* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

Meteorito Huano Collo

Blobrana · L

RE: Puno meteorite

Blobrana · L

La muestra se presenta en estado de polvo y fragmentos pequeños.
De modo general el color es gris verdoso de aspecto granular, algunos fragmentos, que alcanzan un tamaño máximo de 0.5 cm, son de aspecto totalmente metálico. La muestra tiene una susceptibilidad magnética muy alta.

MINERALES IDENTIFICADOS:
CUARZO SiO2 (46-1045)*
FOSTERITA FERRICA (Mg,Fe)2 SiO3 (31-795)*
TROILITA - 2H (FeS) (37-477)*
FERROSILITA (Fe,Mg) SiO3 (31-634)*

ELEMENTOS DETECTADOS (ESTIMACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS)
MAYORITARIOS (>2%): Fe, Si, Ca, Ni, Mg.
MINORITARIOS (0.1~ 2%): K, Al, Mn, P, Ti, Co.
TRAZAS (<0.1%): Ir, Zn, Na.

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Nearby residents who visited the impact crater complained of headaches and nausea, spurring speculation that the explosion was a subterranean geyser eruption or a release of noxious gas from decayed matter underground.
But the illness was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes, according to Luisa Macedo, a researcher for Peru's Mining, Metallurgy, and Geology Institute (INGEMMET), who visited the crash site.
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Townsfolk in this desolate, high-plains hamlet not far from Lake Titicaca and the Bolivian border received the shock of their lives -- a meteorite that struck nearby with a thunderous bang just before noon Saturday, leaving a deep crater, an acrid smell and terrified villagers and livestock.
The meteorite strike cast a 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.
Experts from Peru's nuclear energy institute estimated that the meteorite was no more than 3 feet in diameter when it smashed into Earth at an extremely high speed.

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Peru - 'Meteor' Crash

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Peru's La Republica newspaper reported today that Ronald Woodman, director of Peru's Geophysical Institute, stated that the meteorite which landed in Puno on Saturday had high levels of iron.

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Disaster Meteor Hit Peru

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Blobrana · L

More details emerged when astrophysicist Jose I****suka of Peru's Geophysics Institute reached the site about 6 miles from Lake Titicaca. He confirmed that a meteorite caused a crater 42 feet wide and 15 feet deep, the institute's president, Ronald Woodman, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
I****suka recovered a 3-inch magnetic fragment and said it contained iron, a mineral found in all rocks from space. The impact also registered a magnitude-1.5 tremor on the institute's seismic equipment - that's as much as an explosion of 4.9 tons of dynamite, Woodman said.
Local residents described a fiery ball falling from the sky and smashing into the desolate Andean plain.

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