Abstract
Our survey of Lake Nyos in December 1988 revealed that temperature, conductivity, and CO2 concentration, all have similarly shaped depth profiles with a sharp rise towards the bottom. Below 160 m the measurements listed above have significantly increased since the gas burst of August 1986. These increases support a view that CO is being supplied to the lake bottom in the form of warm, CO2-charged, mineralized water. The 3He / 4He ratios and 813C values of CO2 which are uniform at 5.6 to 5.7 R(atm) and -3.2 to -3.7 per mille, respectively, strongly indicate 10 the mantle origin for He and CO2. However, the C / 3He ratios of 2 x 10 to 6 x 1010, which are higher than the typical mantle value of 2 x 109, may be considered as an evidence of mixing of the mantle components with crustal carbon, possibly derived from limestone. It is likely that high density CO2 fluid of such origin may be present at a shallow level beneath Lake Nyos, and that contact of the CO2 rich fluid with groundwater forms the above-stated, CO2-saturated, mineralized water.
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© 1992 Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden
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Kusakabe, M., Sano, Y. (1992). The origin of gases in Lake Nyos, Cameroon. In: Freeth, S.J., Ofoegbu, C.O., Onuoha, K.M. (eds) Natural Hazards in West and Central Africa. International Monograph Series. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-05239-5_9
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