16 replies to this topic

[Lazarus Long]

MASS HYSTERIA!!!!



This is one for the books. It is straight out of today's news.

http://news.yahoo.co...ruhealthoffbeat

Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was an airplane crashing near their remote village, located in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

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.

"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," he said.

My gut feeling is that it is what was in the ground that is causing the problem or a combination of the meteor, surface materials (water and soil chemistry) and the heat of impact, if it is not just mass hysteria. The likelihood of a off world pathogen is far less likely than a toxin given the speed at which residents came down with symptoms.

[Luna]

No! it was an alien ship secretly landing and covering its trails by a meteor, no one claimed doomsday for today, it can't be just a meteor! :-)

[Cyberbrain]

Imagine if it turns out like the movie The Invasion (2007).

[Shannon Vyff]

zombies!

[biknut]

I wonder where the water came from. Ground water? It did make a pretty big hole.

[Live Forever]

Imagine if it turns out like the movie The Invasion (2007).

Or, better yet, the movie Slither. [lol]

[krillin]

I say it's like last Saturday's Torchwood, where a gaseous alien was traveling in the meteor.

[Athan]

Imagine if it turns out like the movie The Invasion (2007).

Or, better yet, the movie Slither. [lol]

I think its killer clowns from outer space. [lol]

[lauritta]

What about radiation? It could happen.


...Lex Luthor got bald, and Clark Kent got superpowers, so......

[biknut]

I don't understand where all the water came from. The area looks very dry, because nothing is green. I realize it's
winter time there.

This is an update.


Meteorite crash leaves 66ft-wide crater - and dozens with mystery illness

Last updated at 12:48pm on 19th September 2007

A meteorite that crashed in Peru has made dozens of villagers ill. Witnesses told of a fiery ball falling from
the sky and smashing into the desolate Andean plain near the Bolivian border at the weekend. Officials have
said it was a meteorite.

Jorge Lopez, director of the health department in the state of Puno, said 200 people have suffered headaches,
nausea and respiratory problems caused by "toxic" fumes from the resulting crater, which is about 66 feet wide
and 16 feet deep.

"This is caused by the gas they have inhaled after the crash," Mr Lopez said.
"People are scared," he said. Villagers went to the site after hearing a crash that they thought might be an
airplane. Now they fear the meteor may be contaminating water supplies as well, and could present a danger
to livestock.

"We ourselves went near the crater and now we've got irritated throats and itching noses," Mr Lopez said. Eight
doctors had been sent to investigate and treat the sick.

But expert Ursula Marvin cast doubt on the 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 Ms Marvin, who has studied them since 1961
at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts. "It's a very superficial thing."

http://www.dailymail...in_page_id=1811

[Mind]

I would place a bet that most of it is just mass hysteria.

[biknut]

Scientists Doubt Meteorite Sickened Peruvians

Andrea Thompson
Staff Writer
SPACE.com
2 hours, 23 minutes ago

Scientists doubt that the supposed meteorite strike that sickened some 200 residents of Peru last weekend actually
involved anything from space.

Based on reports of fumes emanating from the crater, some scientists actually suspect that the event could have been
some kind of geyser-like explosion rather than a meteorite impact.

"Statistically, it's far more likely to have come from below than from above," said Don Yeomans, head of the Near Earth
Object Program at NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The noxious fumes that have supposedly sickened curious locals who went to examine the crater would seem to indicate
hydrothermal activity, such as a local gas explosion, because "meteorites don't give off odors," Yeomans told SPACE.com.

http://news.yahoo.co...ckenedperuvians

[Athan]

I would place a bet that most of it is just mass hysteria.

I'd place my bet on that as well, especially with mundane symptoms such as 'headaches' and 'irritated noses'.

Simple case of mass hysteria, or it's some mildly poisonous gas released from the ground.

[dannov]

It's cool, but nothing really else besides that. And, Clark gets his superpowers from the sun, and Lex just has MPB. *grin*

[Lazarus Long]

Apparently it did fall from the sky and was a meteor not plane trash.

http://news.yahoo.co...yTN1XcFVa4iANEA

Experts confirm meteorite crash in Peru

By MONTE HAYES, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago

LIMA, Peru - A fiery meteorite crashed into southern Peru over the weekend, experts confirmed on Wednesday. But they were still puzzling over claims that it gave off fumes that sickened 200 people.

Local residents told reporters that a fiery ball fell from the sky and smashed into the desolate Andean plain near the Bolivian border Saturday morning.

Jose Mechare, a scientist with Peru's Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute, said a geologist had confirmed that it was a "rocky meteorite," based on the fragments analyzed.

He said water in the meteorite's muddy crater boiled for maybe 10 minutes from the heat and could have given off a vapor that sickened people, and scientists were taking water samples. (excerpt)

[advancedatheist]

The obvious geek point of reference:

The Colour Out of Space

[Lazarus Long]

http://news.yahoo.co...edsmasshysteria

The consensus is growing that it was mass hysteria.

Though on a brighter note concerning asteroids, NASA just lifted off the Dawn mission.
http://news.yahoo.co...f5jXEauzHQiANEA