He saw a suspicious hole on Google Maps. Experts say it could be a crater made of ancient space rock

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He saw a suspicious hole on Google Maps. Experts say it could be a crater made of ancient space rock

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When Joël Lapointe was wandering around with a Google Maps cursor, planning a camping vacation in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, he stumbled upon a pit.

It was about 15 kilometers across and he said there was something suspicious about its curvature.

Then he saw a ring of small mountains about eight kilometres in diameter surrounding Lake Marsal, about 100 kilometres north of the village of Magpie, Quebec.

Lapointe turned to professional researchers and eventually contacted French geophysicist Pierre Rochette, who is now part of a team of scientists investigating the site as a potential meteorite impact crater.

“Looking at the topography, it looks like there was an impact,” Rochette said. Center de recherche en géosciences de l’environnement in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Rochette says of the samples he has received from the site, at least one contains zirconium, a resistant mineral that changes when struck.

Magnified image of zirconium
The enlarged image shows a 0.05-millimeter-long zircon that was created by the violent impact of an ancient meteorite. (Stanford University/Getty Images)

The analyses are encouraging but not yet conclusive.

He says discovering such a site would be “huge” since the last meteorite of this size was discovered in 2013.

“The Link Between Earth and the Outside Universe”

An impact crater is formed when a meteorite hits the planet’s surface at thousands of kilometers per hour. The shock waves that melt and recrystallize rocks, according to the theory NASA.

Some craters could be millions or even a hundred million years old, said Tara Hayden, assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Western University.

He argues that meteorites can be of many different types and may come from ancient planets or be part of the earliest materials in the solar system.

“It can tell us when it was delivered to Earth,” Hayden said. “That’s the great thing about impact craters. We have a connection between Earth and the outside universe.”

31 craters have already been identified in Canada

Of the nearly 200 confirmed impact craters worldwide, 31 are in Canada, said Gordon Osinski, a professor of geosciences at Western University.

He says they are often found in older rocks, and almost a third of these sites are in Quebec.

Given the high level of mining and mineral exploration in the province, he says “a lot of geologists look around and make discoveries like this from time to time.”

While the new site isn’t yet “irrefutable evidence,” he says it’s promising enough that scientists are willing to spend the time and money to visit it.

“Thanks to Google Earth, it is now very easy to find structures of circular or semicircular origin. You know, nine times out of ten they are not [craters]”- says Osinski.

The map shows the locations of impact craters and sediments.
Interactive map created by Gordon Osinski and Impact Earth shows impact craters and deposits around the world. (Earth Strike)

I hope to visit in 2025.

The next step is research funding—which French and Canadian collaborators like Osinski must apply for in order to organize a field trip to the remote site. He hopes to accompany a French team there in 2025.

Osinski last traveled to identify the crater more than a decade ago.

“It’s super exciting,” Osinski said. “It doesn’t happen very often.”

A man takes a selfie against the background of a carved stone.
Gordon Osinski is pictured at the Haughton impact structure in Nunavut. The grooved rocks behind him are examples of fracture cones, which are the definitive evidence of a crater. (Submitted by Gordon Osiński)

Before formally declaring the site a crater, the team will need to conduct some tests.

According to Osiński, one indicator of the existence of a crater may be the presence of fracture cones, which look like grooves or lines on the rock surface.

“This is basically clear evidence of a meteorite impact,” he said.

He added that proving that a site is a crater can also be obtained by examining about half a dozen main criteria under a microscope.

Osinski said Lapointe’s discovery is a “strong candidate” and that he is looking forward to a potential visit to the site next year.

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