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35 years ago I was at a Haloween party. The host had decorated the house with the usual cobwebs and such and had rented a dry ice (CO2) fog generator. He was disappointed that his drafty main floor prevented the build up of fog so he moved the generator and party to his basement. The effect was much better there as the fog gradually rose up our legs. The host and I were much taller than everyone else and at one point I realized that just talking was making me out of breath. I looked around and realized that every one but the host and I had fallen asleep. We began shaking them awake and moving them upstairs. That was close.

This remind me of old warning stones that exist some places in Japan, just saying “don’t make houses between here and the shore (paraphrase).” They were put up have after prior tsunamis destroyed houses within the danger area.

Only when one has a mosquito on their testicle, does one accept that not all problems can be solved with violence.

This is one of those little known disasters that shows one of the many ways that the planet can wipe out life. It is shocking that a few bubbles under pressure over time can create a ticking time bomb.

That tale of the surviving infant in his deceased mother's arm is just shivering. It also shows that old stories have a grain of truth that when ignored can have dire consequences. Traditions and myths are ancestors' ways of solving problems we forget still remain.

When people develop a tradition it is usually a good idea to understand why that tradition developed in the first place before doing away with it. In a lot of cases there's a good reason and the ancestors may at some point have known something that we don't.

“If a conspiratorial mind puts 2 and 2 together, they’ll get 666 inside an Illuminati triangle” Too damn true, Simon, and it speaks to how hard it is to break through someone with such a mindset with logic and reason.

when it's "deemed to expensive" to save lives..... how we have fallen.

I have inhaled pure CO2 once. It takes your breath away, instantly giving one the feeling as if been without air for minutes. Our breath reflex triggers at ~4%CO2 So it goes in alarm mode at sensing 100% CO2.

I was in the Peace Corps at this time. I was in training in Bamenda, the provincial capital where Nyos is located. There were lots of international aid workers in the days after the disaster.

They quite literally burped a lake. In all seriousness though, this was devastating and interesting all at the same time. Those poor people and animals! And it just goes to show that ancient lore should never be dismissed just because it may not be true in a literal sense. I used to live in Central Australia and there was a waterhole about an hour west. It’s *thought* to be about 30m deep but has never been confirmed. I was at a canoe camp there in the mid-90s, we were out on the water and suddenly this rush of bubbles came up through the water that was so thick we thought it was a solid object. Although it wouldn’t be volcanic in origin, and my experience wasn’t as drastic, this video makes me wonder if a similar kind of process made those bubbles come up the way they did.

The priest that actually went into the village to save people is awesome

"Mother nature is neither friend nor an enemy... In fact, she's quite impartial." - Senku Ishigami, Dr. Stone.

As a midshipman got to go into the ship’s Talos missile magazine for USS Long Beach (CGN-9). Along sides, entire walls were lined with bright red cylinders. One of our group piped up and asked why they were there. The missile tech said if the horn sounded / flashing light comes on you have seconds to climb up the racks and out of the magazine before the CO2 kills you. Basically you were dead as it was at least 30 feet from where we were standing up to main deck level where you could exit the magazine. PS - Reading about the Russian ship Moskva, it brought back memories of touring the Talos magazine. PS2 - Recall reading about this tragedy in National Geographic.

THIS is probably the coolest geographics video I've watched so far. Usually I know a bit about the topics but WOW this was so interesting and engaging to watch

I remember this making international news. The comment made about a neutron bomb (that went viral) had everyone talking. When the actual cause was discovered, I wondered about the volcanic crater lakes here in the U.S.

I was surprised to find out how subtle this effect is at times. Working as a medical courier, I have dry ice in my vehicle as I travel. this necessitates measures to avoid a build up of CO2 in the car. One day I got into my car to go to work, I cracked the windows and set there for a second trying to figure out why I was feeling so out of breath. After a moment I remembered that my usual routine for unloading had been interrupted the night before and I had neglected to remove my spare dry ice cooler which is seldom needed. So I got out and ventilated the car before continuing on. Lesson learned for sure!

