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Mysterious Peruvian Meteor Disease Solved

Posted by CmdrTaco on Mon Sep 24, 2007 08:08 AM
from the oh-great-its-only-poison dept.
Space Science
Technician writes "The meteor that crashed in Peru caused a mystery illnesses. The cause of the illness has been found. The meteor was not toxic. The ground water it contacted contains arsenic. The resulting steam cloud is what caused the mystery illness. "The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said." There is a very good photo of the impact crater in the article. The rim of the crater is lined with people for a size comparison."
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[+] Meteorite Causes Illness in Peru 357 comments
eldavojohn writes "A meteorite struck in Peru on Saturday leaving cinders, rock & water boiling out of the ground. Villagers nearby reported headaches & vomiting and attributed it to the event. From the article, 'Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said. Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.' It's not yet clear whether this is from the meteorite, gas trapped underground that was released or a chemical reaction between the two."
Submission: Mystery illness from meteor crash is solved. by Technician (215283)
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  • Aha (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2007, @08:09AM (#20727673)
    It's funny because it's poisonous.
    • It's funny because it's poisonous.

      The groundwater is poisonous. The meteorite was just a hot rock.
      • The meteorite was just a hot rock.

        TFA doesn't mention anything about the meteorite (or parts thereof) being found...

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by fbjon (692006)
          Yeah, I mean why don't they write about the meteorite instead of saying things like

          The meteorite's impact sent debris flying up to 820 feet (250 meters) away
          or

          The samples also had a significant amount of magnetic material "characteristic of meteorites," she said.
          or

          "It's a rocky fragment," Machare said, "and rocks that fall from the sky can only be meteorites."

          • rocks that fall from the sky can only be meteorites
            O RLY? [trebuchet.com]

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Artifakt (700173)
              It was only about 120 years ago that scientists were claiming rocks didn't fall from the sky, period. This was still the consensus belief among actual, degreed, professional scientists well after the time of Isaac Newton, not something older natural philosophers or pseudo-scientists were necessarily claiming. In fact, for a while there, claiming a rock had fallen from the sky was a very good way for even an established scientist to find himself characterized as a crack-pot.
              I know we ha

  • Don't Believe it.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by lucabrasi999 (585141) on Monday September 24 2007, @08:13AM (#20727713) Journal

    Bah! That's what they want you to believe. I prefer to believe my own complex conspiracy theory involving secret government projects, space aliens, and duct tape.

  • If it weren't for those meddling scientists!

  • Makes sense (Score:3, Informative)

    by PlatyPaul (690601) on Monday September 24 2007, @08:16AM (#20727739) Homepage Journal
    The symptoms [wikipedia.org] match.

    And, before anyone starts up with the whole "apple seed" thing - that's cyanide, not arsenic [snopes.com].
  • The whole world ooohs and ahhhs at your mysterious meteor and the local chamber of commerce is rubbing its hands together, thinking about how many tourists will be dropping by to see the Terror From the Skies and then--oh, no, never mind. Sorry, folks, nothing to see here. We're just slobs and our place is a toxic shithole. Sorry about that. Just call us Newark south.

    • Re:How embarrassing! (Score:5, Informative)

      by PlatyPaul (690601) on Monday September 24 2007, @08:27AM (#20727875) Homepage Journal
      Arsenic pollution doesn't have to be man-made, and groundwater-borne arsenic frequently isn't. Go check out the Wikipedia page on it [wikipedia.org], which is also summarized nicely here [wikipedia.org]. The external links are particularly enlightening, and you can check up on all those shiny statistics.
      • Aw, dude. Way to ruin my beautiful scenario with facts. Jeez.
      • Or from the Nat. Geographic article: "Numerous arsenic deposits have been found in the subsoils of southern Peru, explained Modesto Montoya, a nuclear physicist who collaborated with the team. The naturally formed deposits contaminate local drinking water."
        • Arsenic is a pretty common byproduct of mining because it is often found in the ore!

          Arsenic is all natural and part of the environment. It just happens to be one of the toxic, nasty, all natural bits. In this case it is naturally occuring in the ground water. Hope they have some good artificial, man made, filtering systems around if they use that water.

