was like achy. Itwas just yeah, I mean,
they're no joke. They really aren't. And people who don't get them really
don't understand like true, like ohit's a headache, Like why are you
so dramatic? It's like you don'tunderstand sentence. There's like all these neurological
symptoms that I don't know. Doyou get the neurological ones where you're like,
I don't know if you get auras, but sometimes I get auras.

(05:26):
Sometimes I'll get like spots in myeye, Yeah, spots, black spots.
But that's pretty rare for me.Do you get confused and just really
stupid when when you have one?Because that's what happens to me besides on
my everyday occasion. I mean Idon't specifically feel extra stupid. Weirdest thing,
like this fog comes over me wherelike forming sentences is hard, remembering

(05:49):
the words is hard, My balanceis really bad, like I will just
kind of tip over. Yeah,the weirdest stuff, it's just like really
affects you. It's yeah, stupid, it can maybe some people blind.
Yeah, like you really honestly can'tlike look at light, look at your
phone like migrains. You have tobe in the dark. Yeah, ice
packs all all the junk. Well, I'm sorry you had one. Oh,

(06:11):
thank you. I've been spared asof the recent weeks, so well,
I probably shouldn't say that, don'tJink's but I might have been a
little bit better. They were terribleat the beginning of my pregnancy. But
they have gotten better, so I'mgood. I'm happy for that. You
know. I was also anxious becausewell, not like a like maybe like
a good anxious. Actually there's agood anxious totally, there's totally good anxious.

(06:34):
It's good nerves, positive anxiousness.Um. But we went to our
bf, Jesse's baby had her firstbirthday. Yeah, Remy hap your birthday,
Happy birthday girl, um, andI took Rylan and it was like
Rylan's going to her bf's birth birthday. And she did so well at her

(06:57):
social event. Yeah, we alwayshave. We learned that we have to
ease her into it. She's anintrovert, definitely an introvert. She gets
she's like, sees the people andthen she freaks out and then she covered
up. Bring her back and belike, Okay, it's fine, we're
not at home, but we're goingto be social. And then she's like
okay, if you say so.Yeah. So that was kind of fun

(07:19):
a little stressful because I mean Idid had to like bring her in for
a bit and like kind of takecare of her. It was it was
an experience for she did good though, I mean, you were on your
own with a baby at someone's houseyou hadn't been to. Yeah, mostly
strangers, Yeah, with a lotof Normally i'd be like attached to your
hips. I was like, Seana'snot with me. This is so weird.
I'm outside and she's inside. Iknow. I made a couple attempts

(07:41):
to try and go since Ryland wasback in her car seat just chilling,
but there was no good path forme to like walk with a car seat.
There's so many people and I wasat so Yeah, it was very
hot. You probably had the betterspot inside where there was a fan book.
Yeah, I wasn't a plane,but gosh, those decorations were so
cute. She did such a goodjob pressure first birthday party. You guys

(08:01):
did great. Pictures are adorable.It was a seventy stame, of course,
so precious. But like we gotsome pictures of like Ryland finally interacting
with Remy. Yeah, that she'sat the age where she can reach for
things and oh that was so exciting. Yeah, and she let me hold
her and that was a moment.That was a moment reached for me.
I was like, we're going todo this right now. She's open to
it because the last time she cried, right, she was not into she

(08:24):
was not okay. She was likeyou put me down, you, which
I don't want to be anywhere nearyou. Yeah. I was like,
it's so good, so proud.Yeah, so we're warming her up to
be also my best friend, yes, of course. Um but yeah,
that was that was the whole thing. It was great. Damn. She
just so we have an announcement.I like don't know how to like talk

(08:46):
about this or how to start it. Yeah, well, first off,
do you want to like ease intoit, like because you know we're recording
actually at our three year anniverse.Yeah, of doing this wonderful podcast of
oars Baby. Wonderful journey has been. It's been three freaking, crazy,

(09:07):
motherfucking years. The world has beenliterally on fire and going wild. We've
been through a lot in three years. Like we've both moved, There's been
weddings, there's been baby babies,pregnancies, elections, pandemic, the loss
of women's rights, um, justthrow that in there. Fires, aliens

(09:33):
actually verified aliens. All the thingsin the news is a wild It's been
a crazy three years. Like honestly, looking back, like how did we
wow? That's actually a lot togo through in three years. Really,
Like, that's a pretty short amountof time for what we've been through.
I honestly think, yeah, somany crisis says, so many crises.

(09:56):
Stuck it out, but yeah,so happy three years to us. Happy
three years, guys. It's alsoMichael's birthday coming up, so happy birthday.
It's virgos season, our favorite season. Shahna's Birthday's coming up as well,
so happy happy birthday to you both. Thank you, beautiful little introverts
love it. I organized neat freak, virgos So sweet our tourist, tourist.

(10:20):
Oh wait, here's me miss pronouncingwords again. I'm a tourist and
we famously get along with virgos So, who worked out Yeah, um here
we are. What we're avoiding isthe fact that we are having a hard

(10:43):
time keeping up with this project.Yeah, our podcast at three years,
we've decided to take kind of amore permanent break, you guys, and
we're very sad and sorry. It'sbeen hard and tough all to make.
Um yeah, it's it's like onewe don't want to make, but not
at all. Yeah, we don'tlike feel good about it, but after

(11:07):
fighting, not fighting, but likethinking about it for so long, and
we're like, we really need tolike take care of ourselves right now.
Yeah, it's just a really wildtime. It's been really hard to like
get the energy up to do episodesbeing pregnant, I will admit, And
I just we all know, Ihold myself to some insane standards. Um

(11:28):
you do, honey, sweetie stylewith like research. So I just I
want to be able to put outother things and most things in life,
but um, I like to youknow, I don't want to like sacrifice
the quality. So um, we'renot saying goodbye forever, but it's going
to be a hiatus for a while, guys, And maybe maybe we'll put

(11:50):
out sporadic episodes here and there.Yeah, but a random surprise here and
there months at a time we don'tknow, but don't have a set return
day, is what we're saying.Yes, we just know that we need
to stop significantly to take care ofourselves. Like, yeah, Abby is
pregnant and she's going through it alittle bit more than I went through pregnancy

(12:13):
wise, but this postpartum ship isreally it's kicking my butt and I'm having
really rough days and so I justI need to figure it out, like
I need to just not work sohard. Yeah, I mean I haven't.
I feel like it's been on you. Well it's time. I mean
I don't have a child to takecare of, so that made sense.

