Meteor crashes, explodes, scaring villagers, animals
CARANCAS, Peru – When she heard the explosion, Isabel Junquilla said she was sure that war had broken out.
“We thought the Chileans were attacking,” Junquilla, 53, recalled Thursday, referring to Peru’s historic rival, Chile. “That’s what everyone was saying. It was very loud.”
Townsfolk in this desolate, high-plains hamlet not far from Lake Titicaca and the Bolivian border received the shock of their lives – a meteor that struck with a thunderous bang just before noon Saturday, leaving a deep crater, an acrid smell and terrified villagers and livestock.
The meteor strike cast a global spotlight on this hardscrabble outpost of perhaps 3,000 Indian peasants who live in mud-brick homes and make a living by growing potatoes, herding llamas and raising scraggly cattle.
The incident took on a magical-realism feel out of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez tale as residents reported strange illnesses and revolting odors, while repeating rumors of a military attack, radiation or a celestial rain of gold.
Authorities took soil and water samples from near the crater for analysis.
After days of doubt, they confirmed Thursday that the object was indeed a meteor – not volcanic pumice, space junk, or some other earthly or extra-terrestrial phenomenon.
“We’re now convinced this was a meteor,” said Ronald Woodman, director of the Peruvian Geophysical Institute, which sent a team to the isolated site, almost 1,000 kilometers to the southeast of Lima, the capital. “This kind of phenomenon can be dangerous, if it falls on a town, or on a house or person. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case.” The object, Woodman said, was metallic in nature and created a crater 12.7 meters in diameter. It also produced a seismic shock equivalent to 1.5 on the Richter scale, Woodman said.
Authorities say the crater was about 5 meters deep.
Experts from Peru’s nuclear energy institute estimated the meteor was probably no more than 1 meter in diameter when it smashed into the earth at an extremely high speed. That may have been all that remained of a much larger object that burned up while streaking through the atmosphere, experts said.
The event has drawn worldwide interest, since few objects from outer space make it all the way to the earth’s surface.
And it has caused a sensation in this drowsy corner of the Andean altiplano.
“Even before it fell, there was a strong sound, like an airplane,” recalled Marina Llanqui Mamani, 53. “And when it hit, it felt like an earthquake. Everyone was terrified. Even my animals were running all around in fear. Then there was a loud noise and a lot of smoke.”