Mystery Meteorite Illness

[yellow]

Mystery illness strikes after meteorite hits Peruvian village

 

Mon Sep 17, 11:23 PM ET

 

LIMA (AFP) - Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area, regional authorities said Monday.

 

Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.

 

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

 

Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.

 

Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.

 

"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," he said.

 

As am I. I thought we try to track everything in the sky out of natural curiosity and paranoia. What happened here?

Besides that, any ideas on what is making everyone so sick. I have never heard of this happening before.

[Queso]

Aliens have landed

[freeztar]

I've never heard of sickness from a meteorite and I'm led to believe that the sickness is from something not directly related to the meteorite itself. Perhaps there were noxious chemical compounds naturally in the soil that was vaporized by the meteorite. :evil:

 

As far as tracking these things, I would imagine it would be very difficult to track an object so small that is travelling at such high speeds, especially in a remote area.

[Hill]

I suspect that a bright meteor or bolide happened to be seen in an area near an area of new volcanic activity. All of the things mentioned in connection with the crater point to volcanic activity. The meteor itself probably landed elsewhere.

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As far as tracking these things, I would imagine it would be very difficult to track an object so small that is travelling at such high speeds, especially in a remote area.

 

That was pretty much what I figured.

Thankx, though.

I'm going to keep checking to find out what happens to the people who got sick.

[Hill]

I've never heard of sickness from a meteorite and I'm led to believe that the sickness is from something not directly related to the meteorite itself. Perhaps there were noxious chemical compounds naturally in the soil that was vaporized by the meteorite. :evil:

 

As far as tracking these things, I would imagine it would be very difficult to track an object so small that is travelling at such high speeds, especially in a remote area.

 

I've investigated a bit more and I think you may be right. The crater is not within a volcanic region, at least it is about 85 miles away from the closest volcanoes.

 

Image from guardian.co.uk

 

But it may have hit in an area where there are subsurface hot springs. Meteors are generally cold to the touch when they first land, so it is unlikely the meteor would have heated the water.

[Turtle]

Apparently there is considerable scepticism that the crater was made by a meteor impact inasmuch as no one recorded a seismic signal. :wave:

 

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

There is indeed a hole in the ground in Peru, pictured above, and by all accounts it smells bad, but it is not likely of cosmic origin. In order to blast a 30-meter crater, a meteorite would have to hit the ground with about as much energy as 1 kiloton of TNT--akin to a tactical nuclear weapon. This would leave a clear signal in worldwide seismic and infrasound records, but so far no such signals are being reported by authorities.

 

In short, we remain unconvinced. Stay tuned for updates.

[Hill]

Apparently there is considerable scepticism that the crater was made by a meteor impact inasmuch as no one recorded a seismic signal. :naughty:

 

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

 

Yep. It's looking like either a hoax or a misinterpretation. Below is a screen capture of Google Earth imagery.

 

It shows terrain in the vicinity of a small village (pop 24) of Chiarcagua (something "water" ? ) near the Peru/Bolivia border (found with the help of MSN Encarta zoomable map) . Chiarcagua is not mentioned in the article, but as much as the other "facts" seem to be scrambled, perhaps the name was as well. It is the place with closest spelling in this part of Peru. And the terrain is populated by lots of small ponds. There is a high water table, perhaps lots of organic stuff or mineral matter (sulphur?)in the muddy soil that would be in this area. The ponds are either filled from above during the rainy season and/or may be filled from below by springs - maybe hot springs which would explain the supposed hot water. If this is as water saturated as this possibility would make it, a meteor hit might throw a lot of organic/mineral debris out without much seismic effect.

 

Or there was no meteor hit here at all, but a local subsidence that caused the pit and released the smells.

 

EXTRA, EXTRA - this justed showed up in my mailbox:

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Scores ill in Peru 'meteor crash'

[freeztar]

Judging from this photo, I would say that the chances of geothermal activity are very low.

Image from guardian.co.uk

 

The reason I assume this is because of the color and texture of the soil. The low-chroma soils, and particularly the lack of chromatic horizons, suggest to me that the soils there do not undergo anaerobic oxidation. Furthermore, every hotspring I have ever encountered was in mountainous regions formed from volcanic activity (namely the PNW).

 

Nonetheless, I will not take the claim of being a soil scientist or understanding geothermal conditions astutely, but it does not seem to me, in my limited knowledge, that geothermal activity is at play (judging from the pic).