(12:35):
But like, I don't know,I feel like this would be a very
different conversation if we were doing thepodcast. Like, if this is what
our job was, I would doit forever and ever and ever, one
hundred percent. If this was whatwe could be making a living on,
one hundred percent, I would neverquit. Never. But we work full
time jobs, and lately we've bothbeen working a lot of overtime, lots

(12:58):
of overtime. It's just been onewild and at the end of the day
it's just too much to have tosit down and write for hours. Or
there's a lot of research to podcasts. I feel like if you listen to
other podcasts, I guess maybe makemore smaller ones, like it's you always
kind of start off thinking like,oh, you just need a mic and
a computer and you talk. Yeah, and no, it's like, well

(13:22):
to do it right, like structurallyhow we like it too. It's a
lot of organization of notes and researchwhich takes days, weeks and lots of
editing. It's a lot. Yeah, it really is. Put like a
whole week posting, writing like afterwork. And I mean, if you
can just imagine working like you know, eight or nine hours during the day

(13:43):
and then coming home writing for liketwo or three hours. It's just a
lot. And on top of that, you gotta do laundry and cook and
eat and shower. And there's ababy. There's a human baby I have
to take care of now on demand. Like I can't tell her to hold
on. That's the thing, Mama'sI can't tell her to like wait a
second, She's like, no,I'm crying now. So yeah, it's

(14:05):
just it's just a lot. LikeI don't even have time for myself.
It's it's a hard adjustment for sure. Yeah, not to be too negative,
because we have just loved doing thisproject so much. Like we do
it's a special place in our hearts. It's our baby. Yes, we're
very proud of it. We didn'twant to say we wanted to be done,
but yeah, we're just got todo it the best for us right

(14:26):
now. And I know you guyswill understand because our fans are so nice
and truly honestly, they're the best. They're so nice and so great.
And of course, like we'll keepthe episodes up. There will be here,
you can come say hey whenever youwant. Our Instagram will still be
there, Like we'll still check thatstuff. Well still I see funny memes
appropriate for our podcast all the time. Well we can like still post and

(14:48):
Facebook group and still message us.We still love that stuff. Sure we
would still get like new fans likewe're just like and I'm like, oh
man, that's making me sad.I know, as we were already like
pretty set on the decision and yeah, when somebody's like, oh you should
do this for an episode two andwe're like, oh yeah, but yeah,

(15:11):
I mean yeah it was it was. It's a hard thing to have
to say and have to come to, but yeah, we love you guys,
and I mean we're still going todo this one last episode and maybe
talk about some of our favorite episodesthat we've done reminisce a bit. Yeah
I heard, did I tell youI counted? I counted the amount of
pages I wrote. No, yeah, total shuk, including this one.

(15:35):
It was like it's like six hundredand ten. I mean over three years.
Wow, it's like a thick book. Wow, that is a book.
Yeah, we could just make themost to break out the book most
convoluted, just jointed book. Howlong did it take you to figure that

(15:56):
out? I just went through thedocs and like looked at how many pages
each one was. I should dothat with mine, I wonder. But
I did so many on notebook.Yeah you actually did, like Soco writing
on like notepads. Yeah. Iwas all over the place with my notes.
Yeah. Mine was mostly all inGoogle docs, so that was kind
of easy to track down. Butyeah, I can't always get there.

(16:18):
Yeah, I mean it's funny.I feel like most of them are about
ten pages, like that was probablythe average, but there was something like
nineteen. Yeah. I remember doingone that was like fifteen. Then I
typed out pages wild. So Imean, imagine doing home nineteen page college
essays report in a week. Iremember when I was in college, like

(16:41):
being assigned an eleven page paper waslike nightmare. I was like, how
will I ever live? And theygave you like a whole semester to do
it. I'm like, nineteen pagesthen a week, isn't that a big
deal? It's pretty wild if youthink about it. Yeah, so should
we talk about some of our favoriteepisodes? Oh? Did we? Oh?

(17:04):
I guess I didn't realize if weshould do that upfront or afterwards?
I don't know, Um, Iguess so okay. Also, I don'm
not sure we mentioned it yet thatI mean, if we do have like
some merch, but we'll leave thatup for a little bit. Um if

(17:26):
you want to buy some last minutethings, or if we want to buy
last minute things. Yeah, we'regonna leave the merch store open for a
little bit um if you want,you know, a nostalgia sticker or something.
Also, Paton, Paton, Iwill be turning off, so don't
worry about that. We'll take careof that for yous. Um. Thank
you to our recent supporters and likeeveryone who's done like that means the world

(17:48):
to us that you guys supported usfor so long. Truly, that's like
incredible. Yeah, so big thanks, big ups to y'all. Thank you.
Didn't think anyone would ever sign upfor that, so I was wild.
Yeah, truly, who would beinterested in us? I don't understand.
You're still confusing to this day.Honestly, if you get down,
I don't understand one hundred episodes later, somebody listens, I don't know,

(18:11):
so weird. Um yeah, sothe some admin stuff, but like the
episodes will stay up so you canalways go back and listen if you want.
Um yeah, um, let's seeyour favorite episodes. Do you want
me to go first? Or yeah, you go first. Hmm. I

(18:32):
didn't think about this very hard,and I how I should have thought of
it harder. But one that comesto mind was I really enjoyed. I'm
not doing this in any special orderobviously, it's just coming out of my
brain and memories, which is verylittle, to be honest. Um,
but I loved doing the Um,what did I call it? The White

(18:52):
Island volcano? Oh? Yeah,is it so? What Cary Island?
But yeah, the volcano story Idid not too long ago. I remember
just being so into researching that andtelling it and being terrified and not able
to breathe, and that was pregnantat the time. But that was one
of my favorites that you did too. That one was so intense, very

(19:14):
intense. A lot of plane onesI love, like early on, one
of my favorites was the Malaysia Airline. Yes, that was true, really
popular ones too, because it vanishedand there's been no updates as long as
I know of. Like, thatwas a really good one and a really
missed I mean, we love agood not a good plane crash, but

(19:36):
we love a plane crash around here. Or they're terrifying to us very much.
They're so scary and so interesting totalk about. But that one like
literally has not been found, sothat's like just so eerie. Yeah,
that one's very eerie. That's anotherfavorite of mine and the Andies ones.
That plane crash where you where Ilike turned it back on you. I'm

(19:56):
like, you gave us cannibalism.I'm going to give you some cannibalists.
Get fucking ready. Yeah, thatwas a good story. Any one was
harrowing, like everything that was.I was proud of that two parter.
I really was. That was areally well done thank you two parter.
Yeah, I'm doing my favorite onesthat I've done obviously. Yeah, I
mean it's hard to remember like whatthe other person's done because they do you

(20:18):
do all the research, so obviouslyfor more memory of it. Yeah,
but I really also like you.I loved your reincarnation cases. Oh thank
you. It was like I didn'tdo anything like that, but like those
made me so nervous to do honestly, like people are gonna judge me,
I'm gonna say the wrong thing.No, I love the Luke Garrick one.
I loved your Maryland episodes. TheConspiracy Maryland ones were so good.

