QUICK FACTS
Name: Lake Kivu
Location: East-central Africa, straddling Rwanda and Congo
Coordinates: -1.914891119034228, 29.198902180922207
Why it's incredible: The lake contains huge amounts of explosive carbon dioxide and methane.
Lake Kivu is a giant body of water that is so saturated with carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane at its depths it could explode without warning. Two other lakes in Africa have a similarly deadly chemistry — lakes Nyos and Monoun in Cameroon — which have both exploded in the past 40 years, killing a total of nearly 1,800 people and thousands of animals.