    • Re:How embarrassing! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ScentCone (795499) on Monday September 24 2007, @08:31AM (#20727915)
      Sorry, folks, nothing to see here. We're just slobs and our place is a toxic shithole. Sorry about that. Just call us Newark south.

      Yeah, those poor, uneducated Peruvians and their backwards, self-polluting, toxic-drinking-water ways. Imagine dumping your arsenic right there where you live. Well, you WILL have to imagine, because if you RTF, you'll note that the area has naturally occuring arsenic deposits. It's in the ground water, and it's always been in the ground water. Nice troll, though!
        • Can't quite find the RTF that's a verb...

          Well, you insensitive clod, if you'd RTF, you'd understand. The freakin' Space Meteor Arsenic has damaged my ability to conjugate verbs, and I won't be able to get rid of Space Meteor Arsenic Syndrome until I get a conjugal visit. I hope you feel good about yourself.
            • Still don't know what verb RTF could be. Unless you mean something like RTFA, in which case we have an entirely different situation.

              Dude. First one was a typo, second one was a joke. Really.

  • Pout (Score:3, Funny)

    by phoenixwade (997892) on Monday September 24 2007, @08:18AM (#20727769) Homepage
    A mundane reason for the illnesses.

    I guess I'll go put my tin-foil hat away..... Oh! Wait! How about if I claim a government cover-up? Where are the men in black?

  • drat, a commonsense explanation (Score:5, Funny)

    by jollyreaper (513215) on Monday September 24 2007, @08:21AM (#20727795)
    I read on Pravda that the "meteor" was actually a downed US spy sat and it was done as a blue-on-blue false flag strike to be blamed on certain foreign powers as a prelude to starting a new war. The locals were suffering from radiation sickness from the plutonium core on the sat! And now you're saying there's a reasonable explanation? Feh. Pravda is my new Weekly World News, I just wish they'd pick up the Bat Boy features. I've been wondering what that little scamp is up to.
  • The ground water it contacted contains arsenic.

    Sounds like they have bigger things to worry about than silly meteors.
  • I totally want a meteor crater in my back yard. I never get cool stuff like that.
  • Who finds it ironic that, given that the illness was caused by poisonous vapours from the crater, the publicity photo consists of people standing right next to it?

  • Meteor != Meteorite (Score:4, Informative)

    by DrMindWarp (663427) on Monday September 24 2007, @09:21AM (#20728489)
    Meteor's don't impact anything but meteorites do. Perhaps confusingly they leave a meteor crater.

  • Steam...from a cold meteor? (Score:3, Funny)

    by SuperBanana (662181) on Monday September 24 2007, @09:23AM (#20728529)
    So how does a meteor, which is usually cold if not frozen, generate a steam cloud large enough to make a whole lot people sick? Numerous websites cover this if you google "meteor hot or cold." Even NASA's website says that the meteor's outer surface usually heats up and ablates, leaving the core still very cold.

    There's an alternate theory going around- a Peruvian SCUD missile gone awry [badastronomy.com], and the fuel (Inhibited Fuming Red Nitric Acid) is what made people sick.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by oni (41625)
      Some of the kinetic energy from any impact is converted to heat. Even if the object is made of ice, it's still going to do that. In this case, it released enough KE to boil a bit of water and make the first few people who rushed to the site ill.

      But you're right, the meteorite wasn't a glowing hot ball that took days to cool, and boiled water the whole time. This was a quick, flash effect that was over instantly.

  • How can this be 'Proved'? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PhreakOfTime (588141) on Monday September 24 2007, @09:53AM (#20728997) Homepage

    Wouldnt actually producing the meteorite be proof? Isnt it a little premature to jump the gun with the assumption that the meteorite that was steaming hot causing all this groundwater steam to be produced? When no actual meteorite has been produced. So far, all that has been produced it whats called a 3-inch metallic fragment that CONTAINS iron.

    Aside from the fact that meteorites are actually cold when they hit the ground, it just doesnt seem to be a very valid conclusion without any actual evidence to support it. This would fail a 7-th grade science class project on the scientific method. At least it would when I was in 7th grade... is this what passes now?

