It looks like we can wrap this up for now. Nothing has appeared recently and the National Geographic article seems to answer all of the questions initially raised.
What we now know:
1) It was a meteor of the type called a chondrite.
2) The size of the hole is smaller than first reported though not the sort of thing you would want in your home.
3) There were seismic tremors produced equal to a 1.5 earthquake.
4) Some people, but not as many as the 200 initially reported, were sickened by gas given off from the crater. The impact was large enough to produce heat (most meteorites that have been found shortly after they landed were cold to the touch). The heat may have caused short-term boiling of ground water in a soil well-known for having arsenic in it. The gas is what made people feel sick.
5) A GEC poster by the name of viajero made only one post in February, 2007. But the post was:

Quote:

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Peru - all placenames / todo los pueblos (105,000)
All villages and towns in Peru in a single 2.6 mb KMZ from the 1998 Digital Peru project organized by Department. Based on cleaned up VMAP1 (NIMA) data. For best results zoom way in.

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Quote:

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Andina, Peru's official government news agency reported yesterday that Marco Limachi, a district authority in Puno, Peru stated that the large crater would be turned into a tourist attraction. Limachi told Peru's Andina News Agency that the region would take advantage of the attention the crater has attracted.

It was reported that despite the fact that the crater was currently fenced off with wires, within the next few days the Municipality of Desaguadero would roof the area and permit access to where the meteorite had landed.

Limchi stated, "Through different means of communication, we want to sell the crater's image as a tourist attraction so that the townspeople can benefit (from this event)."

In addition, Porfirio Aguilar, the director of tourism in Puno, Peru stated that he would get together with businessmen, Peru's authorities and Bolivia's authorities to promote tourism in the area.

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From www.livinginperu.com

I'll once again change the placemark in the initial post to show the true location of Carancas.

More from Howstuffworks.com here.

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"Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end" Stephen Hawking (quoting Woody Allen)
"There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower." Richard Feynman
Iraq war and occupation costs

Edited by Hill (09/27/07 10:11 AM)

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