Mystery illness strikes after meteorite hits Peruvian village by Delia Cruceru

A fireball crossing the Andean sky Saturday night, that was believed to be a crashing plane turned out to be a meteorite that crashed into a field near Carancas, a populated highland wilderness near Lake Titicaca on the border with Bolivia. But it's a tricky one because people that went to investigate encountered noxious gases that made the villagers ill, vomiting and complaining about headaches. The meteorite leaved a crater of 30 meters wide and six meters deep with boiling water inside. "Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," said local health department official Jorge Lopez. Geologists from Peru's Geophysics Institute are expected to arrive at the site to determine what exactly is there and to present a report on Thursday. Lopez said that villagers felt ill because of the gases, seven policemen that went there became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized. A meteor expert from Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts, Ursula Marvin said the health problems are not caused by the meteorite itself but the dust it raised. She added that a meteorite "wouldn't get much gas out of the Earth." "It's a very superficial thing." Marvin said.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070918/sc_afp/peruhealthoffbeat;_ylt=Aj5i6yYjxxteDqnRYY2s52ms0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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