Joël Lapointe was casually browsing Google Maps, planning hiking routes for an upcoming camping trip, when he stumbled upon an unusual indentation near Marsal Lake in Quebec. As an amateur astronomer, Lapointe recognized that the large pit may be the site of a meteorite impact that left a scar on the terrain. Scientists just confirmed that he was right. Researchers announced the existence of a large crater in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, which dates back to around 390 million years ago, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported. Following Lapointe’s initial discovery in 2024, a team of geologists set out to examine the impact site and were able to verify that a meteorite did in fact smash into Earth at this particular point. The team’s research will be presented at the annual congress of the Meteoritical Society, which will be held on August 9 to 14 in Frankfurt, Germany.
A solid hunch Many reports from the public on potentially unidentified meteor craters turn out to be false. But when Lapointe reached out to scientists pointing out his Google Maps find, they felt there could be something there. “Looking at the topography, it’s very suggestive of impact,” Pierre Rochette, geophysicist at the French Research Center for Geosciences and the Environment in Aix-en-Provence, France, told CBC.
