The Carancas Impact
Partially explainedSummary
On 15 September 2007 a stony meteorite blasted a crater 13.5 metres wide near Carancas, Peru, described by its investigators as the first impact crater seen forming by witnesses. Villagers who went to look reported headaches and nausea, and the cause of that illness has not been established.
The first reports more than doubled the crater's size and put the number of sick at 600, and a widely repeated explanation blames arsenic in vapour from the crater. The Peruvian geologists who analysed the crater water found that the meteorite had added nothing to it and that its arsenic was low. The impact itself is well recorded, although by the accepted picture of how stony meteoroids behave in the atmosphere it should not have happened.
What is documented
The fall. Close to noon on 15 September 2007 a bright fireball was seen and a large explosion heard by many people near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca (Tancredi and colleagues, 2009). Tancredi and colleagues timed the impact at 16:40:17 Universal Time, 11:40 in Peru. The site, in the community of Carancas about 10 kilometres south of Desaguadero, lies at an altitude of 3,824 metres (Tancredi and colleagues, 2008). Kenkmann and colleagues (2008) reported that "a plume of smoke with sulfurous smell occurred for several minutes above the crater."
The crater. It measures 13.5 metres across (Brown and colleagues, 2008; Tancredi and colleagues, 2009), or 14.2 metres in the survey of Kenkmann and colleagues (2009). Geologists of Peru's Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (INGEMMET) described a central hole 7.5 metres in diameter inside an ejecta rim up to 1 metre high (Núñez del Prado and colleagues, 2008). Kenkmann and colleagues put its depth at about 5 metres into the soil and found ejecta up to 200 metres away. The crater cut the water table and held a shallow pond of groundwater. Bubbles could be seen rising from the water for several minutes (Tancredi and colleagues, 2008). Residents reported that the water "appeared to be boiling"; Schultz and colleagues (2008) proposed air compressed ahead of the meteorite in the water-saturated sand, and clumps of clay frothing as they broke down in the water.
The meteorite. Fragments found near the crater are an H4-5 ordinary chondrite, a stony meteorite (Tancredi and colleagues, 2008). Tancredi and colleagues (2009) called Carancas "the first impact crater whose formation was directly observed by witnesses" and "the first unambiguous seismic recording of a crater-forming stony meteorite impact".
The energy and the speed. Brown and colleagues (2008) analysed eyewitness, seismic and infrasound records. They found that the impact released energy of order 10¹⁰ joules, the equivalent of 2 to 3 tons of TNT, from a body that entered the atmosphere at below 17 kilometres per second, most likely close to 12, at 63 degrees from the horizontal. Its mass on entry was 3 to 9 tonnes; modelling suggested a few tonnes striking the ground at 1.5 to 4 kilometres per second. Kenkmann and colleagues' early modelling (2008) gave a far lower final speed, about 160 metres per second, or 180 allowing for the altitude, for a stone of about 700 kilograms. Their fuller modelling (Kenkmann and colleagues, 2009) gave an impact energy of about 100 to 1,000 megajoules and an impact speed of 350 to 600 metres per second, after an entry at 12 to 14 kilometres per second at a shallow angle; they noted that this conflicts with the trajectories inferred from the infrasound signals. Tancredi and colleagues (2009) concluded that the event "should have not occurred according to the accepted picture of stony meteoroids ablating in Earth's atmosphere."
The illness. People who went to the crater reported headaches and nausea, and "poisonous vapors" were alleged as the cause (Núñez del Prado and colleagues, 2008). The numbers conflict. The INGEMMET geologists wrote of "some tens of people"; Space.com, on 19 September 2007, of "some 200 residents"; CBC News reported that "about 600 people sought medical treatment after visiting the site, authorities say." The INGEMMET team analysed water from the crater and from a neighbouring hole. The two were similar, "indicating that the meteorite did not add any allochthonous ions", and "arsenic was low: 0.02 mg/l." They added that scientists from Peru's National Health Institute were investigating a sample of the people who had fallen ill. The registry has not traced any published result of that investigation.
The first doubts. Before the fragments were identified, several scientists doubted there had been a meteorite at all. Space.com quoted Don Yeomans of NASA's Near Earth Object Program: "Statistically, it's far more likely to have come from below than from above." Benny Peiser expected the crater to turn out to be "just another 'meteorwrong.'"
Leading explanations
A meteorite impact. Established. Recovered chondrite fragments, witnesses, and seismic and infrasound records of the fireball and the impact leave no competing explanation for the crater.
