#naturaldisaster — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #naturaldisaster, aggregated by home.social.
-
The U.S. Is Having One of Its Most Active Wildfire Seasons. Here’s How the Costs Are Adding Up
Some experts argue, however, that full suppression is part of the issue that makes wildfires so large and…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Environment #California #Colorado #ExtremeWeather #firefighters #naturaldisaster #NewsDesk #oregon #Science #Wildfire #Wildfires
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/846019/ -
The U.S. Is Having One of Its Most Active Wildfire Seasons. Here’s How the Costs Are Adding Up
Some experts argue, however, that full suppression is part of the issue that makes wildfires so large and…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Environment #California #Colorado #ExtremeWeather #firefighters #naturaldisaster #NewsDesk #oregon #Science #Wildfire #Wildfires
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/846019/ -
#Paraguay
#Paraguay #Caazapa #Itapua #Hailstorm #Hail #NaturalDisaster #weather #climate #destruction #anomaly #climatechangey
🇵🇾 Severe #Hailstorm Hits #Caazapá and #Itapúa Departments in Paraguay
⚠️🌩 On September 11, 2026
t.me/GCC_report/9...
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE (channel... -
#Paraguay
#Paraguay #Caazapa #Itapua #Hailstorm #Hail #NaturalDisaster #weather #climate #destruction #anomaly #climatechangey
🇵🇾 Severe #Hailstorm Hits #Caazapá and #Itapúa Departments in Paraguay
⚠️🌩 On September 11, 2026
t.me/GCC_report/9...
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE (channel... -
#Paraguay
#Paraguay #Caazapa #Itapua #Hailstorm #Hail #NaturalDisaster #weather #climate #destruction #anomaly #climatechangey
🇵🇾 Severe #Hailstorm Hits #Caazapá and #Itapúa Departments in Paraguay
⚠️🌩 On September 11, 2026
t.me/GCC_report/9...
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE (channel... -
#Paraguay
#Paraguay #Caazapa #Itapua #Hailstorm #Hail #NaturalDisaster #weather #climate #destruction #anomaly #climatechangey
🇵🇾 Severe #Hailstorm Hits #Caazapá and #Itapúa Departments in Paraguay
⚠️🌩 On September 11, 2026
t.me/GCC_report/9...
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE (channel... -
#Paraguay
#Paraguay #Caazapa #Itapua #Hailstorm #Hail #NaturalDisaster #weather #climate #destruction #anomaly #climatechangey
🇵🇾 Severe #Hailstorm Hits #Caazapá and #Itapúa Departments in Paraguay
⚠️🌩 On September 11, 2026
t.me/GCC_report/9...
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE (channel... -
📍 Tropical Storm Norbert (16.4, -117.3)
🕐 Thu 10 Sep 2026 06:00 UTC
⛈️ Storm Alert 🟠 Active
💨 Wind: 35 kts
🗺️ 16.4, -117.3🔗 https://eonet.gsfc.nasa.gov/api/v3/events/EONET_24184
#SevereStorm #NaturalDisaster #EarthAlerts #DisasterAlert #BreakingNews #Environment #Nature #Science #Prepping #TropicalStormNorbert164 #1173
-
📍 Tropical Storm Norbert (16.4, -117.3)
🕐 Thu 10 Sep 2026 06:00 UTC
⛈️ Storm Alert 🟠 Active
💨 Wind: 35 kts
🗺️ 16.4, -117.3🔗 https://eonet.gsfc.nasa.gov/api/v3/events/EONET_24184
#SevereStorm #NaturalDisaster #EarthAlerts #DisasterAlert #BreakingNews #Environment #Nature #Science #Prepping #TropicalStormNorbert164 #1173
-
Risk Society events:
1. Webinar
"Risk jargon"
Thursday 22 October, 15:00-16:00 Central European Time
https://www.risk-society.com/risk-jargon-compound-complex-and-confusing-2
2. Workshop
"Improving Risk Vocabulary"
Friday 13 November, 13:00-17:00 Central European Time
https://www.risk-society.com/lost-for-words-improving-risk-vocabulary
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disasters #risk #RiskSociety #RiskManagement #RiskReduction #RiskAnalysis -
Disasters Avoided Newsletter 15: Good Data
https://mailchi.mp/0e535a548342/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter
#DisastersAvoided #DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
"The Arctic Institute's 2026 Polar Disaster Risk Reduction and Response Series: A Conclusion"
https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/the-arctic-institutes-2026-polar-disaster-risk-reduction-response-series-a-conclusion
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #Arctic #PolarRisk #PolarDRR #Antarctica #Antarctic #polar #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
"Where is the safest place on Earth?"
