A Canadian man was shocked to discover that a mysterious hole he found on Google Maps may actually be a massive crater from an ancient meteor.
Joël Lapointe was scouting locations in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec where he planned to go camping, but soon came across a “suspicious well.”
On Google Maps he was able to determine that the crater had a diameter of about fifteen kilometers.
But there was something unnatural about the way the well curved.
A Canadian man was shocked to discover that a mysterious hole he found on Google Maps could actually be a massive crater from an ancient meteor
Lapointe then saw a mountain range about five miles in diameter around nearby Lake Marsal—another unusual feature in the area.
He presented his findings to expert researchers, including French geophysicist Pierre Rochette, who revealed that the pit could be the site of a meteorite impact.
“If you look at the topography, it is very suggestive of an impact,” Rochette told the CBC.
After the geophysicist received samples of material from the well, he discovered that it contained zircon, a mineral that preserves microscopic damage caused by a meteor impact.
While the evidence points to the crater being created by an ancient space rock, experts are still waiting for further testing before making a final judgment.
If the pit really is the crash site of a meteor, Rochette told the CBC number, The discovery would be ‘major’, as the last such find was in 2013.
On Google Maps he was able to determine that the crater was about fifteen kilometers in diameter
According to NASA, impact craters are formed when an object travels thousands of miles per hour and hits a planet’s surface, creating shock waves that melt and recrystallize the rock.
Certain craters, such as this one, could be millions or even a hundred million years old, Tara Hayden, a postdoctoral associate at Western University, told the CBC.
Hayden added that meteorites can be made of different materials, such as “old planets” and material from the birth of the solar system.
“It could tell us when it was delivered to Earth,” she said. “That’s the beauty of impact craters. We get this connection between Earth and the universe out there.”
According to Gary Osinksi, a professor of earth sciences at Western University, the pit is a “strong contender” for a meteorite impact.
Zircon, a mineral that preserves microscopic damage caused by a meteorite impact, was discovered in the pit
The professor has not been on a trip to identify a crater in more than a decade, but said the prospect of doing so now is “super exciting” because it “doesn’t happen very often.”
“It’s pretty easy these days to use Google Earth to find structures that have a circular or semicircular origin,” he explained. But “nine times out of ten they’re not [craters.]’
Osinksi, however, believes this site could be an exception. He has argued that the location is “promising” enough that scientists should study it.
The earth sciences professor wants to investigate the suspicious well next year.