(20:38):
There was like so much stuff Ididn't know about. I still think I'm
self conscious about those early episodes.I mean, me too about the early
ones. But what are you gonnado? I still really liked those.
I was trying to think of otherones that you did that I remember really
liking. You did some really goodalien ones. The Betty Hill, Betty

(20:59):
and Barney Hill. That was theone I was thinking of. I remember
like doing sixteen pages on that one. That one was super good. That
was a really good story. Lovea good alien story. Yeah, you
did all the really good alien Ohyou know what just popped in my head.
I really enjoyed. Also, theguy who couldn't stop eating the Terrari
guy. That was what I wasgoing to mention. The ball Lightning episode

(21:21):
was really weird and I was sodisgusting. Yeah, he maybe ate a
baby that was just sweet. Couldn'tstop because it's so disturbed. I just
remember thinking like, how is thisa real story? Part of me hopes
it's not. But yeah, soall, okay, I can remember some
of the ones you did, obviously. I love your Rain mystery episodes,

(21:45):
my Rain series, the glob ones. Oh yeah, a meat one I
could not handle, the Kentucky meatShower, and the Oakville Blogs classics.
Those are great ones. Those aregood mysteries you did. I feel like
a lot more, uh, likego see haunting episodes funny because like I'm
like more into ghost shows and stuff. Yeah, but I did works and

(22:08):
like cursed objects. Did you everdo a cursed object? No? I
did, it really did? Andthe haunted dolls, and I love that
you I mean I was, Imean I may maybe it just worked out
that way. Like I loved hearingyou tell me that rather than me doing
the research on that, I wouldI wouldn't only try and pick the ones
where I was like genuinely like blownaway usually exper Robert Doll that one was

(22:33):
just fun. Um. Yeah,I did really like doing the ghost ones.
I think those are really fun toresearch. Um, because like I'm
more a little bit more of askeptic. So if I could find one
that like really freaked me out.I was like, like the Endfield Poulter
guys, I remember doing that one. That was really good. I always
I feel like my favorites are likesome of the gnarliest ones. Yeah,

(22:56):
because I'm so fucking morbid. Likeobviously the Donner Party two parters. Yes,
um that was that took a lotof people back, Like I mean
that was probably my first everyone likeover the top intense. Yeah episode,
Um that the USS Indianapolis very intense. I actually cried in that one.

(23:21):
Think. I think I mostly lovethose for Shauna's reactions, just to see
how much how far it can pushher before she dies. Oh my gosh
of panic. And the other planecrash you did where I was like,
I'm pretty sure that was the worstepisode. Oh that one was a more
recent one. Ye oh, Ican't remember the flight number, but yes,
that was a gust swamp. Yeah. And then you did the Ghostie

(23:42):
version of that, right, Yeah, that was a two parter as well.
Nice. That was a good one. But I also really liked the
plane crash survivor. It's like vestof Bolivich I think was her name,
Yeah, and she just like survivedin the nasper a cigarette afterwards, and
I was like Raspry's girl badass.Yeah. Um. And then obviously like
the natural disaster ones it just can'tget enough of, Like I think Mount

(24:04):
Saint Helens. Yeah, yeah,that was a good one. That one.
I feel like I learned so muchabout, like because it's near by
us and I just had never reallydone a deep dive into Mount Saint Helens,
which he and like to we havelike a little jar of the ashes
downstairs. That's so crazy to me. Yeah. But what about you,

(24:26):
Michael, do you have a favoriteI have? I have some favorites.
Yeah, Like you mentioned Donner Party, but like I think any of the
episodes that could potentially have cannibalism werelike super twisted thrilling. I think totally.
I think all the reincarnation ones havebeen really interesting way that I didn't
expect I would find like a reincarnationstory to be Oh my god, you

(24:49):
don't even know how much that meansto me. Can review, they're all
fun. I'd like them, andI don't think we would want to forget
any of our special guest hosts.Oh my gosh, Yes, I don't
think I'm missing any but I apologizeif I have here list. Yeah,

(25:11):
I think Jason Millstead was our firstwith the JFK episode. Yes, that
was pretty early on episodes seventeen andeighteen. Thank you Jason. Ryan Miller,
I think had the next with Pastthree. That was a great one,
Thank you Ryan. Yes, Chad, of course an episode thirty six
did Poe, Yes, you did. Let's see. We had Abbie Wilson

(25:37):
with the kidnap kidnapping of ja clee Gard. Yes, that one was
hardcore number forty one, that didso good, Thank you, ab Episode
forty eight. We had a Halloweenspecial with Matt Yes, I believe that
was his Sasquatch episode or no,that was the history of Halloween. Yeah,
the Yeah, he did a couplehe returned, Yes, yeah,
because he did the National part disappearanceas well. But he also did like

(26:02):
the the the candy being poisoned,right, Yeah, that was the Halloween
gotcha And we always wanted him tocome back and do big Foot but it
just never happened. But yeah,that was the sort of the National Parks
disappeared sort of yeah, possible theory. Yeah, dipped a little. Thank
you Matt twice he did it twice. Yes, that's between. We had
Jeremy Campbell doing the Batman of LosAngeles. That was a good one.

(26:26):
Yeah, she did so good.So many guests like wow, so lucky
we had We were really lucky.We had so many good friends and just
shout out, we have a Wehad an upcoming guest that just isn't going
to work out. But our goodfriend Katie was going to be a guest.
So if we ever come back,she's we want her for sure,
but she's wanting to do that.But yeah, she was up for the

(26:47):
game. Uh didn't Okay, wedon't want to piss off our bff Jesse,
but I think she did. Um, Like, oh, she was
in person episode. It was alistener It was listener stories and she had
one from her grandparents, like godcha yeah and she like told it in
person. Yeah, so that wasfun. That was really fun. I
remember having her on. She wantedto do an episode eventually too, but

(27:11):
it's just hard with having a baby, like she had a baby first,
so yeah, yeah that's rough.Um, yeah, good time. Guess
thank you if you've ever wrote inwith a story like, we just love
to hear those, even just participatingin our Instagram or Facebook group, like
I hope you still do that.I love hearing from you guys. Or
oh my gosh, I never gotto mention. Um. I think it

(27:33):
was Gus, our friend Gus,who informed me about this another great episode
I did as the Georgia guidestones.Oh yeah, yeah, that was a
fun mystery one. Um and heblown up. Yeah, he informed he
sent this article in our group thatit was completely destroyed, sadly weren't wear
it. Yeah, and by likewhat teenage like dufuss? Oh, I

(27:55):
don't know. I never saw anylike conclusions on that. Yeah, I'm
not sure exactly what happened, butit was legit destroyed. So like those
don't exist anymore, which is wild, Like you covered a little piece of
history I did. That is soweird. Yeah, but that like made
me sad. That's sad that thatwas destroyed. Even though those stones were
really weird. But I was somelike controversial stuff in there, but like

(28:15):
come on, now, why wouldyou It was still it was still cool
and interesting. Come up, theyhad some good they had some good highlights.
But yeah, people have like greatsuggestions, just like I love looking
into stories no matter what so.Yeah, I just still love everyone's feedback
and participation with all of this.I mean, the story I'm doing today
is a listener suggestion. I thoughtwe should end it with a suggestion since