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/agPjprZh3js
From DW (Deutsche Welle, news and current affairs)
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disasters -
"All disasters are compound, cascading, complex, #Natech, and hybrid"
https://www.preventionweb.net/drr-community-voices/all-disasters-are-compound-cascading-complex-natech-and-hybrid
Part of a series of considering improvements to #risk and #disaster vocabulary and communication:
1. https://www.risk-society.com/risk-jargon-compound-complex-and-confusing
2. https://www.preventionweb.net/drr-community-voices/nature-angry-us
3. https://www.preventionweb.net/drr-community-voices/can-risk-be-managed-without-measuring-it-0
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disasters -
Flash Flood in Nepal Leaves Extensive Destruction as Search for Missing Continues
What Happened? On the morning of Wednesday, August 26, 2026, at approximately 8:40 a.m. Nepal time, a devastating flash flood struck the Bhote Koshi River area in Rasuwa District, in northern Nepal near the Tibet/China border. The Government of Nepal officially describes it as a massive and severe flash flood that caused extensive loss of life, displacement and destruction of homes, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities and other critical infrastructure. The flooding also affected […] -
Disasters Avoided Newsletter 14: Good Governance
https://mailchi.mp/ff2948107282/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter#DisastersAvoided #DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters #Governance #GoodGovernance #BadGovernance
-
On-The-Ground Images of Two Powerful Volcanic Eruptions Today https://petapixel.com/2026/05/08/on-the-ground-images-of-two-powerful-volcanic-eruptions-today/ #volcaniceruption #naturaldisaster #indonesia #volcano #nature #japan #News
-
Tỉnh Khánh Hòa đã công bố tình huống khẩn cấp về thiên tai sau khi mưa lũ kéo dài gây sạt lở nghiêm trọng trên 8 tuyến đường huyết mạch. Các biện pháp khắc phục đang được triển khai khẩn trương để đảm bảo giao thông thông suốt và an toàn cho người dân.
#KhanhHoa #satlo #mualu #thientai #giaothong
#Vietnam #landslide #flooding #naturaldisaster #stateofemergencyhttps://vtcnews.vn/8-tuyen-duong-sat-lo-nang-khanh-hoa-cong-bo-tinh-huong-khan-cap-ar991454.html
-
Tỉnh Khánh Hòa đã công bố tình huống khẩn cấp về thiên tai sau khi mưa lũ kéo dài gây sạt lở nghiêm trọng trên 8 tuyến đường huyết mạch. Các biện pháp khắc phục đang được triển khai khẩn trương để đảm bảo giao thông thông suốt và an toàn cho người dân.
#KhanhHoa #satlo #mualu #thientai #giaothong
#Vietnam #landslide #flooding #naturaldisaster #stateofemergencyhttps://vtcnews.vn/8-tuyen-duong-sat-lo-nang-khanh-hoa-cong-bo-tinh-huong-khan-cap-ar991454.html
-
Disasters Avoided Newsletter 11: Communications and Engagement
https://mailchi.mp/cd335e827549/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter
Urban 2.0 Newsletter 8: Ideas to Make Cities & Towns Better
https://mailchi.mp/344d00f2862f/the-urban-2-zero-newsletter-14197204
#DisastersAvoided #DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters #UrbanResilience -
Cảm ơn sự ủng hộ từ bạn đọc, các tổ chức và doanh nghiệp dành cho đồng bào miền Trung bị ảnh hưởng bởi mưa lũ. Mỗi đóng góp đều là nguồn động viên to lớn, tiếp thêm sức mạnh để bà con vượt qua khó khăn, sớm ổn định cuộc sống.
#VietNamNet #MienTrung #MuaLu #UngHo #TiepSuc #ThienNguyen #HoTroMienTrung #VietnamFloodRelief #SupportCentralVietnam #FloodVictims #CommunitySupport #DisasterRelief #VietnamDisaster #NaturalDisaster #HumanitarianAid #Charity #Solidarity #HelpingHands #CentralVietnamFloods
-
Bão số 11 và mưa lũ sau bão đã gây thiệt hại kinh tế nghiêm trọng cho 4 tỉnh miền Bắc, ước tính tổng cộng hơn 8.720 tỷ đồng.
Các tỉnh bị ảnh hưởng bao gồm Thái Nguyên, Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn và Bắc Ninh, trong đó Thái Nguyên là địa phương chịu thiệt hại nặng nề nhất.