 

Of course, sulphur would definitely explain the "strange smell". :naughty:

[Hill]

More reports are at the following links:

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Scores ill in Peru 'meteor crash'

 

Living in Peru » News » Peru's Geophysicists Test for Radiation, Meteorite Sickness Caused by Toxic Gases

 

Living in Peru » News » Scientist Confirms Meteorite in Puno, Peru is a Chondrite

[Turtle]

More reports are at the following links:

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Scores ill in Peru 'meteor crash'

 

Living in Peru » News » Peru's Geophysicists Test for Radiation, Meteorite Sickness Caused by Toxic Gases

 

Living in Peru » News » Scientist Confirms Meteorite in Puno, Peru is a Chondrite

 

And this one this morning affirming 'meteorite-hood': The Associated Press: Experts Confirm Meteorite Crash in Peru

 

I'm still skeptical. Where's the photo of the "chondrite"? Why were no seismic signatures recorded...again? We'll see maybe when things simmer down. :)

[Hill]

And this one this morning affirming 'meteorite-hood': The Associated Press: Experts Confirm Meteorite Crash in Peru

 

I'm still skeptical. Where's the photo of the "chondrite"? Why were no seismic signatures recorded...again? :cheer: We'll see maybe when things simmer down. :doh: :rolleyes:

 

Questions remaining...

 

1. Did a meteor cause the crater in this case? There was some meteoric material supposedly found at this location - but was its origin really from the pit?

 

2. Did the water boil for a few minutes? Was the heat caused by the meteor strike? Meteorites found shortly after they fall often have frost coatings. While the surface heats during entry, that ablates and the core of the meteorite still maintains some of the cold of deep space. Could frictional heating of the crater formation heat water that much? I doubt it. The water is not boiling now - there is no detailed information on its current temperature. My first thoughts were that perhaps the meteor struck a geothermal source, but I have no idea about geothermal features in that area. There is a mountain to the north that the GE Geographic Features layer has 5 labels on that certainly looks like an old eroded volcanic cone and could be a source of geothermal features. But a geothermal source would not likely stop being hot after a short time.

 

3. Was the illness real or psychosomatic? Latest reports show no evidence of illness. If the crater formed suddenly and subterranean gasses were released (hydrogen sulphide is found in geothermal areas and is a product of lake bottom sediments) they could make some people feel ill if gas concentration was great enough. The area is over 12,000 feet in altitude and perhaps human physiology is more sensitive to such things at that altitude.

 

4. Are some people hoping for some publicity and trying to attract tourists? I'm just sayin...

 

I guess we'll have to wait for further developments.

 

Note: I've been convinced there is a place close to the original named location. To view a thread about it and to tour around the area and see the unusual features see this thread in the Google Earth Community Forums. Google Earth Community: Peru meteorite crash 'causes mystery illness'

[Hill]

Questions remaining...

 

1. Did a meteor cause the crater in this case? There was some meteoric material supposedly found at this location - but was its origin really from the pit?

 

2. Did the water boil for a few minutes? Was the heat caused by the meteor strike? Meteorites found shortly after they fall often have frost coatings. While the surface heats during entry, that ablates and the core of the meteorite still maintains some of the cold of deep space. Could frictional heating of the crater formation heat water that much? I doubt it. The water is not boiling now - there is no detailed information on its current temperature. My first thoughts were that perhaps the meteor struck a geothermal source, but I have no idea about geothermal features in that area. There is a mountain to the north that the GE Geographic Features layer has 5 labels on that certainly looks like an old eroded volcanic cone and could be a source of geothermal features. But a geothermal source would not likely stop being hot after a short time.

 

3. Was the illness real or psychosomatic? Latest reports show no evidence of illness. If the crater formed suddenly and subterranean gasses were released (hydrogen sulphide is found in geothermal areas and is a product of lake bottom sediments) they could make some people feel ill if gas concentration was great enough. The area is over 12,000 feet in altitude and perhaps human physiology is more sensitive to such things at that altitude.

 

4. Are some people hoping for some publicity and trying to attract tourists? I'm just sayin...

 

I guess we'll have to wait for further developments.

 

Note: I've been convinced there is a place close to the original named location. To view a thread about it and to tour around the area and see the unusual features see this thread in the Google Earth Community Forums. Google Earth Community: Peru meteorite crash 'causes mystery illness'

 

An on-line National Geographic article ( Meteor Crash in Peru Caused Mysterious Illness ) is the most informative yet and answers most of my questions.

 

 

1. Did a meteor cause the crater in this case?

Even as meteorite samples arrived in Lima Thursday for testing, Peruvian scientists seemed to unanimously agree that it was a meteorite that had struck their territory.

"Based on the first-hand reports, the impact and the samples, this is a meteorite," Macedo, of INGEMMET, said.

Tests revealed no unusual radiation at the site, though its absence didn't rule out a meteorite crash.

"Everything has radioactivity, even underground rocks," Montoya said. "But nothing out of the ordinary was found."

Preliminary analysis by Macedo's institute revealed no metal fragments, indicating a rare rock meteorite. Metal stands up better to the heat created as objects enter Earth's atmosphere, which is why most meteorites are metallic.

