Limache told RPP that the gases emanating from the crater caused nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and stomach pain -- so much so that authorities were considering calling a state of emergency. The newspaper La Republica reported that seven policemen became ill and were taken to a hospital.
Villagers decided not to drink the water in the area because they regarded it as contaminated in the wake of the impact, RPP reported. Experts from Peru's Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute, or Ingemmet, were reportedly on their way to the village in the country's Desaguadero region to evaluate the health risk.
If the impact was caused by a meteorite, sulfur or other elements in the space rock may have reacted with the ground water to produce noxious fumes.
I'm probably not the first to suggest this, but how sure are we that this was a meteorite? Might space junk -- or even a downed biowarfare research satellite -- result in similar symptoms?
8 comments:
Especially if it was radioactive, even though they're not supposed to be sending anything radioactive up there...definitely a scandal...
Philip Shropshire
www.threeriversonline.com
PS: And please give me a mutual link. Come on I know you want to...
Andromeda Strain, anyone?
(Has anyone asked Michael Crichton about this? It would be ironic if he was skeptical about such an explanation and then it turns out it was indeed a bio-warfare satellite.)
Ray
Yeah, the more I read, check pics of, and think about this incident, the less likely it seems to be a meteorite.
First, meteors come in through the atmosphere at speeds of up to 16K mph. The crater, shown in stills and videos, somehow doesn't seem like something hit, regardless of size, at this relatively high speed. No blast or scorch marks apparent, no radiating debris pattern, etc.
Second, there are the odd after-effects, such as the noxious odors so powerful that first responders and nearby villagers develop nausea and in a couple cases, are transported to hospitals. I wonder if air samples have been taken at varying distances, downwind, from the crater area.
Third, there are the "chunks" and beads of both a black substance and a silvery-colored metal. That seems unusual. I know there's a report about how this might be a KH-13 NRO/NSA spy satellite crash, but reading the report, and checking the author's website and article background, I'm sure this is a bogus story. Russian intelligence sources involved, and a wild story about how the KH-13 was shot down out of orbit by US forces. Ridiculous.
Anyway, there's more to this story than has apparently been reported. Wonder how long it will take someone to crawl into the watery crater hole and attempt to retrieve what remains of whatever caused the hole in the ground. Stay tuned.
Changed my mind, based on further news reports. It is a meteorite.
Rather odd, rare "stony" one. As opposed to an iron one. Heh. Pass me that pipe...browstah.
Score another one for Occam's Razor?
Occam's tootbrush and nose-hair trimmer? 8^}
Two newish pieces of info that are relevant to the question of what may have made local villagers and first reponders ill:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070921-meteor-peru_2.html (ref. meteorite vaporizing ground and water bearing high levels of arsenic)
and an intelligent, contrarian but logical follow-up by Michael Tarbell on the UFO Updates list:
http://tinyurl.com/2cpucg
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070926.wmeteor26/BNStory/Science/home
Post a Comment