On August 21, 1986, a man making his way to Nyos, a village near a lake in northwest Cameroon, found dozens of dead animals along the road. He called into a home to see if the residents knew what had happened. Instead of getting answers, the man discovered that everyone in the village was dead, though they seemed otherwise unharmed.

Within days, officials confirmed that more than 1,700 people had died, along with several thousand animals. The strange and tragic event seemed similar to one that occurred at Lake Monoun two years earlier, just 60 miles to the south, where villagers found 37 people and many animals dead along its shores.

Initially, authorities were confused about the cause. Witnesses reported hearing strange sounds and seeing a sudden rise of white cloud from the lake, which quickly disappeared. Fortunately, the disaster caught the world’s attention. Scientists from around the globe gathered in Nyos to investigate. Because Lake Nyos sits on an inactive volcano, their first theory was that the volcano had erupted and sent poisonous gases into the air. After further research, however, they found the cause was much more unusual. The deadly events were called limnic (湖泊的) eruptions.

Although deadly and terrifying, limnic eruptions are extremely unlikely. They occur when dissolved (溶解的) carbon dioxide (CO₂) suddenly erupts from the deep waters of a lake, forming a deadly gas cloud above the surface. Because carbon dioxide is heavier than air, the cloud will sink toward the ground, killing wildlife, livestock and humans.

Carbon dioxide dissolves more easily in the deep, cold parts of lakes. As a result, the bottom of deep lake can have very high levels of carbon dioxide, while the levels decrease towards the lake’s surface, and the pressure at the bottom builds and builds. Any changes in pressure can set off the rapid and forceful release of the accumulated carbon dioxide, causing an eruption.

It’s unclear what caused the lakes to explode, but considering they’re near the Oku Volcanic Field, it’s possible that an earthquake or a small volcanic eruption occurred before each disaster.

The world is lucky when our most brilliant minds choose to work for the common good. Young Ryan Honary is among one of the brilliant minds.

Shocked by the deaths in the 2018 Camp Fire, California’s frightening wildfire, Honary turned his attention to how to decrease future disasters. In 2019, Honary won a $10,000 prize in the Ignite Innovation Student Challenge for his early wildfire detection (检测) network, which provides app technology for firefighters. He was only in fifth grade at the time.

Turning 14 years old and going into the eighth grade this year, Honary is busy working in SensoRy AI, the company he set up. With the help of his father and a team of experts, the company has received a lot of attention.

Honary started creating websites when he was in third grade. He learned Python and JavaScript in a local after-school program. At the same time, he was interested in animals and the environment. He became worried as he saw how much the environment was under pressure.

When wildfires started ruining the air quality, destroying homes and killing some people, Honary thought about how AI can be used to solve environmental problems such as wildfires. In order to get data to train the machine learning models on his fire detectors, he collected real-world data from Google Earth about the Camp Fire of 2018 in California. Once a fire is detected by a fire detector, the information can be sent to the app he created. Also, machine learning can be used to predict where the fires are going.

Honary is hoping to attract more people from his generation to his company. He believes the environment is going to be a big responsibility for all of us.

Maria Belon was lying by the pool, reading a novel at the Orchid Resort Hotel in Khao Lak, Thailand. Her children, Lucas, Tomas and Simon, played in the water with their dad nearby.

Belon and her husband, Enrique Alvarez, had taken their children overseas for the Christmas holidays.

“We started to hear a horrible sound. I was looking around, thinking this was just in my mind. It felt like the earth was coming apart (分崩离析), but everything looked perfect,” Belon told The Mirror.

Moments later, however, the Belon-Alvarez family was hit by the fierce force of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Belon was separated from her husband and sons who were in the swimming pool. But as she held onto a palm (棕榈树), she saw her oldest son floating nearby. “When I saw Lucas, I thought. ‘Okay. I have an incredible reason to be alive,’ she said. ‘We were in the water struggling, and Lucas was screaming.’ I said to myself, ‘We need to be brave, we need to take care of each other, but we will not die.’” she said.

While Belon held on for her son, her injuries were slowly killing her. “I was dying. I could feel it happening to me. When I was up in the tree, bleeding very heavily with deep wounds. I could feel the dying process.” she told The Mirror.

Luckily, Belon and her eldest son were then rescued by a Thai man and taken to hospital. “The man wouldn’t allow me to die. He dragged me through the mud for a long time until he was sure I was safe,” she said.

After the tsunami struck the area, Enrique Alvarez lost his two youngest sons, who had been in his arms, after a wave tore them apart. He got washed and later grabbed onto a palm tree, feeling sad about the loss of his children. Minutes later, he heard a voice. “Papa! Mama! Lucas! Simon!” Thomas shouted, according to The Mirror.

The family reunited two days later. While Belon and her family survived the natural disaster, she insisted it was their fortune.

“There is no difference between me and thousands of mums who are under the sea. I feel pain and compassion for so many others who didn’t come back up or lost their loved ones.” she told The Mirror.