Mysterious Peruvian Meteor Disease Solved

Technician writes "The meteor that crashed in Peru caused a mystery illnesses. The cause of the illness has been found. The meteor was not toxic. The ground water it contacted contains arsenic. The resulting steam cloud is what caused the mystery illness. "The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said." There is a very good photo of the impact crater in the article. The rim of the crater is lined with people for a size comparison."

Comments

Re:Who are these scientists?

[PlatyPaul]

Well, for what it's worth, some people were on the right track from the start. From the first BBC article:

A local journalist, Martine Hanlon, told the BBC experts [that he] did not believe the meteor would make anybody sick, but they did think a chemical reaction caused by its contact with the ground could release toxins such as sulphur and arsenic.

Re:How embarrassing!

[PlatyPaul]

Arsenic pollution doesn't have to be man-made, and groundwater-borne arsenic frequently isn't. Go check out the Wikipedia page on it, which is also summarized nicely here. The external links are particularly enlightening, and you can check up on all those shiny statistics.