(28:37):
yes, I got to honor thoseand if he did suggestion, we didn't,
you know, do your episode.It's nothing personal. Sometimes it just
didn't work out. Are we verytrue or could find it or you know,
or there was it was too dark? Yeah, some of those two,
Like anything like with mass shootings.I was just like, ah,
I can't do it. I can'tdo it. Yeah, that's right,

(29:00):
that's rough. Yeah, but Ithought about it. But no, we
appreciated all of your guys's support andyour suggestions and for following us for so
long. And it's been a realhonor in a real journey. Yeah.
Yeah, love you, love youguys, Love you guys. We love
each other. Yeah. And wealways said, like we don't we want
to be able to do this podcastand come out of it still being best

(29:22):
friends. And we did it.Oh my gosh. Honestly, we didn't.
Did we ever fight, We didn'thave a fleetwood Mac. We stayed
together. We very much still likeeach other, and we worked together in
the same building. Yeah. Yetagain. So I think we're pretty solid
and did it. We made it. We still love each other, still

(29:44):
best friends. So I think that'sa that's an accomplishment right there. That's
funny. Well, I mean,is there any other episodes you want to
mention before we get started? Idon't know, I can't think. I
can't think of anymore. Maybe maybeonce we're done. Yeah, okay,

(30:06):
Well we've got a little snack forYeah, here we go U episode one
oh two WYNT and we have atopic that was suggested to us by a
very lovely listener named Sky. SkyGuy has been pretty active. We've talked
about her before. Yeah, she'sbeen gone on our socials and so she

(30:26):
like under Australia like unders she livesunder the ground, but she lives all
the way over there. I'm sayingshe lives across the world. I'm pretty
sure yes, Um, I couldsay it wasn't No, I'm probably just
gonna be talking about ass. Ishouldn't say anything terrible memory. Um,

(30:48):
but yeah, I'm pretty sure you'recorrect in that she's Oh that's probably that
sounds right. Yeah, Um,Hagar, we see you, We see
you. We're talking about you.So thank you for the suggestion. Feel
honored that it's our last one fora while. Yeah, and Shahna does
know a little bit about this topicbecause she also saw the suggestion. Um,

(31:11):
but I don't think you didn't dolike a deep dive rate. No.
I just did like a quick likeWikipedia scan. I was like,
oh, this is interesting. Yeah, I thought it was interesting too.
So the topic we will be coveringtoday is the story of the Lake NEOs
disaster, which is a bit ofa natural disaster tale, and you know,

(31:32):
we just can't get enough of thenatural disasters. Tis true Mother Nature
popping off. Okay, so LakeNEOs, where is it exactly? Do
you know where it is? Nope? Okay, so it's located in the
northwestern region of Cameroon, which isin beautiful West Africa. Okay. Lake

(31:56):
NEOs actually has something in common withan Oregon landmark and state park, which
is Crater Lake. Only we justnamed ours crater Lake, which is also
what it is. It's like categorizedas a crater lake. We didn't name
ours anything, which is like,yeah, it's a crater lake, that's
what it is. So original,I know they named there's Lake NEOs,

(32:17):
which is arguably much cooler. Nevereven thought about that, I know either.
I was like, oh, Ididn't realize that's just like the category
it is, and also what wenamed it. Okay, and it's a
state park. Okay, we couldhave done better. So, crater lakes
are lakes that are formed by anexplosion or collapse from volcanic activity. Both

(32:38):
Crater Lake in Oregon and Lake NEOsand Camera in West Africa are known for
their beautiful, deep blue waters andlush landscapes surrounding them. Have you been
to Crater Lake? Oh? Yeah, a few times. Oh that's so
pretty. Oh it's gorgeous. Agreat thing to go see if you can.
So, Lake NEOs is roughly acircular shape with deep waters up to

(32:59):
six hundred and eighty feet deep,and it's surrounded by steep hills. The
volcano Lake NEOs lives in is longextinct and is thought to have erupted like
up to four hundred years ago.Okay, so while it's been a while,
so it's officially dead volcano though that'sconsidered a dead volcano. Yeah.

(33:20):
Interesting. So the area the lakeis located in is not alone in its
volcanic activity. Regions in this partof West Africa have been volcanically active for
millions of years. The lake itselflies within the Okou Volcanic Field. And
while the volcano Lake NEOs is situated, oh sorry, and while yeah sorry,

(33:43):
while the volcano Lake NEOs is situatedand it has been long dead,
there is still a pool of magmabeneath the lake, just waiting to stir
up some trouble. So more onthat later. As for human activity in
that area, the lake is surroundedby several small villages, including the village

(34:04):
of NEOs. The area is veryrural. There's not like running water,
there's not electricity out there, dirtroads. It's populated by farmers, people
who raise cattle. It was veryquiet and beautiful place to live, where
people led simple, honest lives andprobably didn't give much thought to their beautiful
lake being a potential murderer. Butsometimes life is cruel that way. So

(34:29):
without further ado, let's talk aboutthe event. The day was August twenty
first, nineteen eighty six, whichwas a Thursday. Okay, when I
think of eighties, it's like notthat long ago, I know, but
it kind of was I hate howold we are. I know, okay,
but we're in eighty six eighty six, okay, on a Thursday.

(34:52):
On Thursday, it had been aday like most others in the small villages
around Lake NEOs. Although there hadbeen a heavy rain during the day,
farmers and their families had put ina hard day's work, and as night
fell, most people began to retireto their homes for the evening. But
soon people began to hear a strangesound coming from the direction of the lake.

(35:13):
At around nine thirty pm, manywitnesses reported hearing a rumbling sound that
lasted for a few minutes. Andwhat do you think curious people do when
they hear an unexplained sound in theirarea, They stupidly look for it.
They go and investigate. Right,So, many of the villagers walked outside

(35:36):
and they were hit with the strongsmell of sulfur and rotten eggs. Others
reported the smell of gunpowder. Okaythe villages or sorry. Villagers who were
closest to the lake and could actuallysee it, said that they saw something
quite spectacular. A foamy jet ofwater was shooting up from the center of

(35:58):
the lake, causing such a disturbancein the water that an eighty foot tall
wave was formed. No, don'tbring a wave into this. They just
always somehow come up. I wasI was betraying like a fountain, like
shooting, like stream shooting up,but like it bursted from the water in

(36:19):
such a fashion that it created thesewaves. You said, eighty feet up
to eighty feet disgusting. It's prettygross. Um so that crashed onto the
rocky shoreline. Even stranger still wasthe gas cloud erupting from the same area.
Witnesses described it as a murky whitecloud that grew in height as it

(36:40):
spouted from the lake, reaching aroundone hundred meters in height before descending and
spreading across the lake waters. Okay, that's a lot, and it's like
nighttime, so just like picturing allthis in the in the darkness makes it
eerie, very eerie. The mistywhite cloud continued to spread, moving on

(37:00):
from the lake and down through thevalleys into the roads and surrounding towns.
Many people who were close by inhaledthe strange gas and collapsed almost instantly.
Wait what time was this? Ninetynine thirty at night? Eight? Yeah,
so like wait, so instantly,get a whiff of it and then
you're out. Yeah, pass out, I hate that, go unconscious.