The samples she reviewed had smooth, eroded edges, Macedo added.

"As the rock enters the atmosphere, it gets smoothed out," she said.

The samples also had a significant amount of magnetic material "characteristic of meteorites," she said.

"The samples stick to the magnet," Ishitsuka, the geologist, confirmed. "That shows that there is iron present."...

osé Machare, a geoscience adviser at INGEMMET, said x-ray tests conducted on the samples earlier today further confirmed the object's celestial origins. He said the group's findings put to rest earlier theories that the object was a piece of space junk or that the crater had formed by an underground explosion.

2. Did the water boil for a few minutes? Was the heat caused by the meteor strike?

Nearby residents who visited the impact crater complained of headaches and nausea, spurring speculation that the explosion was a subterranean geyser eruption or a release of noxious gas from decayed matter underground.

But the illness was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes, according to Luisa Macedo, a researcher for Peru's Mining, Metallurgy, and Geology Institute (INGEMMET), who visited the crash site.

The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said.

Numerous arsenic deposits have been found in the subsoils of southern Peru, explained Modesto Montoya, a nuclear physicist who collaborated with the team. The naturally formed deposits contaminate local drinking water.

"If the meteorite arrives incandescent and at a high temperature because of friction in the atmosphere, hitting water can create a column of steam," added José Ishitsuka, a geologist at the Peruvian Geophysics Institute, who analyzed the object.

3. Was the illness real or psychosomatic? Latest reports show no evidence of illness. See #2 above. I was probably real at least for some and may have been due to arsenic poisoning from compounds in the soil.

 

As to no seismic waves, apparently there were, equivalent to a magnitude1.5 earthquake.

The meteorite's crash also caused minor tremors, shaking locals physically and emotionally. "They were in the epicenter of a small earthquake," Montoya, the nuclear physicist, said.

 

 

[Hill]

It looks like we can wrap this up for now. Nothing has appeared recently and the National Geographic article seems to answer all of the questions initially raised.

What we now know:

1) It was a meteor of the type called a chondrite.

2) The size of the hole is smaller than first reported though not the sort of thing you would want in your home. :esmoking:

3) There were seismic tremors produced equal to a 1.5 earthquake.

4) Some people, but not as many as the 200 initially reported, were sickened by gas given off from the crater. The impact was large enough to produce heat (most meteorites that have been found shortly after they landed were cold to the touch). The heat may have caused short-term boiling of ground water in a soil well-known for having arsenic in it. The gas is what made people feel sick.

5) A GEC poster by the name of viajero made only one post in February, 2007. But the post was:

Peru - all placenames / todo los pueblos (105,000)

All villages and towns in Peru in a single 2.6 mb KMZ from the 1998 Digital Peru project organized by Department. Based on cleaned up VMAP1 (NIMA) data. For best results zoom way in.

In those 105,000 placenames is the town of Carancas . So finally we have the location of the town. It lies at ( -16.6438°, -69.0546° ) about midway between two guesses. Unfortunately it is in lower resolution than much of the area. Maybe next time the imagery around Lake Titicaca is updated, we can see the new area housing the anticipated tourist attraction.

 

Andina, Peru's official government news agency reported yesterday that Marco Limachi, a district authority in Puno, Peru stated that the large crater would be turned into a tourist attraction. Limachi told Peru's Andina News Agency that the region would take advantage of the attention the crater has attracted.

 

It was reported that despite the fact that the crater was currently fenced off with wires, within the next few days the Municipality of Desaguadero would roof the area and permit access to where the meteorite had landed.

 

Limchi stated, "Through different means of communication, we want to sell the crater's image as a tourist attraction so that the townspeople can benefit (from this event)."

 

In addition, Porfirio Aguilar, the director of tourism in Puno, Peru stated that he would get together with businessmen, Peru's authorities and Bolivia's authorities to promote tourism in the area

.From Living in Peru : your everyday companion

[Hill]

Two initial reports are now posted. Links to them are below:

Mysteries remain over Peru meteorite impact

The Carancas Meteorite Fall, 15 September 2007

There is a lot of new information, maps and images in both.

 

 

 

 

[Hill]

Here's a link to Meteoriteguy's website. It has some closer pictures of the crater and a picture of the smoke trail left by the meteor as it passed through the atmosphere.

[Turtle]

Here's a link to Meteoriteguy's website. It has some closer pictures of the crater and a picture of the smoke trail left by the meteor as it passed through the atmosphere.

 

There is also an exciting narrative at that link and photographs of meteorite samples retrieved from the impact area by hook or by crook and now under analysis. Thanks Hill! What a fascinating story this has shaped up to.

 

Duck & Cover,

:)