For a limnic eruption to occur, the lake must be nearly saturated with gas.

The two disasters are the only recorded instances of limnic eruptions.

Due to the nature of the event, it is hard to determine if limnic eruptions have happened elsewhere.

When the stratification is disturbed, as could happen from an earthquake, a limnic eruption may result.

To date, only two limnic eruptions have been observed and recorded:

Rather, emission of carbon dioxide in a limnic eruption is thought to be to blame.

Natural hazards: Recent limnic eruptions with release of carbon dioxide:

This is called a limnic eruption.

This phenomenon is also known as "limnic eruption," lake "upheaval," or "overturning."

This has led to a build up of methane and carbon dioxide at the bottom of the lake, which can lead to violent limnic eruptions.

See limnic eruption.

So only in deep, stable, tropical, volcanic lakes such as Lake Nyos are limnic eruptions possible.

It is unclear whether enough of the gas will be removed to eliminate the danger of a limnic eruption at Lake Kivu.

A limnic eruption occurs when a gas, usually CO, suddenly erupts from deep lake water, posing the threat of suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans.

The Messel pit fossil deposits of Messel, Germany, show evidence of a limnic eruption there in the early Eocene.

The Greek island of Santorini, he says, erupted at the same time, which had strange, seemingly supernatural effects on the Nile delta, where a related limnic eruption took place.

In the documentary, the plagues that ravaged Egypt in the Bible are explained as having resulted from that eruption and a related limnic eruption in the Nile Delta.

Two of the others, Lake Monoun and Lake Nyos, experienced a limnic eruption or 'lake overturn', a catastrophic release of suffocating carbon dioxide probably triggered by landslides.

A limnic eruption, also referred to as a lake overturn, is a rare type of natural disaster in which dissolved carbon dioxide (CO) suddenly erupts from deep lake water, suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans.

Scientists have recently determined, from investigations into the mass casualties in the 1980s at Lake Monoun and Lake Nyos, that limnic eruptions and volcanic eruptions, although indirectly related, are actually separate types of disaster events.

Nearly two million people including the population of Goma live in the vicinity of Lake Kivu and could be in danger from a limnic eruption triggered by one of the nearby volcanoes and the earthquakes associated with them.

Although not threatened by volcanoes as Goma is, Bukavu is equally in danger from a potential limnic eruption from Lake Kivu, in which vast quantities of dissolved carbon dioxide and methane could explode from the lake and threaten the lives of the 2 million people who live near the lake.