Peruvian crater caused by meteor

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Peruvian scientists confirmed on September 20 that the crater found Saturday in the Puno region, of Peru by local villagers and blamed for a mass illness affecting 200 people was likely caused by a meteorite.

Jose Ishitsuka, of Peru's Geophysics Institute, found a three-inch magnetic fragment that contained iron, which is common in all rocks from space. The impact also registered a magnitude 1.5 earthquake, equivalent to 4.9 tons of dynamite exploding.

Jay Melosh, an expert on impact craters and professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona, was initially skeptical that the crater was caused by a meteorite, but recently said, "It begins to sound more likely to me that this object could indeed be a meteorite."

The crater made by the meteorite measured 15 feet deep and 65 feet wide.

Related news

• "Meteorite blamed for mysterious illness in Peru". Wikinews, September 20, 2007

Sources

• Ed Sutherland "Experts Confirm Peru Meteorite Site" – AHN, September 21, 2007
• "Meteorite Likely Caused Crater In Peru" – CBS News, September 20, 2007
  

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable. Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.