Mystery Meteorite Illness

[Hill]

There are some more details amid what has already been reported about meteorite hunter Michael Farmer at Sparks fly over meteorite - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com

 

One last mystery needs to be addressed: What about that smelly, sickening odor supposedly coming from the crater? "It was extremely exaggerated. That's the first thing," said Farmer, who talked with numerous villagers about the event and even came across what he said was a picture of the smoke trail left behind by the fireball's fall. "I'm sure there was a heavy sulfur smell. That is not abnormal. Sulfur smells like rotten eggs, and that can make you physically sick."

Farmer guessed that 30 villagers were seen by doctors, not the hundreds initially claimed. He speculated that the fireball, the blast of mud (which damaged one of the houses in the village), the shaking ground and the sight of the crater added to the unease.

"It had to be absolutely terrifying," he said. "Somebody gets sick, and pretty soon everybody is terrified and gets sick. ... There was a very large part of mass hysteria there, which is understandable."

The strange case of the Peruvian fireball is an occurrence that those villagers will probably never forget - and that goes for Farmer as well.

"This has turned out to be an incredible event," he told me. "I've been doing meteorites for 13 years, and nothing even close to this has ever happened."