(37:23):
Many witnesses described feeling really hot beforethey lost consciousness, with some of them
ripping off their clothes in haste tocool down. Those affected also described feeling
sluggish and confused, with some losingthe ability to speak, although others panicked
and began to run and scream ohmy gosh. And it wasn't just the

(37:44):
men and women and children who werecollapsing after inhaling the noxious clouds. Animals
of all sizes began to fall tothe ground as well, including the large
cattle, goats, pigs, andchickens. All that is so eerie.
It's like, is it silent oris it still kind of like rumbling exploding.
I think it's pretty silent. Like, oh, that makes it gross

(38:05):
hard. I know, there's justthis like it is. It's like biblical
or like like some kind of likesuperhero villain just like drops a gas bomb
and just creeps over everything. Yeah, and even though it's like described as
like kind of whiteish, it's Istill kind of imagine it as like the
silent smelly killers. Like it's nota fart, sorry, silent, but

(38:28):
deadly. I wish it wasn't far. I mean, it might as well
because it smells like sulfur and rotteneggs. No, but man, okay,
yeah, this is creepy. Yeahit is. It is biblical.
That's a pretty good way to describeit. Yeah, especially if you're not
like I mean, you're in themiddle of nowhere and this is happening very
at night. You're probably like gettingready for bed, if not already sleeping,

(38:52):
like the kids are sleeping. Yeah, it's not like you cattles are
dropping and call anyone for help.But it's like you're just disconnected from everyone.
You're just seeing it happened. Yeah, okay, apocalyptic. Some people
did say they thought it was theend of the world, which I would
blame them, I literally would.Yep. Soon, an eerie silence settled

(39:12):
over the area until the next morning. A man named I don't want to
say this wrong and Gumby had heardnews of the disaster early that morning,
August twenty second, and climbed onhis bike. He rode from the town
of Womb towards the village of notNEOs. He first reached the village of
Chaw through earth. Sorry, hereached the village of Chaw though, and

(39:36):
said he started to feel dizzy andstrange about the time he smelled something funny
like eggs. Soon the man wasslipping off his bike and fell unconscious.
And this is the next day.He woke up and he was riding a
bike. Yeah, oh gosh,Okay. He woke up a little bit
later around eight thirty five am.Feeling disoriented, but determined to continue his

(39:58):
mission. The man continued down theroad on his bike and soon came across
a dead antelope. He stared atthe dead creature and told himself he shouldn't
just like let it go to waste. So that's lunch right there. So
he tied it to his bike andcontinued down the road. Disturbingly, the

(40:19):
antelope was only the beginning of allthe dead things and Gumby would encounter.
Okay, so he's going towards it. Yeah, oh yeah, But and
then he fell unconscious and he's like, oh, that was weird. Let
me just get back up and getthis dead animal. Oh, dead antelope.
Tie this to my bike. Okay. So he came upon dead rats
and then cover your ears, Roscoe, dead dogs. It's just super sad.

(40:45):
At first, and Gumby thought theanimals must have died by a lightning
strike. He had seen such scenariosbefore, but as he continued on his
journey, that possibility seemed more andmore unlikely. As he came to the
village of NEOs, which is closestto that lake, it wasn't just dead
animals anymore, and Gumby started comingacross dead people. He entered the small

(41:07):
tin roofed huts of the village andfound dead bodies of men, women and
children scattered about inside. That's horrifictright now. After checking a few huts,
he couldn't find a single survivor andquickly gone on his bike and rode
back to Womb to report what hehad found. And Gumby arrived back at
Womb around ten forty am and Shakilareported what he had seen to his boss,

(41:30):
Anthony Wango Waba, who was theAssistant Chief of Preventative Medicine. From
there, medical doctors and local officialswere also alerted, with the news then
making all the way to the Presidencyof the Republic of Cameroon. Upon further
inspections of the affected area, witnessesdescribed the eerie silence which greeted them upon

(41:52):
arrival. There was no human activityor sounds from the various animals that used
to be there, even the insects. We're god, that is so eerie
creepy, and it's like it's likeeverything looks fine. It's just everything's dead,
right, it's silent and still.It's not like there's destroyed buildings.

(42:13):
It's not like it's a bomb.It's not like it's a That's one of
it's the weirdest things about this naturaldisaster is there isn't like a lot of
physical evidence of a natural disaster.There's probably not even a lot of like
smoke or ash, right, it'snot that kind of thing. It's it's
gas. Yeah, and at thispoint, because of the sunlight, the
gas has dissipated, so people arejust coming across this scene of just dead

(42:37):
people and dead animals. That's terrible. It's so scary and creepy, Like
even the flies died. Like youcan you imagine just seeing everything dead.
I have no idea why. It'sso creepy. Yeah, very biblical,
very eerie, eerie. Uh So, those who arrived on scene were horrified

(42:57):
to see the amount of bodies strewnabout in and outside of their homes.
Disturbingly, it looked as though alarge number of them had attempted to flee
but died before they could get away. Oh that's so sad, I know.
Amazingly though, there were some survivors. They had fallen to the ground
just as the others had, butinstead of dying, they just fell into
a deep sleep, some not wakingfor over ten hours. And some of

(43:22):
these people are in the same homesas other people who died years. Really
just kind of luck for the drawin a lot of cases if you live
or died. Oh. Interesting.One survivor named Joseph Niquaine was interviewed about
his experience, saying quote, Icould not speak. I became unconscious or
I could not open my mouth becausethen I smelled something terrible. I heard

(43:45):
my daughter snoring in a terrible orterrible way, very abnormal. When crossing
to my daughter's bed, I collapsedand fell. It was there till nine
o'clock in the morning of Friday thenext day, until a friend of mine
came and knocked at my door.I was surprised to see that my trousers
were red like they had stains likehoney. I saw some starchy mess on

(44:07):
my body. My arms had wounds. I didn't really know how I got
these wounds. I opened the door. I wanted to speak, my breath
would not come out. My daughterwas already dead. I went into my
daughter's bed, thinking that she wassleeping. I slept till it was four
thirty in the afternoon on Friday thesame day. Then I managed to go

(44:30):
over to my neighbor's houses. Theywere all dead. Oh God. I
decided to leave because most of myfamily was in Womb. I got on
my motorcycle. A friend whose fatherdied had left it for me. As
I rode through NEOs, I didn'tsee any sign of any living thing.
When I got to Womb, Iwas unable to walk, even to talk.

