Last Saturday I went on a bit of a hike with some friends, just outside of the city in the Valle de las Animas. The valley is full of ridges that look like the badlands in Alberta. The scenery is incredible – deep crevices and jagged hillsides. We walked for about an hour along a dirt road, through a tiny village, until we got hungry. Then we followed a ridge until we got to a spot that was conducive to a picnic.
We were all sitting around, eating our sandwiches and chatting, when it happened. For some reason, we were all looking in the same direction and saw a flaming ball falling through the sky! Well, everyone but me anyways. Unfortunately, someone’s head was in my way. But I saw the trail of smoke! They all said it was a huge ball of fire and we all wondered what the heck it might have been. It looked like it had landed just on the other side of the next ridge, and we joked about going to find it.
Well, Monday morning it was in the newspaper. What was rumored to be a meteorite, and which has now been confirmed by geologists, landed in Peru, just on the other side of the border with Bolivia. It left a crater 20m wide and 7m deep. We never would have found it had we gone looking just over the next ridge!
People in the town near the crash site who had gone to look at the meteorite had apparently been getting sick. Scientists don’t seem to think that this was caused by the meteorite itself or any gases that might have been released. One article said that it was more likely the result of all the dust (and the wonderful little microbes in the dust) that people might have become sick.
This week, the meteorite has been in the Globe and Mail and BBC! And I saw it!! (well…almost!).
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Posted in bolivia Submitted by Meg on Thu, 2007-09-20 21:30.
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