#BãoSố11 #ThienTai #MuaLu #ThietHai #ThaiNguyen #CaoBang #LangSon #BacNinh #MienBac #Typhoon #NaturalDisaster #Flood #Damage #Vietnam
https://vtcnews.vn/bon-tinh-mien-bac-thiet-hai-hon-8-700-ty-dong-sau-bao-11-ar970852.html
-
Bão số 11 và mưa lũ sau bão đã gây thiệt hại kinh tế nghiêm trọng cho 4 tỉnh miền Bắc, ước tính tổng cộng hơn 8.720 tỷ đồng.
Các tỉnh bị ảnh hưởng bao gồm Thái Nguyên, Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn và Bắc Ninh, trong đó Thái Nguyên là địa phương chịu thiệt hại nặng nề nhất.
#BãoSố11 #ThienTai #MuaLu #ThietHai #ThaiNguyen #CaoBang #LangSon #BacNinh #MienBac #Typhoon #NaturalDisaster #Flood #Damage #Vietnam
https://vtcnews.vn/bon-tinh-mien-bac-thiet-hai-hon-8-700-ty-dong-sau-bao-11-ar970852.html
-
Disasters Avoided Newsletter 10: disasters and the climate
https://mailchi.mp/9ac4eaca5c4c/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter
#DisastersAvoided #DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency -
Disasters Avoided Newsletter #9 - July 2025
Focus on disaster #finance and #insurance
https://mailchi.mp/9d23586aafdb/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter
#DisastersAvoided
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
Two new blogs:
1. "#Disasters that never happened: 6 preventive actions" https://www.preventionweb.net/drr-community-voices/disasters-never-happened-6-preventive-actions
2. "Mental Health #FirstAid for #Bangladesh"
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/disaster-by-choice/202504/mental-health-first-aid-in-bangladesh-10-years-of-progress
#DisastersAvoided #DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #Health #MentalHealth #MHFA #MentalHealthAwareness #GlobalHealth #PublicHealth #vulnerability #resilience -
Disasters Avoided Newsletter #7
Focus on Non-Governmental Organisations (#NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (#CSOs)
https://mailchi.mp/9e31722a66e3/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter-14190206
#DisastersAvoided
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
A special issue of the International Journal of Disaster Risk Science has just been published on "The Sendai Framework Celebrates Its 10th Birthday" https://link.springer.com/journal/13753/volumes-and-issues/16-1 with the video from Tuesday's launch event at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaster-reduction/events/2025/mar/rdr-monthly-event-gender-disaster-and-sendai-framework-decade-progress
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
Gender, Disaster, and the Sendai Framework: A Decade of Progress?
18 March 2025, 1830-2100.
At University College London, UK, in-person only, recorded for YouTube.
Programme and registration https://www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaster-reduction/events/2025/mar/gender-disaster-and-sendai-framework-decade-progress
#GenderDisaster #DisasterGender #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #DisasterRiskManagement #DisasterPrevention -
Disasters Avoided Newsletter #5
https://mailchi.mp/8973b1f121fe/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter-14186981
Focus on the #UNDRR Global Assessment Report (GAR) Special Report 2024 and #NoNaturalDisasters
#DisastersAvoided
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #DisasterRiskManagement -
Words into Action guidelines: The Science–Policy–Society ecosystem for disaster risk reduction
"This version is for public review until 6 November 2024 and has the purpose to ensure aspects that are important to consider have not been overlooked."
Download the document and provide feedback at https://www.undrr.org/publication/words-action-guidelines-science-policy-society-ecosystem-disaster-risk-reduction#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction
-
"Using #EarthObservations to avoid disasters"
https://www.preventionweb.net/media/100107/download?startDownload=20240907#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters
-
The 4th #DisastersAvoided newsletter https://mailchi.mp/b3109940a3d3/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter-13969498 focuses on #FloodRisk #FloodRiskManagement #Flooding #Floods #FloodManagement with several new flood-related case studies added to our Disasters Avoided website https://disastersavoided.com
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #DisasterRiskManagement #disaster #disasters -
"Choosing or avoiding disaster"
https://doi.org/10.1080/00167487.2024.2307222
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
"Coffee & #Geography" with Kit Marie Rackley https://soundcloud.com/geogramblings/coffee-geography-403/s-kxuRyzul62r?si=f5d7880aa70e413d907fe278fca66104 talking about #disasters #DRR #dogs and more.
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction
-
"Disasters Avoided" newsletter #2.