(44:52):
My body was completely weak. Howdid you ride the scooter? I
don't know. Persevered, I guess, but how horrifying. Oh you like
literally hear your daughter dying. Youjust wake up in everyone's dead. Yeah,
and in the meantime you're collapsing inand out of consciousness. No idea
why at first you would think likeit's you and your body like a heart

(45:14):
attack or a choke or something.But then like you realize every everyone else,
do you hear your family doing thatiss and so quickly, And that's
sad. Sadly, there would besome family members who would awaken several hours
later, surrounded by their entire familywho had perished in the disaster, and
chose to commit suicide from their grief. Oh, that's sad. It's kind

(45:39):
of like a Romeo Juliet situation,but on a big scale. In the
final count, seventeen hundred and fortysix people died. Seventeen hundred and forty
six people died. Wow, it'sa lot of people. That's sad.
That's widespread. Yeah, that's it'sa ton um, mostly from the villages

(46:01):
of Chaw, Subum and NEOs,with NEOs being hit the hardest as it
was closest to the lake. Thirtynine hundred and nine cows died during the
disaster, three thousand, three hundredand twenty four chickens and birds, three
hundred and sixty four, sheep fivehundred and sixty and goats, as well
as many reptiles, insects, andamphibians. Very few living creatures were spared

(46:25):
from the deadly effects of the mysteriouswhite cloud coming off the lake. Cockroaches,
right, those fuckers. So thecloud reached up to sixteen miles away
Swoa. Yeah, so it affecteda ton of people. That's so creepy,
I know. And it was kindof quick moving too, so and

(46:49):
it's not like you well, Imean obviously maybe at the time, but
it's not like you can predict thathappening, right, No, No,
it's not like machines. No,there was no monitoring, There was no
there was no work. Yeah,especially since you said it was like totally
dead and the area is very rural, it's not like that's so weird.
Yeah. Oh man. The localofficials in military evacuated the people living in

(47:10):
that area and carried injured people tothe surrounding hospitals for treatment. Thousands were
in need of medical care. Themost common injuries among survivors were severe headache,
exphyxiation, burns, pulmonary infections,nervous problems, and post traumatic stress.
Right. Obviously, these injuries andthe eyewitness reports led the medical professionals

(47:31):
and government officials to believe that thepeople had all been poisoned by some type
of deadly gas coming off the lake. But now they had to figure out
how and why it happened, aswell as planned to prevent it from happening
again. Yeah, before we getinto that, let's take a quick break.

(47:58):
Okay, welcome back up. Um. Okay. So when we left,
we're saying that terrible things have happened, and now they need to figure
out like why it happened, howthey're going to keep it from happening again,
correct of course, yes, Okay, So you know, the villagers
who lived in those areas certainly werenot going to go, you know,

(48:20):
risk going back until they had someanswers. So the government did that thing
you always see in End of theWorld movies where they assemble an elite team
of scientists and specialists from like that'susually I mean, I love those movies
and it's just oh best movies.Yeah, it's always I mean, they're
probably a lot better looking than theyare in real life, but it's always

(48:40):
all these like scientists from all overthe exactly what happened here. There's like
people from France, like Japan,America. Okay, Yeah, it was
like pretty cool. So in aninterview with the BBC, Peter Baxter,
a consultant and physician, explained whathe found when he arrived to like NEOs
a couple of weeks after the event, Baxter said there were no signs of

(49:05):
life, and rotting cattle were stillstrewn about the land. I can only
imagine the smell. The village ofNEOs was an unsettling ghost town. All
of the thatched huts stood empty andabandoned. It's just so creepy. Yeah,
I wouldn't want to revive that area. I would like leave an abandoned
right, I mean, but theproblem was that so many people died right

(49:28):
there. Well they ended up justlike burying them in mass graves for the
most part. And like, butthe problem is, like that land is
super fertile and good for farming,so dang it, that was people's livelihood.
Wow. Yeah, so they it'sjust so eerie, you know.
It's like they want to go back, but also don't want to die.
So that's it's not a good situation. Uh yeah, so they're these scientists.

(49:52):
Arriving weeks later, did cattle stillaround. So when he climbed the
hill to view like NEOs, hefound the once beautiful deep blue lake to
now be a reddish brown color withlarge mats of dead vegetation floating on the
surface of the very still water.It's like a lot of insects and stuff.

(50:13):
Yeah, there's also also floating inthe water and pile on the shores
of the lake were dead fish.Oh. The only creatures who seemed to
be unaffected were frogs, who stillinhabited the lake shores and seemed to be
thriving. Interesting. Yeah, Idon't know, there must be just be
really resilient. But yeah, thewater turned like this completely different color,

(50:34):
which I also really creepy to see. Also kind of seems biblical if you
see it, like red water water. Yeah, okay, so the water
level had also dropped about a meter, and trees around the lake had been
knocked down, likely due to theenormous waves created during the event. So
it's kind of weird because in townit looks like, I mean, besides

(50:57):
everything being dead, nothing really looksdifferent, right, It's not like they
have water damage. Yeah. Theonly place that you can see any devastation
is just right at the lake.Okay, so that probably also gave them
some clues, like you know whereit happened. Another specialist brought in named
George Kling, who was a professorfrom the University of Michigan was also on

(51:19):
site and was blown away by thedevastation he saw at the lake. Kling
had actually visited the lake a yearprior, Anne had gone swimming in its
crystal blue waters and couldn't believe thebrownish red color it had turned. He's
really sad, I think, hesaid. The kid that showed him the
lake had died, and it wasjust like, oh, you know.
He also noted that the large matsof floating vegetation had come from the surrounding

(51:42):
banks at the lake and had beenripped away by the massive waved form during
the disturbance in the water. PeterBaxter explained that at first the local thought
of volcanic eruption had occurred and spewedpoisonous gases, but the absence of destruction
which should have occurred during the volcaniceruption made the likeliness of such an event
in a long dead volcano very small, so the researchers continued to hunt for

(52:07):
answers. The reporters from villagers aboutthe smells they had experienced, such as
the smell of rotten eggs and gunpowder, made the scientists believe it must have
been sulfur gas, which is avery common substance that occurs in volcanic eruptions.
However, when they tested the watersin the lake the gas dissolved in

(52:28):
the water and the surrounding plants,they found no evidence of excess sulfur in
any of their samples. Okay,so it's like what the funk? The
experts continued digging, but after beingstumped on or after they were stumped on
the sulfur theory, the science scientistswould eventually catch a break when they came
across an old study on the effectsof CO two, or carbon dioxide gas

(52:52):
and high concentrations on fighter pilots.So the purpose of these studies was to
test for oxygen stress on the pilots, I'm assumed, because you know,
when they fly too high or tooquickly, these effects would come into play.
Sure, in these studies they foundthat CO two concentrations above five to

(53:14):
ten percent acted as a sensory hallucinogen, but definitely not the fun kind.
The pilots reported smelling rotten eggs orgunpowder and said that they began to feel
very warm. So sound familiar.Yes, Oddly, this type of disaster
was not the first of its kind. Something very similar had happened a mirror

(53:37):
two years before the Lake Neo's disaster, only sixty miles away, at a
smaller lake called Lake Manoun or Monoon, which is also located in the Oku
volcanic Field. So an e reallysimilar scene was found on August fifteenth,
nineteen eighty four, with thirty sevenvillagers lying dead on the roads and in

(53:58):
their huts near the lake's so creepyat the time, the carbon dioxide gas
theory was proposed as a possible cause, but was dismissed and not studied further.
Why though, I don't know.I think there was like a more
factors, like the people who diedwere buried a lot quicker. There wasn't