I know in Japan there was a similar situation but that was sulfuric gas. It covered the surrounding area in a 2 foot tall fog of death. Lasted for a week or 2 pretty crazy what volcanoes can do.

one of my highschool science professors was there on peace Corp at the time and talked about how many of the groups that arrived to investigate brought preconceived ideas about what must have happened and only investigated their own hypothesis. Also a few hours after it was still chillingly quiet and you could see lines of ants crossing paths, absolutely still as if frozen (because they were dead) he described an infant who survived by being smothered so they couldn't breathe the co2, absolutely horrifying.

“neutron bombs, evil water nymphs, etc” I never understood why some prefer the most far-fetched, bizarre explanations for events over than the straightforward ones (such as Marjorie Taylor Greene speculating that California wildfires were due to Jewish space lasers, instead of that California is hot, dry and windy, with dried leaves everywhere.). I guess we want someone to blame, and not that just that it was a random, a personal event.

I remember this happening when I was a little kid. Despite living on the other side of the planet I was too young to fully understand it so was freaked out by lakes in general for a while. I think it coming a year or two after Bhopal made me really worried about mass suffocation.

What's more frightening. One of the lakes prone to Limnic eruptions is Lake Kivu, 2 million people live on it's shores and shows a localised extinction event every 1000 years. That's a disaster that could wipe out so many without warning.

What's facinating is why today is a deadly and horrifying loss of human life is also the source of our understanding of life as humans. Such as the Messel Pit in Germany, it was once such a lake in the eocene (I think) and has provided us flipping AMAZING fossils.

I had never heard of this disaster, and it was huge. When it comes to volcanic eruptions, it's normally from a crater emerging from the earth's surface, not underwater. A sad story but at least this lake's gas is now controlled

Imagine the international meeting. "Yes we are going to need depth charges Mr. Chairmen." "But you don't have a navy?" "No we need it to bomb our poison lakes." "You're what!"

There is a theory that an event, such as the disaster discussed in this video of Lake Nyos, occurred during the time that Moses sought to free his people from the bondage of slavery under Egyptian rule. The theory speculates that a cataclysmic, volcanic event had occurred, relative to the time of Moses' quest, that had triggered a massive gas release similar to what had happened at Lake Nyos. During the time period of the alleged exodus from Egypt, the first-born sons of Egyptian families were given a place of honor for where to sleep within the household; that place of honor being lower to the ground than for most (if not all) of the rest of the family. The enslaved families, however, did not follow the same tradition. Due to these circumstances, it is theorized that since the deadly gas that had been released was confined to the lower parts of affected areas, the majority of resulting deaths were of what seemed to be only of all of Egypt's first-born sons, i.e., the tenth plague of Egypt. Of course, this is only a theory to an event which is debated to have actually happened, but I thought it was relative and appropriate to mention the theory here.

A truly bizarre yet horrifying disaster.

As always, the depth and breadth of Mr. Simon Whistler's delivery is impeccable! How a man can go from flirting with insanity in business blaze and still cover solemn topics succinctly and with care as this humanitarian disaster absolutely fascinates me! Keep on the good work! You and your team have got a long lasting listener in me and I am quickly converting most my family and nearly all coworkers to your works, Mark Felton and Simon Whistler for leaders of the free world(maybe, who knows...might be dangerous leftwingers, hahahha) For real, i am in awe of all your teams talents and frequency of content so skilfully produced. I shudder to think of a world without the whistler hive mind.. Feed danny, at least though. Heh

Simon says biographics and geographics and sister channels to one another, I’m guessing that makes Brain Blaze the fun crazy aunt.

In some African lakes, they are literally slowly, releasing the toxic CO2 from the bottom of the lake using specially designed machines to prevent something like this from happening again.

When the earth cuts the cheese it's for keeps.

Well, I think we know where those death-tales come from. I.E. People who where near it suddenly dropping dead from asphyxiation. But given the lakeside wasn't consistently starved of oxygen, one minute it was a death-trap while another it was not. That would confuse the hell out of any people who didn't understand the gas/fluid we live in.

Please do more African history, if you can! More people deserve to know about these events.

