And Superman is no where to be
found
Original Article: September 19, 2007: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5isWWHSxCh_u0yUNU9Gpk1qfg996A
LIMA,
Peru (AP) — Officials are investigating unconfirmed reports
that a meteorite crashed in southern Peru over the weekend
and caused dozens of people to become sick.
Local media have reported eyewitness accounts of a fiery
ball falling from the sky and smashing into the desolate
Andean plain near the Bolivian border Saturday morning.
Officials have said it was a meteorite.
Jorge Lopez, director of the health department in the
southern state of Puno, told The Associated Press on Tuesday
that 200 people have suffered headaches, nausea and
respiratory problems caused by "toxic" fumes emanating from
the resulting crater, which is some 66 feet wide and 16 feet
deep.
"This is caused by the gas they have inhaled after the
crash," Lopez said, adding that a team of eight doctors was
sent to investigate and treat the sick.
But meteor expert Ursula Marvin, cast doubt on that theory,
saying, "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."
Three geologists from Peru's Geophysics
Institute are expected to present a report on the incident
on Thursday.
Hernando Tavera, a geophysicist at the institute, said
similar cases were reported in 2002 and 2004 elsewhere in
southern Peru but never confirmed as meteorites.