Focus on wildfires.
https://mailchi.mp/51cb98593c47/the-disasters-avoided-newsletter
#DisastersAvoided #wildfires #bushfires #forestfires #grassfires #veldtfires
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
"Categorising potential non-disasters"
https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-07-2023-0156#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters
-
"We rarely hear about the disasters that were avoided - but there's a lot we can learn from them"
https://theconversation.com/we-rarely-hear-about-the-disasters-that-were-avoided-but-theres-a-lot-we-can-learn-from-them-217850
#DisastersAvoided #DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
The new edition of "Environmental Hazards" is now available in hardback and paperback https://www.routledge.com/Environmental-Hazards-Assessing-Risk-and-Reducing-Disaster/Smith-Fearnley-Dixon-Bird-Kelman/p/book/9780815365419
Remembering Keith Smith with thanks to Carina Fearnley for leading us in continuing this amazing book. Now we await the 8th edition!
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (
avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters #EnvironmentalHazards -
Two recent articles with Gareth Byatt:
"Avoiding Disaster".
In Enterprise Risk magazine from the Institute of Risk Management.
https://irp.cdn-website.com/8bbcaf75/files/uploaded/Enterprise-Risk-Autumn-2023-Avoding-a-disaster.pdf
"Dodge the disaster"
In Crisis Response Journal.
https://irp.cdn-website.com/8bbcaf75/files/uploaded/Crisis%20Response%20Journal%20Summer%202023%2018-2%20-%20Avoiding%20Disasters.pdf
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters -
"Is climate change increasing disasters?"
Public seminar at UCL in London, 17 Oct, 1300-1400.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/events/events/2023/oct/lunch-hour-lecture-climate-change-increasing-disasters
It will be recorded and made available.
#DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #DRR #DisasterRiskReduction #DisasterRisk #RiskReduction#disaster #disasters #CCA #ClimateChangeAdaptation #ClimateAdaptation #Adaptation #Climate #ClimateChange
#SDGs #GlobalGoals #ParisAgreement #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR -
"Can Nature Take the Naturalness Out of 'Natural Disasters'?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf0W-jO9U7MAll videos from the Global Animal Disaster Management Conference (GADMC) 2023 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHOPN67a86xZ8fsz3oJFdC51s1XFmsvEg with thanks to to Steve Glassey and his team plus @fourpawsint
#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #AnimalDisaster #DisasterAnimal.
-
"Disasters Are Us. And Predictable Like Us."
https://perci.us/frontlines/disasters-are-caused-by-humans#DRR #DisastersAreNotNatural #NoNaturalDisasters (so we avoid the phrases #NaturalDisaster #NaturalDisasters) #vulnerability #resilience #SendaiFramework #Switch2Sendai #SFDRR #DisasterRisk #DisasterRiskReduction #disaster #disasters
-
Misbehaving lakes: Three water bodies that exhale death gas
In August 1986, approximately 1800 people living in a 15-mile radius of Lake Nyos in Cameroon didn’t live to see the morning, dying by suffocation from toxic gas exhaled from the bottom of the lake. Some survivors awoke hours after falling unconscious. They reported they heard a strange and loud noise but when they awoke, they were in complete silence, without even insects buzzing around. People and livestock lay scattered, dead. The small lake (1.5 sq km) had changed color to reddish and murky. Later, chemical, isotopic, geologic, and medical evidence led to the conclusion that all died from carbon dioxide asphyxiation.
Lake Nyos after the eruption. Photo US Geological Survey.Overturning of the lake
This is classified as a limnic eruption (‘limnic’ referring to fresh water/lakes). It is also called a “lake overturn”. Many lakes or ponds experience a seasonal turnover when the water from the bottom rises and the surface water sinks. But, a gas-propelled turnover is violent. Water is displaced by the explosively rising gas column and can cause a tsunami on shore.
These disasters are rare for several reasons. First, there must be a large amount of carbon dioxide (or methane) that becomes trapped under pressure. While this can occur from vegetation decomposition, a more voluminous source of gas is from volcanic degassing. In some volcanic areas around the world, deadly events can occur when vented gases become trapped in surface depressions or caves into which people or animals wander. But for a lake to become saturated with gas, it must be deep (Nyos is over 600 ft deep) and cold at the bottom. There is no seasonal mixing in these lakes because of the tropical location.
