Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 5

A5 Cameroon gas disaster Tuesday, August 26, 1986 oa Austin American-Statesman Cloud of death Africans likely suffocated by cloud of carbon dioxide Experts speculate bubble rose from bottom of lake More than 1,000 dead reported in Lake Nios area Similar ncident Lake M'ieu ol I 1 1 -J Monoun in 1984 IS1 I I I 1 a I 'It's like a fantastic soda bottle blowing Susan Russell-Robinson U.S. Geological Survey jSyy CAMEROON Lake Nios (FRICa Ml Cameroon WL Yaounde TlvTvrT? 100 Cameroon at a glance Geography Cameroon is a tropical West African country about the size of California. It is bordered by Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Population The population of 10 million includes more than 200 tribes. The official languages are French and English.

The main seaport and largest city is Douala. The capital, Yaounde, is the second largest city. History The first Europeans to explore the area were the Portuguese. They gave it its name, derived from "ca- marao," which means shrimp in Portuguese. A German colony after the late 19th century, Cameroon was divided between France and Britain after World War I.

A unitary Republic of Cameroon was created in 1972. Government The central figure In the emergence of an independent Cameroon was Ahmadou Ahidjo, who negotiated independence in 1960. He presided over unification until 1972, when he relinquished the presidency to Paul Biya, the current president. i Economy Exports include coffee, cocoa, aluminum, timber and cotton. A third of the country is covered by forests.

About half of Cameroon's Imports come from France, and French companies have been involved in the developing oil industry. "Precautions have to be taken. I was told the gas had subsided, but we must still be careful," President Paul Biya said. The deadly gas eruption in Cameroon is suspected to have been released by earth tremors, a similar event In 1984 In northern Cameroon, carbon dioxide gas had been trapped In sediment at the bottom of Lake Manoun. Another cause might have been gases dissolved under pressure in deep layers of water.

Villages Gas Tremors IsedlmeVit or volcanic activity fessors who investigated the previous carbon dioxide cloud that killed 37 people along Lake Monoun in Cameroon, said in a recent article that such an event is extremely rare. "It requires highly unusual lake chemistry and a triggering mechanism such as the landslide to induce the overturning of the densely stratified waters and gases," Sigurdsson wrote in Maritimes, a University of Rhode island publication. Godfrey Fitton, a geologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, said that the deaths at Lake Nios were caused when carbon dioxide was released from the la-kebed. No other area of the world experiences similarly catastrophic releases of carbon dioxide from volcanic lakes, he said. "It's very unusual," said Fitton, an expert in the volcanoes of Cameroon.

"Perhaps it only happens in that region because of a combination of lake-filled craters, tropical climate and recent volcanic activity in the last million years that's a very short time in geology." The Cameroon government initially identified hydrogen sulfide as the gas responsible for the deaths. Some villagers reportedly smelled the noxious rotten-egg odor characteristic of hydrogen sulfide, according to Russell-Robinson. But volcano experts said that, given the similarities between the incidents over the weekend and in 1984, it was more likely that the latest cloud primarily was composed of carbon dioxide, possibly with trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide kills by causing seizures or cardiac and respiratory arrest. The carbon dioxide that apparently was at the bottom of Lake Nios may have come from the natural percolation of the gas through volcanic rock, from the decay of organic material or from both sources, scientists said.

Roman historians said sheep were killed by a gas cloud emitted by Mount Vesuvius in 62 A.D., she noted. Carbon dioxide clouds from volcanic activity have long killed sheep in Iceland, most notably in 1783, when a huge eruption wiped out so much livestock that an ensuing famine led to the deaths of 10,000 people, said Dr. Alexander McBirney, a vulcanologist at the University of Oregon. Carbon dioxide, which is heavier than air, is not usually a toxic substance. But large clouds of carbon dioxide displace oxygen, consequently suffocating people and animals.

Livestock are particularly susceptible since carbon dioxide hovers close to the ground. Scientists speculated Monday that the deadly release of gas in Cameroon during the weekend was caused by a bizarre confluence of events. Carbon dioxide probably was building up for centuries at the bottom of Lake Nios, creating a "supersaturated" gas bubble in the deep, V-shaped body of water, Russell-Robinson said. She and other scientists speculate that either an earth tremor or an underwater landslide caused a phenomenon known as "overturning," in which the gas-saturated water at the bottom of the lake rose to the top. "It comes out with tremendous force," she said.

Dr. Heraldur Sigurdsson, one of the University of Rhode Island pro Israel, Cameroon renew diplomatic ties By Fen Montaigne Knlght-Rldder News Service The disaster in Cameroon probably was the result of a freak natural occurrence in which a massive bubble of carbon dioxide rose to the surface of a volcanic lake and burst, emitting a cloud that suffocated nearby villagers, scientists in the United States and Britain said Monday. "It's like a fantastic soda bottle blowing up," said Susan Russell-Robinson, a scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va. Russell-Robinson and others said that reports from Cameroon were incomplete and that no one knew for certain what caused the disastrous release of gas.