(54:19):
much. I don't know that somebodydid submit that theory to like a scientific
magazine, and I think they wererejected, like that sucks. Yeah,
they just didn't put any like hasto be so inferiating. I know,
he's like I was right. Ithink it was like a Japanese scientist.
So yeah, So same thing happenedat this other lake but wasn't studied any

(54:40):
further. But then two years later, you haven't happening on like a much
bigger scale, so much bigger.Now the CO two theory was being taken
much more seriously. Okay, areyou ready for science time? I guess
Okay, I'm going to do mybest. I'm not sure any of us
are ready for Get ready to useyour retired brain. Okay. So,

(55:05):
most of the time, when COtwo occurs in nature by natural geological geological
processes, it's fairly harmless. It'snot usually created in large enough amounts to
hurt anyone, and is usually ventedfrom the earth or natural springs. Although
I guess there is an area inYellowstone National Park called Death Gulch. Oh,

(55:27):
very charming name like that, Yeahgulch, Death Gulch where where CO
two has been known to collect init and kill large animals like grizzly bears.
Whoa, yeah, grizzly bards withthings are huge. Because CO two
is heavier than oxygen, it justkind of chills near the surface of the
earth. This makes sense when youremember back to the Lake Neo's disaster,

(55:52):
where people who fled to higher groundwere able to survive. So how does
this tie into the lake If thisis a naturally occurring process, Why has
it not happened much more often?It is because it's a volcano lake Lake.
Yeah, but like you, it'sa volcano lake. But like they're
saying, why hasn't this happened before? At least that we can in like

(56:15):
recent history. Okay, if ifthis is like no, if this is
a thing that can happen, whyis it happening so seldom ly? Sure?
So, like we said, LakeNEOs pressed on top of an old
you know, an old volcano,which has previously discussed. So does Lake
Manoon. The water in Lake NEOsis very deep, though, and the

(56:36):
lake is actually split into different layersdepending on depths. Oh like a lake
layer cake. Yeah, the bottomlayer of water doesn't really mix with the
rest of the upper layers for variousreasons, including water pressure from the layers
on top. Cool. Okay,so like an oil and water kind of
situation, right, except they're bothwater. But yeah, but like the

(57:00):
sense of like they're not mixing.Right, So there's a two layers and
mostly because of the water pressure we'reon top. Like not all lakes are
like this, by the way,but this is the case with Lake Lake
NEOs and Lake manoon for all kindsof reasons that I just won't get into,
but a lot of it has todo with temperature. So those bottom
layers are super super cold and thelayers on top are a little warmer,

(57:21):
and they just don't mix. Okay. Now, it is theorized that over
time, the magma below the lakedegases CO two into the water, but
because that bottom layer doesn't mix withthe rest, all of the CO two
stays trapped at the bottom of thelake. The pressure is so heavy down
there that not even little CEO twobubbles can escape to the top. Okay,

(57:44):
that's kind of wild, right,Yeah. So, and this may
have been happening for decades, evencenturies, creating a dormant little lake bomb
just waiting to be trigger lake bomb. Yeah. Oh, it's kind of
like shaking a bottle of coke andjust keeping the cap on. Yeah.
So the next question was what suddenlycaused the CO two to escape in such

(58:07):
a crazy way, like who shookthe damn bottle and took the cap off.
Scientists theorized that there could have beena couple of reasons. A pretty
solid theory was large boulders fell intothe surrounding or from the surrounding steep shoreline
and crashed into the water, whichwould have caused the layers in the lake
to mix, allowing the cow toescape. Okay. That theory was supported

(58:30):
by evidence of a recent rock slidealong an adjacent cliff next to the lake.
Oh Okay, so I feel likethat's pretty likely. It was also
theorized that there may have been asmall volcanic eruption beneath the lake bed,
or perhaps a small earthquake. Althoughwitnesses did not report feeling the ground shake,
they did hear that rumble though,so I'm wondering if the rumble was

(58:52):
the rock slide. There was alsoheavy rain that evening, and some scientists
theorized the cool rainwater combined with theair temperature drop, may have caused the
shift just from like the air temperatureor sorry, the water temperatures, Like
the cold water would sink to thebottom and then the layers make science,
water science, so much water science, to God, says to some people's

(59:15):
whole job. In any case,whatever the case, it happened, even
if we don't know exactly why.But I feel like the rock slide's probably
a pretty good bet. Yeah,that makes sense. The iron rich waters
at the bottom layer rose to thetop and turned the water that reddish brown.
That totally makes sense. Yes,I was wondering about that at first.
It's like, what would turn thewater a different color? Like that's

(59:37):
wild. As a CO two waterjet blasted from the surface of the lake,
it released the deadly cloud of gas. Yes, it is estimated that
one hundred thousand to three hundred thousandtons of carbon dioxide gas were released from
the lake that evening. They pouredover the lake rim and traveled at speeds

(59:57):
of forty five miles per hour intothis surrounding valleys and villages. It's fast,
It's really fast. Like there's norunning from that, there's no escape,
so scary. The death toll wasenormous, and scientists had to figure
out how to prevent this from happeningagain because alarmingly, subsequent testing showed that

(01:00:17):
the CO two in Lake NEOs andin Lake Manown or Manoon were increasing at
a scary rate. If they didn'tfigure out how to off gas the CO
two, the same thing was likelygoing to happen again. Okay, so
a number of solutions were proposed.Drop a bomb in the lake. But
that doesn't seem right for a lotof reasons. Thank you, they're just

(01:00:43):
doing everyone's a while. No,h, what's another one. Oh,
I'm dump in a ship ton oflime to offset the gas. Lime.
Yeah, jone like lime the mineral? Yeah okay, yeah, yeah,
not the inters. What I wantedto clarify, I guy, stop a

(01:01:07):
bunch of lines. That's exactly whatI picture. Line slide it's gonna work.
You guys like wide lines. UmNo, like the mineral. Apparently
it neutralizes the gas, but alsowas very expensive, so they didn't want
to do that. How about diggingto the bottom of the lake to release

(01:01:30):
the gas like little tunnels? Apparentlythat was even more expensive than the line,
so a much less expensive and relativelylow tech option was decided on.
A long ass pipe that reached tothe bottom of the lake was installed in
the center of the lake on afloating platform. They put like a big
straw in it, Yeah, theyput They basically put a giant straw on

(01:01:52):
it, and the pipe would bringthe U two to the surface in a
slow, controlled release. Interesting,not bringing enough CO two up at once
to be harmful. Okay, thereis a picture I think of the first
time they set this up to offgas and it releases a massive jet out
of the top of it from allthe build up pressure. Well, it

(01:02:15):
was pretty wild. I thought,I think that pictures out there. I'll
try and post it. And itdoes looks like a giant strawstick him.
Okay, there you go. You'rewelcome. That's your visual provided by a
SHAWNA. So the final installations weredone in the early two thousands, with
additional pipes being installed in twenty eleven, which seems like just a long time

(01:02:37):
away from the eighties. But yeah, I guess funding and all that slow
things down. Sure. The sametechnique was implemented at Lake Manoon as well.
In twenty nineteen, it was foundthat the off gassing had sustained a
steady state and the lake was nowdeemed safe. Many of yeah, many
of the survivors entured hard years inthe relocation and camps after their homes were

(01:03:00):
deemed unsafe from the lake. Thosewho did eventually move back still struggle.
But the loss of their livelihoods aftertheir cattle had all died, Yeah,
that's a lot. I mean,they talk about this like severely affected the
economy, like it's just horse lefta big scar. It's a lot of
loss, it really is. Andthen there's of course the loss of their

(01:03:22):
loved ones, their families or friends. But I mean they were super tough,
they're resilient. Since the disaster,the villagers have done their best to
continue their lives, and those whowere children during the event now have families
of their own, which is kindof neat. But they haven't forgotten that
devastating day and hold memorial services yearlyto honor the loved ones they lost.