    So to simplify, these are the verifiable facts;
    1) There is a big hole in the ground.
    2) Something made a big hole in the ground.
    2) There were reports of the water appearing to 'boil' in the hole shortly after it was formed.
    3) There is arsenic contained in some nearby groundwater aquifers.
    4) Water boils when an object that is immersed in it contains ENOUGH specific heat to cause the water to reach its boiling point
    5) No meteorite has been shown to exist physically (a 3-inch fragment that simply contains the element iron is not proof)
    6) No peer reveiw has been done on the results or fragment claimed by the ONE man from the peruvian govt.

    In short, coming to a conclusion of "It was a meteorite" is simply not able to be substantiated by the available evidence. IF numbers 5, and 6 are shown to be non-negative over more time, then and only then could it even be POSSIBLE that this was a meteorite.

    Can anyone provide more supporting evidence that fits with the meteorite theory?

      • Re:How can this be 'Proved'? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by PhreakOfTime (588141) on Monday September 24 2007, @11:10AM (#20730091) Homepage

        Fair enough. My sources are as follows. However, not a single one of them is from this article. And since they obviously contradict it, it would seem that there is NOT a unanimous agreement as to what happened.

        The object, Woodman said, was metallic in nature and created a crater 42 feet wide and 15 feet deep. The impact also registered a 1.5-magnitude tremor on the institute's seismic equipment. [nwsource.com]Ronald Woodman is the director of the Peruvian Geophysical Institute.

        Mid sized meteorites are not hot. [wired.com] I'll say it again: Mid sized meteorites are not hot. First, meteoroids are naturally cold. They've been out in the frigid blackness of space for many billions of years -- these rocks are cold down to their very center. Second, because of its size there's a good chance that this meteorite was originally part of a larger meteor that broke up anywhere between 60 and 30km above the surface. If that is the case, the larger meteor's cold interior would become the smaller meteor's cold exterior. Since hardly any surface heating takes place lower than about 30km, this cold surface doesn't warm up by any appreciable amount. Some meteorites, located soon after landing, have actually been reported to have frost on the surface due to their still cold interior.

        There 'preliminary' analysis quoted in this article is contradicted by the following; In addition, Woodman stated that astrophysicist José Ishitsuka of Peru's Geophysics Institute, had collected samples of the meteorite and had confirmed that it contained a high degree of iron. It was reported that Ishitsuka retrieved a 3-inch magnetic fragment of the meteorite and has based his conclusion after studying its properties. [skywatch-media.com]

        What I am attempting to say, is that there is NOT any 'proof' as to what this was, at least not yet. And to simply accept the explination that it was a meteor without the evidence to support it, is not acceptable in any scientific attempt at explaining what happened here. In time, it may be 'proven' to be a meteorite. But that time is not now. It is merely 'speculation' that is a meteorite. Lots of things that fall from space can have a 'high degree of iron', some of them are manmade.

  • Article is a little loopy... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dtjohnson (102237) on Monday September 24 2007, @10:36AM (#20729647)
    Excerpts:

    "Even as meteorite samples arrived in Lima Thursday for testing, Peruvian scientists seemed to unanimously agree that it was a meteorite that had struck their territory."

    How can the scientist unanimously agree (unuusual in itself) if the samples were just arriving?

    "Preliminary analysis by Macedo's institute revealed no metal fragments, indicating a rare rock meteorite."

    I don't think there has ever been a meteorite in the past with 'metal fragments' if, by that term, they mean an unoxidized form of a metal. Many meterites contain iron, a 'metal,' but it is has always been present in an oxidized form. Maybe they mean that there was a complete absence of metals, oxidized or unoxidized, which would not be at all unusual (and certainly not 'rare). However, in that case, the next part of the article makes no sense:

    "The samples also had a significant amount of magnetic material "characteristic of meteorites," she said. "The samples stick to the magnet," Ishitsuka, the astronomer, confirmed. "That shows that there is iron present." "

    All in all, the article provides no useful information other than to say that arsenic is present in the groundwater, the arsenic ions were somehow present in significant quantities in the steam clouds created by the meteorite impact, and people inhaled the steam clouds and thereby somehow absorbed a significant amount of arsenic.
      • ... the first stories of Peruvian cannibalism, and I'm grabbing my shotgun and heading for the hills...

        What, again with the zombies?

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by samkass (174571)
        the glow of reentry is compression heating of the air in front of the meteorite, not the meteorite itself.

        Who said it was the meteorite itself that heated the ground water? Compression heating is perfectly capable of it.

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