Meteorite Crash Causes Mysterious Sickness in Peru
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Residents have reported vomiting and headaches after viewing a massive crater evidently left by a meteorite that crashed in a Peruvian town near Lake Titicaca this past weekend, that’s emitting noxious odors.
A fireball streaked across the sky on Saturday night, crashing down into a field near Carancas, a sparsely populated backwoods on the border with Bolivia.
The orange streak and loud bang were initially thought to be a plane crashing. When people went to see what had happened they found a crater about 65 feet (20 meters) wide and 22 feet (7 meters) deep, but no sign of wreckage.
The soil around the hole appeared to be scorched and was emanating a ’strange odor’, said Jorge López, a local health department official.
“The odor is strong and it’s affecting nearby communities. There are 500 families close by and they have had symptoms of nausea, vomiting, digestive problems and general sickness.” added López.
12 people were treated and 7 police officers required oxygen masks and rehydration. Locals conveyed fears over what appeared to be chunks of lead and silver around the site which could contaminate the soil.
Specialists from Peru’s Geophysical Institute are on route the area 800 miles (497 kilometers) south of Lima to verify if it actually was a meteorite, reports Metro.
“We’ve examined about 100 people who got near to the meteorite crater who have vomiting and headaches because of gasses coming out of there.” López told Reuters. “People are scared.”
“We ourselves went near the crater and now we’ve got irritated throats and itching noses.” Lopez said.
Experts from San Andres university in the Bolivian capital La Paz said initial analyses of sand samples from the crater showed that it could be a meteorite.
Luisa Macedo, a geologist with the Mining Geology and Metallurgy Institute in Lima, told Reuters the reaction between the elements in a meteorite and the Earth’s surface can generate gases that later dissipate. Other experts suggest that the cause might be from dust raised when the meteorite landed, rather than gases.
Tags:bizarre meteor meteorite odd Peru science unusual weird
I hope this isn’t the start of an alien virus epidemic.
I have also heard abt this.May be alien attack ?
Aliens? It was a meteor crash, as far as anyone knows right now.
Alien attack or perhaps a “Godsend” for the poor folks in that area. If my memory serves me correctly,(and it usually does) meteorite fragments can sell for quite a nice sum of money. While average smalls ones might only sell for $2.00 per gram, the odd or special ones can sell for thousands per gram. A rock that has been deemed to originate from Mars can sell for over $500 a gram. One area in Antartica yields meteorites that sell for up to $5,000. Since most of the meteorites are made predominately of iron, the weight can add up quickly. And since they breakup upon re-entry, impact sites are strewn with scattered fragments.
If I was there in Peru, vomiting or not, I’d be out digging around with a shovel.
very interesting Deborah…..
for some reason I though aliens too…..
you know with South American history and all that..there was a film called “They Came from Beyond Space”…..where aliens used meteorites to take control of the locals…..haha sci fi….but you never know doodoodoo
Wowsa Nitropuppy, I had no idea a little piece of rock could be worth so much! I’d be digging right alongside you
Get out Kim, you thought of aliens too??? That’s so funny, the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind
Haven’t seen the movie you mentioned but it sounds hilarious!
Omg, aliens!!! Let’s jump on the alien bandwagon here
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Gotta say lol to this though “Experts from San Andres university in the Bolivian capital La Paz said initial analyses of sand samples from the crater showed that it could be a meteorite.”
Let me guess, they used thousands of dollars or even more worth of men hours and analysis equipment to determine a ball of fire falling from the sky and crashing into the ground without any sign of it being a plane was in reality a meteorite?
Or who knows, perhaps it wasn’t a meteorite after all. Korea’s rockets might simply have shown to be too ineffective so they resulted on a huge slingshot to throw atomic rocks around the earth aiming the USA, unfortunately they missed and hit Peru.
Definitely beats the alien theory though
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Rather than verifying whether it was a meteorite or not, why didn’t they check if there was a gas present as to what this gas actually was and whether it was a gas found on earth as well or not. Would have been a lot more striking find if the meteorite contained a substance not found on Earth.
Hehehe, stories of all kinds come out of the woodwork when it comes to things such as this Slevi. No news has been released as far as I’m aware from Peru’s Geophysical Institute since their arrival.
Maybe the meteor landed on something that is making the people sick.. Were there any politicians traveling in the area?
No idea David, nothing was mentioned with any reference to politicians.
Sort of makes you wonder if that is really happened to the dinosuars!!! Poison gas from the elements mixing from the meteorite and the earth! could it happen again on a larger scale? Very weird!!! Todd
Actually Todd, there has been talk of the possibilities of meteors being responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs in the media recently.