Google Maps Camping Discovery Leads to Potential Ancient Asteroid Crater, Sparks International Scientific Interest.
TL;DR
While planning a camping trip in Quebec, Joël Lapointe discovered a circular formation on Google Maps that resembles an asteroid impact crater. His findings sparked the interest of geophysicists, who now plan to visit the site in 2025. Early evidence suggests the crater may have been caused by a space rock impact, and the team will search for shatter cones to confirm this. If validated, this crater would be Quebec’s 11th confirmed impact structure, and scientists hope to uncover when the impact occurred.
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Using Google Maps to plan a camping trip can give you some insight into the terrain, but it could also lead to the discovery of an ancient asteroid impact crater that sparks international scientific research.
That was the case for Joël Lapointe. While planning a camping trip in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region, he noticed a peculiar formation on Google Maps near Marsal Lake, about 60 miles north of Magpie, Quebec. The formation, about nine miles in diameter, resembled a circular pit surrounded by small mountains. Finding this odd, he contacted Pierre Rochette, a geophysicist from France’s Environmental Geosciences Research Center (CERGE), to share his findings.
So far, evidence suggests that a space rock impact may have created the crater. Rochette, intrigued by the discovery, presented it at the Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Brussels. He hopes that a future trip to the site will confirm the discovery. “Looking at the topography,” Rochette told CBC, “it’s very suggestive of impact.”
Rochette is now working with Canadian researchers to explore the site further, with plans to visit it in 2025 to conduct tests. Gordon Osinski, an Earth sciences professor at Western University in Ontario and a collaborator, mentioned that while circular formations often turn out to be something other than craters, this one seems promising enough to warrant further investigation. “It’s quite easy with Google Earth these days to go on and find structures that are circular or semi-circular in origin,” Osinski said. “You know, nine times out of 10 they’re not [craters].”
To confirm the site is a meteorite impact crater, the team will look for shatter cones, a distinctive pattern of cracks in the bedrock, which are definitive proof of an impact. Osinski called the site a “strong contender” for this.
If the crater is confirmed to be the result of an ancient impact, the next step will be determining when it occurred. Of the 200 or so confirmed impact craters on Earth, 31 are in Canada, with 10 already identified in Quebec. Preliminary samples from the site contain zircon, a mineral formed during significant impact events.
During the presentation at the Meteoritical Society, Rochette demonstrated how the mountains surrounding Lake Marsal align with the characteristics of a crater. “Based on the already available preliminary evidence,” the team wrote, “Lake Marsal seems to be a serious candidate to become the 11th confirmed impact structure from Quebec.”
The final determination of Lake Marsal’s origins will require an expedition to the site—perhaps even a camping trip, as Lapointe would say—bringing the whole event full circle.
There is no doubt in my mind it’s an impact site. We have been hit WAY more than most think, we just have surface systems and weather factors that, say, the moon does not so most end up absorbed, eroded, consumed or covered by water over the millennia.