Scientists expect to learn more after international experts, including two teams of Americans, visit the mountainous and remote location in northwest Cameroon. Some scientists said the deaths may have been caused by the natural emission of highly toxic hydrogen sulfide. But several volcano experts said that the most likely cause of the reported mass deaths was the escape of a huge cloud of carbon dioxide from Lake Nios, located in the crater of a long-dormant volcano. A similar release of carbon dioxide from a nearby lake killed 37 people on August 15, 1984, according to a report from two Rhode Island scientists. While the area around Lake Nios is dotted with dormant volcanos, active volcanos have for centuries emitted clouds of carbon dioxide and other gases that have asphyxiated people and animals.

Russell-Robinson said that a gas cloud, composed primarily of carbon dioxide, killed 142 people during the 1979 eruption of a volcano in Indonesia. A similar cloud killed thousands of people on the Carrib-bean island Martinique in 1902, and Technology By Mort Rosenblum Associated Press PARIS Cameroon, a contrast of old and new, is using modern technology to fight a natural disaster that some of the people threatened attribute to ancient volcano gods. Poisonous gas seeping from a lake has killed at least 1,200 people in the country's northwest, according to preliminary reports cited by government officials. For rescue workers racing from Yaounde, Cameroon's high-living modern capital, the stricken area near Wum might be another planet. Their destination is a dramatic chain of volcanic peaks and valleys that reach into eastern Nigeria.

It is an area of ranches, tourism and smugglers, with some of Africa's most spectacular terrain. The victims are Fulani and other helps victims qf Volcano gods' in nation of YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) Israel and Cameroon have restored diplomatic relations after a 13-year break, the two governments announced today. The announcement came at the end of two days of talks between President Paul Biya and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Peres arrived Monday, a day after it was first reported that a deadly gas emission had occurred from a volcanic lake in northwestern Cameroon. A 17-member army medical team accompanied the Israeli leader.

''irmriirmniiiinrttfrf 1977 AP photo risen from Lake Nios, in a volcano. Cameroon was among 29 African countries that severed ties with Israel after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Three have restored ties since, and Israeli officials have said they hoped renewed ties with Cameroon would open the door toward relations with other African nations. In the statement, the two countries said they would emphasize cooperation in the fields of agriculture, commerce and industry, tourism, construction and housing, communication and security. An Israeli government official in Jerusalem told reporters today on Volcano country is In West Cam- eroon, which was explored by the British, colonized by the Germans and then taken over again by Britain.

It joined the larger French portion at independence in 1961 to form Africa's only bilingual French-English nation. On a turbulent continent, Cameroon is stable and prosperous, with oil and minerals, agriculture and modest but substantial industries. Ahmadou Ahidjo, its first leader, avoided the political rhetoric and experimental economics that left many other emergent nations in shambles. When oil was discovered, he put the profits into agriculture and communication, escaping the economic turmoil suffered by Nigeria and Gabon, neighbors on the West African coast. Ahidjo suppressed political opposition, sometimes with France's AUSTIN BUSINESS MACHINES 837-3670 11 1 ethnic groups who live just north of the Bamileke, an industrious tribe of traders and farmers who lost out in a bitter fight for national power.

Some who live near the lake are Roman Catholics. Others are Moslems, but most are animists, who believe that spirits reside in plants, objects and natural phenomena. They live in huts of mud and straw that cling to the hillsides, growing millet and cassava. Their highlands are some of Africa's best cattle country, and many measure wealth in livestock. For local people, Mount Cameroon is Mudongo ma Loba, the Mountain of the Gods.

They believe its eruptions signal the immortal anger, which sometimes has exacted heavy tolls. The latest tragedy occurred 150 miles to the north in a range separated from Mount Cameroon by lowlands. If jo? Staft graphics by Mark Frelstedt condition of anonymity that Israel helped Biya rebuild an army of 6,000 plus a "gendarmerie" or paramilitary corps. Israel also has supplied weapons to Cameroon, and has military personnel in the country, the official said, but he declined to elaborate. Biya, at a separate news conference Monday, said Cameroon broke ties with Israel as an act of solidarity with the Arab states, "but an act of solidarity can be limited in time." He said other black African countries would follow Cameroon in renewing relations with Israel.

contrasts help, and chose Paul lya to take over as president in 1982. Biya sur vived a coup attempt two years later. In contrast to primitive lifestyles in the remote mountains, northern deserts and thick rain forests, the port of Douala is a humming metropolis of high-rise buildings, noisy discos and elegant restaurants. Yaounde is smaller, spread over the hills of central Cameroon. It has the university and research centers and is the hub of railways and roads that link the country, which is the size of California.

The nine million Cameroonlans have a per capita yearly income of $800, four times the level of Africa's poorer states. Austin AmoritQn-cStatosman (I88N 01M-8M0) Vol. 116 No. 32 The Austin American-Statesman, a Cox Newspaper, Is published every morning and every Monday-Friday evening from offices at 166 East Riverside Drive, P.O. Box 670, Austin, Texas, 78767 (612) 445-3500.

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