I went on a solo adventure to Rwanda from the uk in 2018 to see the mountain gorillas. With no gorilla excursion booked I ended up on a bus heading to Uganda with a californian who I had just met. I'd been in Rwanda 10 hours and way out of my comfort zone I was on my way to Uganda with a stranger. We met Dutch Steve when we got to kisoro in Uganda and I ended up seeing the Mountain gorillas on my birthday with two strangers in an unplanned country. Those two guys went to Kampala Uganda's capital and I headed back to Kigali. Dutch Steve recommended that I go to a place on Lake kivu called kibuya. It was a beautiful place Lake kivu is absolutely massive Its around 30 miles x 18 miles. I went on a boat trip on Lake kivu to napoleon Island, past the presidents House Paul kigami. That was one hell of a solo adventure.

2:15 - Chapter 1 - A taboo maar 4:45 - Chapter 2 - A shroud of silence 9:05 - Chapter 3 - Bombs & sirens 12:10 - Chapter 4 - Science cracks the case 15:55 - Chapter 5 - Not your ordinary garden hose 18:55 - Chapter 6 - A future threat

Still loving your stuff Simon. Keep on keeping on please.

A similar disaster at Lake Kivu would be absolutely catastrophic.. it would make the Lake Nyos disaster look like nothing

Dat conspiracy theorist image though, pure golden content, of the highest quality! On a serious note, hot damn that would be some scary shizz to live through.

Rest In Peace to those that passed away.

Wow Simon thank you for sharing that. For such a horrifying incident it was truly devastating to hear the toll of the lost but what an amazing achievement and outcome to remedy the problem. Also part of the reason i like to find out the reason behind traditions, not all of them are superstition.

10:40 I see what you did there. So happy that the international community got together to help these people. More of this please 🙏🏽

The Trenton State College reference caught me by surprise! It's been The College of New Jersey since 1996.

I remember when this happened. I couldn't believe the news reports at the time! I love the completeness of your story from the ancient myths to the modern fix of science. Thank you for another great video!

Legends have a reason for existing. There’s usually something real, buried beneath local superstition and the distortions of time. If a culture believes something to be cursed and there’s always a very specific WAY it is supposed to be cursed, there may truly be something dangerous going on

Now you guys know why Simon is so passionate about CO2 detectors.

Very interesting, informative and worthwhile video.

Mami wata is well known myth in Nigeria easily translates to a mermaid

wow I nvr evr heard about this shocking event and I always thought of myself as a news need. great presentation as always.

I remember reading about that when i was about 8 years old and then having an unreasonable fear of CO2 for years.

I was just reading about this disaster yesterday. What timing, am I right?

Thank you for the great video. FASCINATING.

All this video tells me is that we shouldn’t simply dismiss the stories of our elders. Even when based in myth, stories are still a way of communicating information.

I wonder what all that sudden release of CO2 does to the overall atmosphere apart from the horrific localised problems?

I actually worked on a bid to do work on lake kivu pretty interesting keep up the content

Good video 👍

Fascinating. I never heard of this disaster before today. I'm going to have to look into subscribing to Curiosity Stream...

Apparently this stuff has happened in Germany too. In the vulkaneifel there are a few Maars, and in one of the museums there was something about gasses coming up and killing a village in the middle ages I think

I remember seeing this on a documentary on the plagues of Egypt.

Speaking of African lakes would it be possible to get a video on Geographics on Lake Chad formally one of the largest lakes in the world it has been shrinking especially at a faster pace since the 1960s with the effects of climate change

Can you do a video on the pink and white terraces in New Zealand

Myths were created to put an explanation to our world. Like the story of the eagle and the whale among many of the northwest tribes of the United States, just because it’s dressed up with gods doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Oh, man. This actually happened on my birthday. Year and all. My middle name is based on a God of the underworld and water and water related deaths. I'm sure my mother didn't know this happened when she named me but that's wild.

gases dissolve better in cool / cold water and with pressure, both of which were on the bottom of the lake. once you have an upwelling of saturated water gas is released from solution (much like opening a soda bottle) this is also very similar to how geysers work, except in the case of geysers water under ground is heated but doesn't boil due to the pressure. eventually the heat builds up to a point where the pressure can't keep the water from boiling. this boiling pushes water upward releasing the pressure causing more water to boil off, this creates a cascading effect we witness as a geyser.

