File:Nyos_Lake.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Lake Nyos
Sign in to savecrater lake in the Northwest Region of Cameroon
Key facts
- Location
- Northwest Region, Cameroon
- Type
- Meromictic , limnically active lake , volcanic crater lake
- Primary inflows
- subaquatic source
- Basin countries
- Cameroon
- Max length
- 2.0 km (1.2 mi)
- Max width
- 1.2 km (0.75 mi)
- Surface area
- 1.58 km (390 acres)
- Average depth
- 94.9 m (311 ft)
- Max depth
- 208 m (682 ft)
- Water volume
- 0.15 km (120,000 acre⋅ft)
- Surface elevation
- 1,091 m (3,579 ft)
via Wikipedia infobox
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Lake Nyos (/ˈniːoʊs/ NEE-ohs) is a crater lake in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, located about 315 km (196 mi) northwest of Yaoundé, the capital. Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity. A volcanic dam impounds the lake waters.
A pocket of magma lies beneath the lake and leaks carbon dioxide (CO2) into the water, changing it into carbonic acid. Nyos is one of only three lakes known to be saturated with carbon dioxide in this way, and therefore prone to limnic eruptions (the others being Lake Monoun, also in Cameroon, and Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Lake Nyos” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.