ShortHand: Lake Nyos - Fog of Death

February 20, 2026·36 min·3 clips

120 million cubic metres of CO2-saturated water released in 20 seconds sent a 40-metre fog travelling at 100 kilometres per hour through sleeping villages, killing almost everyone it touched.

First, bone ears. The hosts start with the awful experience of hearing your own voice played back, while freely admitting their explanation may be nonsense. Eventually, the episode gets to Lake Nyos, a quiet-looking lake in far northwestern Cameroon, sitting in a valley with cliffs, birds, baboons, and far too much scenic misdirection. Then the turn comes. The lake can explode, or at least behave badly enough that the difference barely helps. The science is blunt. A volcanologist had a theory, the wider scientific community rejected it, and most scientists never heard about it. Great work, everyone. Then Lake Nyos did the same thing on a scale 50 times larger, releasing enough carbon dioxide to kill almost 2,000 people. That number does not get easier to sit with, especially when the victims are described as villages. Chemistry is the villain here. Carbon dioxide dissolves in water, then comes out fast enough to smother the area around it. Nobody makes it sound elegant. One host drags in her own school science history, complete with set four science, double science, and a small, pointed win over Mr. Gower. The detour works because it makes the chemistry feel less like a textbook and more like someone forcing open a half-remembered classroom experiment. The ending stays grim. Even once the mechanism makes sense, the idea of a lake quietly storing disaster is still horrible. The takeaway is plain enough: do not trust lakes, call someone with pipes, and maybe think twice about lakefront living.

As heard by us

A deadly lake story told with chemistry, banter, and a properly bleak sense of scale.

RedHanded makes Lake Nyos feel calm on the surface and deadly underneath, and that contrast carries the episode without flattening the science.

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Why you'd press play

You want a disaster story about a lake in Cameroon that turns lethal.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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