Firecrackers: the silent killer! Hi, I'm Troy McClure...

8:02 - a seriously brave and selfless priest!

I’m telling you, you should do a video about the 1755 Lisbon earthquake

Be interesting to do the Bhopal, India, disaster, caused by Union Carbide, I believe some 900 people died.🇦🇺

One of the most spooky natural disasters to occur

Had never heard of the lake or the disaster before this video. It never seems to get mentioned in the media yet it was hugely significant at the time (it must have been, surely). Living in the UK I feel quite lucky. We'll never have tidal waves, volcanic eruptions or anything above the lowest points on the richter scale. The worst thing we'll experience is a day or two of flooding. Some people and some nations aren't blessed with that luck and I feel so bad for the people that died and their families.

Sometimes real life is scarier than any mythical monster.

Lesson learned: The next time I go to a lake I'm bringing Mentos.

I was traveling Africa 4x4 overland in 1986 /87 and never heard about this happening in Cameroon even though we passed right through this region and Chad , CAR etc

You should do one about the potential disaster of the New Madrid fault line waking up

Loving the blazer

Fascinating and terrifying at the same time

I used to sell ice cream from a cart when I was a teenager which was full of dry ice. I never understood why I felt so sleepy and lethargic until much later when I realised that several hours of shoving my upper body in and out of a cart was probably exposing me to some pretty high co2 concentrations. The shit we do thinking it's just fine and dandy.

The diplomat from this region is still alive and goes around the world spreading messages of love and safety… he goes by the stage name Lil Nyos X

I'm Cameroonian, from the region where Lake Nyos is located though I wasn't born yet when the tragedy happened. For many, it's the West that was testing a chemical weapon. When I think that Lake Kivu in Congo is far worse potential death toll given the 2-3 million people who live on the border ... I can't even imagine.

I once reached into a container of dry ice to get a cold drink and forgot to hold my breath so I took what was a very tiny whiff thru the nose and it burned but I was fine cuz I of course instinctively stopped breathing so I can imagine what this must have been like

I find creepy that I watch a program and within a week Simon has a video about something that saw in the program. In this case Japan Sink 2020, episode 3 has a survivor die when they walk into low land area, because of a similar event had happen. It's a shocking series to watch and recommend it.

loving the jacket today😊

This is one of the most horrifying things I've ever heard. My goodness.

It's funny how many "superstitions" and myths/fairy tales, have at their center that kernel of truth. But the story morphs over time like a game of Chinese whispers to be less and less believable.

This reminds me of Higurashi: No Naku Koro Ni…

Are there any water plants that could be added to help absorb the carbon?

These are so well written! Who writes them? I assume it’s not Brain Blaze’s Danny, although I love his writing, too.

I love that I start understanding this..........and then immediately don't. So many deets I had NEVER considered lol Love this stuff of course though!

People usually think of CO as a a deadly agent but not C02. The Neutron Bomb would have bee rapidly dismissed as to have these effects it would have had to been an air burst in the 1500 to 2500 ft range.

awesome video such a silent killer

3:40 Never had a mosquito bit my testicle but I have gotten chigger bites on the ol' sack.... not comfortable at all.

Simon Whistler, the hardest working man on KZfaq

I wonder if that degassing technically could be used on Washington DC? Think of the lives that could be saved if you drained off the toxic gas from that place.

Europeans and Americans directly helping people outside of the western world is a great sight. We have the resources to help those in need. More should be done.

Thumbs up, again Simon.

I remember hearing about this disaster when I was little; I even remember that there was an hypothesis about the tenth plague of Egypt (biblical story) that related an eruption of this kind to the death of all the firstborns, as they used to sleep on the floor.

The explosion part of a neutron bomb would still be extremely destructive. They were meant to be used against Soviet tank divisions, the neutrons were supposed to make the tanks radioactive but that was found to be not as effective as hoped.

Geez bro, how many channels you on? Just when I think I'm subscribed to them all, ya pop up on another!

"Upper Nyos?" "Ain't been since my birthday in 2019..."

Simon with the scientist npc drip like he just opened a portal to hell on a martian moon.