(01:03:45):
And yeah, I guess we canjust hope that it doesn't happen again.
Those lakes remained safe. That's allI have for you on this tragedy.
But weird, a natural gas tragedy, like I wouldn't have thunk that,
you know, I don't have thunkum. Yeah, And just the amount
of people and animals that die likethat that's from a lake. It's a

(01:04:05):
pretty epic. Yeah, So thanksguy, thank you for your suggestion.
Yeah, that's pretty cool, coolstory, I know, interesting, very
interesting, very interesting. A lotof science science and water science. We
have volcano science, lake science,water science. There's gas science, good

(01:04:28):
gibology. Okay, thank you,thank you. Yeah, um, yeah,
yeah, yeah, should we doCity of the Week. Let's still
do city Okay, and that goesto Bellevue, Washington, Hey, Bellevue,

(01:04:54):
Hello, what's up? What's upWashington? Homies? Yeah? Do
you feel cool? You get tobe like our final City the Week for
a while. Thank you for listening, much appreciation, Yes, thank you
very much. Are we listening?We have been listening to something we both

(01:05:15):
got hooked on. I got youinto it. He did. It was
Shauna's doing. Um, it's probablynot a new I think we're late to
the game. Andy, like Wally, it's a podcast and I'm still not
finished with it. You finished,I beat her. I did that thing
where I got obsessed and was like, oh, I'm going to listen to
all of it. Um live inDiana, La. Which, Yeah,

(01:05:36):
it's not a new podcast. Nowwe're listening to season one in their season
two, but that season one,man, it is rocking my world.
Though. If you want to goto binge, well that is very ben
worthy. It is like it'll getyou hooked, like right away, I'm
so glad you like literally listened toit. To it the next day,
I know, I was like addingit, well, I had just talked

(01:05:57):
to Michael. I was like,I'm pretty much caught up on all of
my podcasts, Like I need anew podcast. One you did. It
was just like the universe provides umand they listened to all of it.
Yeah, and like good day.There's a season two so that'll last be
two more days. Super good.Yeah, that's a really good one if
you're looking for a new podcast.Yeah, that's our new stuff. Yeah.

(01:06:19):
Yeah, yeah, we never gotto do UM. Well, I
guess there wasn't like a bad guyin this story, but cretive cursing.
Yeah, have creative curs at eachother. Uh sure, yeah, I'll
go for it. Yeah, howdo you feel about me always bad at
this? If we don't Sean ishistorically terrible at creative cursing. It is

(01:06:42):
pretty funny. Yeah, dick listnubbing, I know how much you don't
like the word nubbing. I andI included that in the book for some
masochistic reason. I hate that word. That is so funny. Came my
turn here you go. Thank youfor calling me a dicklas nubbn. You're
such a dicklais nubbin. What amI gonna call you? How about no,

(01:07:08):
I don't like that. See it'shard. No. Oh oh a
raging fu face. Okay, Imean should you come up with one for
Michael? Yes? Oh no,I can't call him this you Michael,
you're such a queve shit liquor thatis gross. Do you want a creed?

(01:07:31):
Of course one. No, he'sscared, he's over it. Uh.
We'll have this book for always,for always and forever. Now we
didn't we didn't utilize it as muchas we used to it. I think
we always forgot to use it.But yeah, it's always a fun time
if you want to be grossed out, thanks to call your friends. Uh,
yeah, that was our creative curse. Yeah, what do we do

(01:07:55):
now? This is I don't know, we're sad. I think we don't
know. We're just like stalling.Yeah, I've kind of been doing that
all day. Yeah, we happened. We've just been like I've been digging
it though. Yeah, we're justvery low as possible. Yep, we're
just really milking it and living init. Well, we're going to take
a photo of us sitting on ourtable to should we create our first photo?

(01:08:19):
Yeah, we have our first photohere of us. Yeah, it's
on the table a little baby.We look very nervous and excited. We
have one microphone, one microphone anda really ghetto laptop we used to use.
If you even just bumped to thecord would stop recording and turn off.
It was yeah, which happened onmultiple occasions. So little on that

(01:08:39):
table, and now there's so muchon the on the same table, the
same table, different place, sametable, different house, better chairs,
better chairs, but the same table. Yes, old faithful here. Oh
yeah, she's a good old table. But yeah, that was the first
one I did, my classic Titanicepisode. Of course, we didn't even
talk about the Titanic event we loveso much morbidly, you know what I

(01:09:03):
mean. But yeah, Titanic.We're obsessed. We just even count the
references in every episode we've made tothe Titanic. It's probably like over half.
I can never get tired of it. Yeah, so it's our shared
love and obsession. Yes, socrazy, so full circle, full circle.
We love you guys. Um,Like I said, keep in touch.

(01:09:26):
Yes, we're still monitoring things.We're so we're still looking at you
on the way. That's funny.All right, I'll do our final for
a while. Sign off. Okay, I'll say it with you. Okay,
are you ready? Yeah? Goodgep, good night you guys.

(01:09:53):
You're ready for my cretty spaghetti?All right? I went to smithsonianmag dot
com. I went to Wikipedia dotcom, Washington Post dot com, Seattle
Times dot com, Rolautlast dot com, Volcano dot org, and State dot
edu, Britannica dot com and BBCdot co dot UK. Our music is
by Brook for Free and Matt Edwardsand edited by our wonderful editor. Well,

(01:10:15):
thank you, Michael. All right, should I let'st our social medias
please do um. We have alot of our things that Anxious and Afraid
the Pod, so that's our handlefor both of our Facebook page and group,
along with our Instagram and Gmail.We have a Twitter at AA the
Pod. You can support us onPatreon dot com forward slash Anxious and Afraid.

(01:10:38):
If you do that, you getsome pretty nice perks. You get
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free sticker. You can also supportus for free if you can't do any
of that by leaving a rate review, subcribe to the show, tell your
friends, yeah, we would appreciateall of it. To ring s the

(01:11:00):
sea we want to do. Thepeople need to be the sea we want
to do. The people need tobe the s