There are some news reports from Peru (1,2) that a meteor struck the ground near a village in the Andes. According to news report, the crater is either 10 or 30 meters wide and is emanating noxious fumes that are causing nausea, vomiting, and other sickness. Despite reports of a fireball in the night sky, the folks at Spaceweather.com argue that any impact large enough to create a 30 meter wide crater would be equivalent of 1 kiloton of TNT. This would be a tactical (meaning smallish) nuclear sized explosion comparable to the North Korean nuclear test. Such a large explosion would leave a seismic and acoustic signature. No such signature was detected.
Furthermore, most meteors are either chunks of iron-nickel metal or rather ordinary rocks. A few very rare meteors contain organic matter. I cannot recall any that emanated fumes.
I agree with Spaceweather that this was probably not a meteor. I guess there is a chance that it could have been a water-rich icy body comet fragment but I think it is more likely that the crater had a terrestrial origin. I think it may be a mud volcano that is producing toxic gasses such as methane, water, and perhaps other hydrocarbons. Many hydrocarbons can cause illness. The Andes are very active geologically so I think there is a good possibility that this crater was caused by an outburst of geothermal activity. As for the fireball, fireballs are quite common (check out this video of a New Mexico fireball from September 13) and it possibly was a coincidence. One possible scenario is that the people who saw the fireball just happened on a recently formed mud volcano while they were out looking for the fireball impact site.
What ever caused this crater was an interesting phenomenon, and I hope to see some more concrete news soon. Anyone up for a field trip?
8 responses so far ↓
1 dave // Sep 19, 2007 at 7:39 pm
take it with a grain of salt, but latest story says a chondrite (but not dangerous. hmmmm wonder how long the gestation of a pod person is).
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-4730-environmentnature-scientist-confirms-meteorite-puno-peru-is-chondrite
2 Crater in Peru, chrondite or geyser? // Sep 19, 2007 at 11:55 pm
[...] RSS ← Meteorite strike in Peru gassing villagers? Maybe not. [...]
3 Mental Dribble // Sep 20, 2007 at 5:38 am
Hmmm, ok so it might not be life from another planet… but do you HAVE to burst my bubble?
Seriously, your mud volcano sounds like a very plausible reason… I concede that this may not be the beginning of first contact, but its coming!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have your input in the future.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have your input in the future.
4 Bob Hart // Sep 20, 2007 at 11:31 am
How about the release into the atmosphere of a column of possibly hot volatile gas, methane has been mentioned, that somehow got ignited by an atmosperic electrical discharge. Think of the lightning that accompanies volcanic eruptions. The flame followed the column back to its source and if it found a pocket of methane or other burnable gas it created an expolosion. This might look like a decending fireball from a meteor. Just a wild speculation.
5 Update on Peruvian Meteorite // Feb 8, 2008 at 8:42 pm
[...] while ago, I wrote about a fascinating meteorite fall in Peru (1, 2, 3). An American meteor collector has published a webpage with some additional crater photos, [...]
6 Chaz Firestone // Mar 11, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Hi David,
My name is Chaz Firestone and I am the features editor at The Brown Daily Herald, the newspaper of record for Brown University. As you may know by now, some of the mystery of this meteorite fall was solved by a Brown professor named Peter Schultz (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311141024.htm).
I would like to write an article about this for The Herald, and was wondering if you might be interested in speaking with me about your initial thoughts about the meteorite and how they stack up with mounting evidence. I came to your blog by the NYT blog that mentioned you (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/in-peru-a-crater-and-questions/).
If you’re interested/available, please send me and e-mail and we can arrange to speak over the phone.
Thanks!
Chaz
7 Interview in Brown Daily Herald Regarding the Peruvian Meteorite // Apr 5, 2008 at 7:53 am
[...] in September, I wrote about the unusual meteor impact in Peru. My comments got picked up by a New York Times science blog and, [...]
8 Evan // Aug 25, 2008 at 2:48 am
This is undeniable evidence of the up coming future of americas……Get your supplies ready…now!
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