Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Scores Ill in Peru after Meteor Strike

September 19, 2007

Scores Ill in Peru after Meteor Strike

Some 600 people in Peru have required treatment after an object from space - said to be a meteorite - plummeted to Earth in a remote area, officials say. They say the object left a deep crater after crashing down over the weekend near the town of Carancas in the Andes.

People who have visited scene have been complaining of headaches, vomiting and nausea after inhaling gases. A team of scientists is on its way to the site to collect samples and verify whether it was indeed a meteorite.
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The object then hit the ground, leaving a 30m (98ft) wide and 6m (20ft) deep crater. The crater spewed what officials described as fetid, noxious gases. The gases are believed to have affected the health of about 600 people who visited the site.

by curiouscat Tags: Life Science, Science, Students
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2 Responses to “Scores Ill in Peru after Meteor Strike”

Harris Says:
October 25th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
This Peru thing reminded me of a book I recently read entitled MICROBE by Bill Clem. It details the events surrounding a bacteria-carrying meteor that hit Ft. Miles, Delaware in 1947 killing several dozen soldiers and the Army’s subsequent cover-up. It’s supposed to be fiction, but if you check out the historical facts, it seems more like narrative non-fiction. You decide. Anyway, great book. I got mine off Amazon
Curious Cat » Peru Meteorite Provides Puzzles Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 10:22 am
“Usually, only meteorites made of metal survive the passage through Earth’s atmosphere sufficiently intact to scoop out a crater. But the object which came down in the Puno region of Peru was a relatively fragile stony meteorite…”