Why This Tiny Lake Is the Scariest on Earth

[Music] why this lake is the most dangerous on earth there are about 117 million lakes on our planet and they cover almost 4 percent of the continental land 90 million of these lakes are pretty small no bigger than the size of two football field but if you were to combine the shorelines of all the lakes in the world you'd discover that their length is more than 250 times the diameter of Earth which is as long as seven thousand nine hundred twenty six miles lakes can be small or big clean or dirty vital for local infrastructure or deadly and if you've been wondering which lake is the most dangerous in the world and why this video will answer your questions but before you learn the shocking truth click the subscribe button to turn on notifications this way you'll join other brite ciders and will always be the first to find out about daily updates on the channel the most dangerous lake in the world is situated in africa on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda it's a lake kii vu the ninth deepest lake in the world at first sight this Lake doesn't look threatening at all it's just a big body of water surrounded by picturesque hills and small mountains so how come it's the deadliest lake in the world surely it can't be more murderous than the boiling lake in Dominica the size of this lake makes it the second largest hot spring on the planet the temperature at its edges reaches a hundred ninety seven degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of the lake the water is literally boiling nobody has been brave enough to measure the temperature their how hot the lake gets can't be controlled since molten lava escapes through a crack in the lake bed and nobody can stop this process that sounds absolutely incredible and now here we are telling you that there's another Lake that's more dangerous than the boiling lake however it's true perhaps the fact that Lake kevo sometimes explodes and kills everything in the vicinity contributes to its reputation you think but what happens to provoke these explosions such a tragedy was recorded for the first time at Lake Manaus located on the oku volcanic field in Cameroon on August 15th 1984 a loud boom sounded from the lake according to the locals people saw a huge gas cloud over the surface of the water this natural disaster took the lives of 37 people 12 of them were in a truck when the explosion happened as they left the car to investigate the deadly gas got to them all the victims were reported to have bizarre skin discoloration which first led investigators to consider a terrorist attack however this theory was incorrect the theory was proved false two years later on August 21st 1986 when a much more disastrous explosion shook Lake Nyos which is located just 62 miles away from Lake Malawi this time the catastrophe happened at night and took the lives of more than 1,700 people the nearby villages of Chau cam Neos and soo bum were almost completely wiped out more than 3,500 wild animals and cattle also died within just a few minutes local people called this Lake the Bad Lake legend told that there was an evil spirit living there when the spirit came out of the lake it took the lives of those who live nearby those who believe in myths and tales might find proof of the evil spirits existence in the fact that after the explosion the water in the lake changed colour from crystal blue to blood red but scientists knew better originally Lake Nyos formed in a 400 year old volcanic crater such crater lakes usually have extremely high levels of co2 due to the volcanic activity that's happening many miles beneath the surface under normal circumstances this gas is occasionally released during Lake water turnover but the problem with some lakes such as Lake Nyos is that they're very still meaning that the water doesn't move much as a result instead of releasing co2 Lake Neos acted as an extremely high pressure storage unit it became more and more saturated with gas eventually every gallon of lake water contained five gallons of co2 this turned the water reservoir into a real time bomb in August 1986 something went wrong with a lake perhaps it was a tiny volcanic eruption unusually cold rain or a landslide that released the pressure whatever triggered the changes it made the lake explode this rare phenomenon is called a limnic eruptions water from the lake shot 300 feet into the air and caused an 82 foot high tsunami more than 0.3 cubic miles of co2 burst into the air in just 20 seconds this cloud spread fast and far up to 16 miles from the lake this huge wave of lethal gas covered the nearest villages people had almost no chance of survival in the villages closest to the lake only six out of 800 people stayed alive they were the people who thought of escaping to higher altitudes on their motorcycles co2 has a higher density than air which means that it remains close to the ground and pushes clear breathable air up at the same time that's why people who stayed inside their houses or ran out to see what had caused such a loud explosion died almost immediately due to severe co2 poisoning as co2 spread around the villages it extinguished all the flames this created an eerie feeling of doom as for the unusual color of the lake the change occurred thanks to the iron that rose from the bottom of the lake nowadays measures have been taken to prevent similar catastrophes from happening the solution was quite simple degassing authorities installed a pipe that runs to the very bottom of Lake Nyos it allows gas to escape on a regular basis and while it's pressurized local inhabitants have also acquired a nice water fountain in the middle of the lake powered by co2 at the same time these precautions may fail one day the thing is that on the lake there is a natural dam which can fail at any moment nobody knows what will happen if it does specialists predict a possibility of a double disaster gassing and flooding at the same time now you may have a question if Lake Nyos has already caused such terrible destruction why is the most dangerous lake in the world lake even the size of this lake is the answer it's 1,000 times larger than Lake Nyos and is located in a much more densely populated area nowadays this lake contains more than 55 billion cubic meters of methane gas which is generated at the bottom of the lake on top of that it's also located in a crater and it's volcanic rock bed has layers of carbon dioxide according to historical records this Lake explodes every 1,000 years killing everything inside its waters as well as on its shores researchers believe that if a volcanic disturbance happened today it would cause an eruption similar to the one on Lake Nyos but much much worse either the methane explosion or co2 poisoning could take the lives of more than 2 million people living in the basin of Lake kevo unfortunately nobody knows when it might happen and how such a tragedy could be prevented would you dare visit any of the lakes mentioned in this video perhaps you know of another scary and dangerous lake share your knowledge in the comments below remember to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our Channel things are always more exciting on the bright side

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 3,666,014

Rating: 4.7393632 out of 5

Keywords: places to avoid, Lake Kivu, Lake Nyos, Lake Monoun, Earth facts, most dangerous places, the most dangerous lakes, exploding lake, most mysterious places, amazing lakes, tiny lakes, strange lakes

Id: oLSmGlBYgAk

Length: 8min 53sec (533 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 16 2018