2007 Carancas impact event

The Carancas impact event refers to the fall of the Carancas chondritic meteorite on September 15, 2007, near the village of Carancas in Peru, close to the Bolivian border and Lake Titicaca. The impact created a crater and scorched earth around its location. A local official, Marco Limache, said that "boiling water started coming out of the crater, and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby", as "fetid, noxious" gases spewed from the crater. Surface impact occurred above 3,800 m (12,467 ft).

After the impact, villagers who had approached the impact site grew sick from a then-unexplained illness, with a wide array of symptoms. Two days later, Peruvian scientists confirmed that there had indeed been a meteorite strike, quieting widespread speculation that it may have been a geophysical rather than a celestial event. At that point, no further information on the cause of the mystery illness was known. The ground water in the local area is known to contain arsenic compounds, and the illness is now believed to have been caused by arsenic poisoning incurred when residents of the area inhaled the vapor of the boiling arsenic-contaminated water.

At 11:40:14 local time (16:40:14 GMT) on 15 September 2007, a chondritic meteorite crashed near the village of Carancas in the Puno Region, Peru, near the Bolivian border and Lake Titicaca (see map box on right). The impact created a crater larger than 4.5 m (15 ft) deep, 13 m (43 ft) wide, with visibly scorched earth around the impact site. A local official, Marco Limache, said that "boiling water started coming out of the crater, and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby", as "fetid, noxious" gases spewed from the crater. The crater size was given as 13.80 by 13.30 m (45.28 by 43.64 feet), with its greatest dimensions in an east-west direction. The fireball had been observed by the locals as strongly luminous with a smoky tail, and seen from just 1,000 m (3280.84 ft) above the ground. The object moved in a direction toward N030E. The small seismic shock of the impact shattered the windows of the local health center 1-kilometer (0.62 mi) away. A smoke column was formed at the site that lasted several minutes, and gas was seen bubbling up in the water in the crater.

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