Camper exploring with Google Maps accidentally discovers mysterious crater in Quebec

Joël Lapointe may have already been excited as he combed through the terrains and valleys in Google Maps to plan an adventurous camping trip to Quebec's Côte-Nord region. But his excitement surged to another level when he came across something unusual hiding in there. Before he knew it, he was already on his way to experience the adventure of a lifetime and came across a nine-mile spherical crater camouflaged between a ring of small mountains that circled Marsal Lake, about 60 miles north of Magpie, Quebec, reported CBC. The crater first caught Lapointe’s attention when he noticed that a curve in the maps appeared “suspicious.”

Curious to explore the strange site, Lapointe got in touch with a French geophysicist Pierre Rochette. Being a professional at identifying formations like these, Rochette readily dedicated himself to investigating Lapointe’s discovery. Today he is examining the aforementioned site along with his fellow researchers, and they think it's a “potential meteorite impact crater.”

"Looking at the topography, it's very suggestive of impact," said Rochette, as per CBC. Although this explanation has not been confirmed yet, if it is confirmed, it would be the second discovery of a meteorite impact crater after a similar crater of this size was first found in 2013, according to The Independent. NASA explains that an impact crater is usually formed when an object like that of an asteroid or meteorite crashes into the boundary of Earth. It vaporizes and triggers ferocious shockwaves to travel through the ground, that melts and recrystallizes rocks.

Tara Hayden, a postdoctoral associate at Western University's Department of Earth Sciences told CBC that some craters can even date back to millions of years ago or hundreds of millions of years ago. Plus, they could have been formed by some of the ancient planets that no longer exist, or some of the earliest solar system material. Gordon Osinski, a professor from the same university further revealed that 31 of the world's nearly 200 confirmed impact craters are in Canada.

One of the primary evidence that made researchers think of this site as a “meteorite impact crater” is its rich deposits of a mineral called zircon, Rochette explained to CBC. Zircon is a mineral that is formed by the intense pressure and heat triggered by a "meteorite impact." According to The Independent, researchers propose that this particular crater could have been formed somewhere between 38 to 450 million years ago. However, they are not hundred percent sure of this fact.

As for the next step in this investigation, the French and Canadian researchers are collaborating. Osinski is also planning to visit the remote site with the French team by 2025. He explains that before confirming anything about the odd crater, the team would be required to perform some tests. The first of these would be to look for the presence of “shatter cones,” which appear like grooves or lines on a rock's surface and are credible evidence for a meteorite impact.

Studying craters like these can offer geoscientists some fresh insights into the evolution of Earth, space, and the kind of cosmic objects that collided with the Earth throughout its history. “We thank Joel Lapointe, from Shawinigan, Quebec, for pointing to us this potential crater,” the researchers said, as per The Independent.