Why the stone arrived so fast (partly explained; the speed is disputed). Brown and colleagues attribute the crater to the body's unusually high strength, and the low degree of fragmentation that went with it, and add that the site's altitude of about 3,800 metres let it strike much faster than it would have near sea level. Schultz and colleagues suggested that weak or fragmented objects reshape during entry in a way that reduces drag and stress. Kenkmann and colleagues (2009) argued instead that a slow, shallow entry kept aerodynamic stresses low enough for the stone to survive, and their estimates of the final speed, about 160 metres per second in 2008 and 350 to 600 in 2009, are well below Brown's. Tancredi and colleagues present the event as a challenge to current models of atmospheric entry.
Toxic vapour from the crater (alleged; arsenic is not supported by the water analysis; other gases were not measured in any study the registry has found). A sulphurous smell was recorded above the crater. The INGEMMET analysis of the crater water found low arsenic and nothing added by the meteorite. At the time, sceptical scientists doubted that a meteorite could produce fumes at all. "Meteorites don't give off odors," Yeomans told Space.com.
What the popular version gets wrong
"Six hundred people were made ill by a crater 30 metres wide." CBC News reported a crater "30 metres wide and six metres deep" and about 600 people seeking treatment, and The Register said that 600 people had "succumbed" to headaches, vomiting and nausea. The crater is 13.5 metres across. Other counts of the sick are far lower: "some 200" (Space.com) and "some tens" (INGEMMET). The CBC's own figure was of people seeking treatment, which is not the same as being ill.
"Arsenic in the groundwater poisoned the villagers." The English Wikipedia article says 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." The geologists who sampled the water found arsenic at 0.02 milligrams per litre, which they described as low, and no ions added by the meteorite. For the apparent boiling, Schultz and colleagues proposed causes that need no heat: compressed air and frothing clay. No medical study of the illness has been traced.
"It was a gas explosion, not a meteorite." This was a serious suggestion in the first days, made by scientists quoted on Space.com. The recovered fragments are an ordinary chondrite, and seismometers and infrasound stations recorded the impact.
Current status
Partially explained. The crater is a meteorite impact, among the best recorded of its kind. Why a stony body survived to make the crater is explained in part, by its strength and the altitude of the site on one analysis and a slow, shallow entry on another, and the estimates of its impact speed range from 350 metres to 4 kilometres per second. The illness is not explained. The reported numbers differ tenfold, the arsenic explanation is not supported by the INGEMMET water analysis, and no medical findings have been traced. The case would change with the publication of the National Health Institute's findings or any other medical study of the people who fell ill.
Sources
- Tancredi, G., Ishitsuka, J., Schultz, P. H., Harris, R. S., Brown, P., ReVelle, D. O., Antier, K., Le Pichon, A., Rosales, D., Vidal, E., Varela, M. E., Sánchez, L., Benavente, S., Bojorquez, J., Cabezas, D., and Dalmau, A. (2009). "A meteorite crater on Earth formed on September 15, 2007: the Carancas hypervelocity impact." Meteoritics and Planetary Science 44 (12): 1967 to 1984.
- Brown, P., ReVelle, D. O., Silber, E. A., Edwards, W. N., Arrowsmith, S., Jackson, L. E., Tancredi, G., and Eaton, D. (2008). "Analysis of a crater-forming meteorite impact in Peru." Journal of Geophysical Research 113: E09007.
- Tancredi, G., and colleagues (2008). "What do we know about the 'Carancas-Desaguadero' fireball, meteorite and impact crater?" 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract 1216.
- Núñez del Prado, H., Macharé, J., Macedo, L., Chirif, H., Pari, W., and colleagues (2008). "The meteorite fall in Carancas, Lake Titicaca region, southern Peru: first results." 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract 2555.
- Kenkmann, T., Artemieva, N. A., and Poelchau, M. H. (2008). "The Carancas event on September 15, 2007: meteorite fall, impact conditions, and crater characteristics." 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract 1094.
- Kenkmann, T., Artemieva, N. A., Wünnemann, K., Poelchau, M. H., Elbeshausen, D., and Núñez del Prado, H. (2009). "The Carancas meteorite impact crater, Peru: geologic surveying and modeling of crater formation and atmospheric passage." Meteoritics and Planetary Science 44 (7): 985 to 1000.
- Schultz, P. H., Harris, R. S., Tancredi, G., and Ishitsuka, J. (2008). "Implications of the Carancas meteorite impact." 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract 2409.
- Earth Impact Database, Planetary and Space Science Centre, University of New Brunswick. "Carancas."
- Thompson, A. (2007). "Scientists doubt meteorite sickened Peruvians." Space.com, 19 September 2007.
- CBC News (2007). "600 sick in Peru after 'meteorite' crashes." September 2007.
- Haines, L. (2007). "Peruvian 'meteorite' strike provokes noxious gas attack." The Register, 19 September 2007.
Last reviewed: September 2026. Records are provisional. Where the evidence changes, the entry changes. Found an error? Tell us.