[meteorite-list] Experts Now Say a Rare Meteorte Likely Caused PeruCrater

From: Jerry <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:14:28 -0400
Message-ID: <DFA7616D5EFB43769C0B010664A8072E_at_Notebook>

Well, sometimes suspended judgement IS the best way to to fight "foot in
mouth" desease.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:33 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Experts Now Say a Rare Meteorte Likely Caused
PeruCrater


>
> http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070920-1507-peru-meteorite.html
>
> Experts now say a rare meteorite likely caused Peru crater
> By Edison Lopez
> ASSOCIATED PRESS
> September 20, 2007
>
> LIMA, Peru - Peruvian astronomers said Thursday that evidence shows a
> meteorite crashed near Lake Titicaca over the weekend, leaving an
> elliptical crater and magnetic rock fragments in an impact powerful
> enough to register on seismic charts.
>
> As other astronomers learned more details, they too said it appears
> likely that a legitimate meteorite hit Earth on Saturday - an rare
> occurence.
>
> The Earth is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but
> most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the planet's surface.
> Only one in a thousand rocks that that people claim are meteorites turn
> out to be real, according to Jay Melosh, an expert on impact craters and
> professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona.
>
> Melosh was skeptical at first, initially calling it a "non-meteorite"
> and suggesting that the crater might have possibly come from below as a
> volcanic eruption. Then scientists learned of more details about the
> crater, as well as witness descriptions of a thunderous roar and a rain
> of smaller rocks coming down.
>
> "It begins to sound more likely to me that this object could indeed be a
> meteorite,' Melosh said Thursday.
>
> Such impacts are rare, and astronomists still want to do other tests to
> confirm the strike.
>
> Other details don't add up, they said - such as witness accounts of
> water in the muddy crater boiling for 10 minutes from the heat.
> Meteorites are actually cold when they hit Earth, astronomists say,
> since their outer layers burn up and fall away before impact.
>
> Experts also puzzled over claims that 200 local residents were sickened
> by fumes from the crater. Doctors who examined them found no evidence of
> illness related to the meteorite, and one suggested a psychosomatic
> reaction to the sight and sound of the plunging meteor.
>
> More details emerged when astrophysicist Jose Ishitsuka of Peru's
> Geophysics Institute reached the site about 6 miles from Lake Titicaca.
> He confirmed that a meteorite caused a crater 42 feet wide and 15 feet
> deep, the institute's president, Ronald Woodman, told The Associated
> Press on Thursday.
>
> Ishitsuka recovered a 3-inch magnetic fragment and said it contained
> iron, a mineral found in all rocks from space. The impact also
> registered a magnitude-1.5 tremor on the institute's seismic equipment -
> that's as much as an explosion of 4.9 tons of dynamite, Woodman said.
>
> Local residents described a fiery ball falling from the sky and smashing
> into the desolate Andean plain.
>
> Doctors told an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the site
> that they had found no sign of radioactive contamination among families
> living nearby. But they said they had taken samples of blood, urine and
> hair to analyze.
>
> Peasants living near the crater said they had smelled a sulfurous odor
> for at least an hour after the meteorite struck and that it had provoked
> upset stomachs and headaches. But Ishitsuka said he doubts reports of a
> sulfurous smell.
>
> Meteor expert Ursula Marvin said that if people were sickened, "it
> wouldn't be the meteorite itself, but the dust it raises."
>
> A meteorite "wouldn't get much gas out of the earth" said Marvin, who
> has studied the objects since 1961 at the Smithsonian Astrophysical
> Observatory in Massachusetts. "It's a very superficial thing."
>
> Peter Schultz, a meteor crater specialist at Brown University who is
> eager to visit the Peruvian site, said the latest details suggest this
> might be an unusual type of meteor strike, and that given the crater's
> size, the original meteoroid had to have been at least 10 feet in
> diameter before breaking up.
>
> "With everything I see reported now, it seems to me like we just got
> hit," Schultz said.
>
> Justina Limache, 74, told the Lima daily El Comercio that when she heard
> the thunderous roar from the sky, she abandoned her flock of alpacas and
> ran home with her 8-year-old granddaughter. She said that after the
> meteorite struck, small rocks rained down on the roof of her house for
> several minutes and she feared the house was going to collapse.
>
> Modesto Montoya, a member of the medical team, told El Comercio that
> fear may have provoked psychosomatic ailments.
>
> "When a meteorite falls, it produces horrid sounds when it makes contact
> with the atmosphere," he said. "It is as if a giant rock is being
> sanded. Those sounds could have frightened them."
>
> Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington and Monte Hayes
> in Lima contributed to this report.
>
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Received on Thu 20 Sep 2007 09:14:28 PM PDT