Graphic by Theresa Kayzar from http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo5xx/geos577/projects/kayzar/html/lake__rollover_.htmlLimnic eruptions have been observed twice in historical times including Nyos and a few years earlier at a nearby location (see below). Certainly, they have happened in prehistory and can happen again in lakes in this equatorial region overlying volcanic vents. Though the lakes are over on active volcanoes, gases from the magma chambers that remain are released into the lower lake level (hypolimnion) where the gas dissolves into the water. The situation becomes analogous to a carbonated bottle of soda. Under pressure, the gasses stay dissolved until the pressure is lessened and the gas bubbles out, surging to the surface.
The lake released an eruption of gas similar to what happens when pressure is released from a can of carbonated liquid. In this case, the candy pieces represent rocks that disturbed the unstable layers, causing an eruption.
When the lake is supersaturated with gas, the layers are very unstable. A small trigger is all that is needed to spark the runaway process of explosive degassing. This trigger can be a rockslide, a small release of magma, an earthquake, a temperature change such as warming of the lower layer, or other surface disruption (even strong winds).
Various dangerous gases are released from volcanic areas including carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and methane. For most volcanic lakes, the degassing takes place gradually without great risk of a catastrophe. At Lake Nyos, and a few years earlier (1984) at Lake Monoun nearby, the sudden release of massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the lake bottom displaced oxygen along the shore villages suffocating people and animals. According to a fascinating report in Smithsonian magazine, observers of the Monoun event thought the town was targeted by a militant chemical attack or the government itself.
Volcanologist Harold Sigurdsson went to Lake Monoun immediately after the event to attempt to discern what had happened, but he found no evidence of an eruption. Here is what happened next:
Sigurdsson, after a few weeks, began to conclude that carbon dioxide from magma degassing deep under Lake Monoun had percolated up into the lake’s bottom layers of water for years or centuries, creating a giant, hidden time bomb. The pent-up gas dissolved in the water, he believed, suddenly had exploded, releasing a wave of concentrated carbon dioxide. He wrote up his findings, calling the phenomenon “a hitherto unknown natural hazard” that could wipe out entire towns, and in 1986, a few months before the Nyos disaster, he submitted his study to Science, the prestigious U.S. journal. Science rejected the paper as far-fetched, and the theory remained unknown except to a few specialists.Then Lake Nyos blew up, killing 50 times more people than at Monoun.
Triggering mechanisms for the 1984 and 1986 limnic eruptions are still uncertain. A limnologist who had sampled (the surface) of Lake Nyos a year prior to the eruption also missed the flagging any anomalies when he only sampled near-surface waters which were normal. Upon hearing of the second catastrophe, some scientists suspected the same cause was to blame. When that same researcher returned to the lake, it was now rust-colored which suggested iron-rich water from the oxygen-poor bottom had oxidized at the surface after the CO2 dissipated on the wind.
Lake Nyos. NASA Landsat 8 – Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.Maleficent waters
The local people had told stories of disaster coming from the lakes. Lakes are said to be the abode of spirits of ancestors and may bring death. Anthropologist Eugenia Shanklin studied the folklore of the area and suggested that stories about the waters “misbehaving” may be linked to events in the geologic past. She noted that some cultures in the area require houses near lakes be situated on high ground. Of course, this would make sense for a number of reasons, and the link between “maleficent” lakes and the limnic eruption may be spurious. Still, the locals conduct rituals to appease the spirits and ask for protection against their future wrath.
The aftermath near Lake Nyos.This type of phenomenon is periodic. Nyos continues to receive an influx of gas (5,500 tons of CO² a year) which means another turnover would inevitably occur and threaten the people who return to their land. In 2001 a low-tech degassing pipe was installed (funded by the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at $433,000) to allow for the slow and harmless dispersion of a small amount of gas. Two more pipes were added in 2011 to decrease the gas levels even more rapidly, and alarms were installed to warn of dangerous levels of gas accumulation. Over 30 years later the lake shore is still poisoned from the eruption. The government will not support resettlement of the area until they are certain a similar disaster can be averted, though some people are filtering back.
Lake Kivu, nearer to the active volcanic complex of Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira, is a much larger lake at risk of limnic eruption. The vast concentrations of methane and CO² at this lake much larger than at Nyos and Monoun. But the dissolved methane is being extracted from the lake via piping on a small scale. Economically, the resource would be a huge benefit to the area. However, the risk of a similar catastrophic explosion remains a serious concern.
#Cameroon #carbonDioxidePoisoning #catastrophe #deadly #killerLake #LakeKivu #LakeMonoun #LakeNyos #LimnicEruption #naturalDisaster #volcanic #volcanicLake #volcanism
https://sharonahill.com/?p=438