Don’t dismiss unusual sights, as they could be ancient discoveries.
Joël Lapointe from Quebec, Canada, was exploring the Côte-Nord region on Google Maps to plan a camping trip when he came across what may be a meteor impact crater.
While using Google Map’s satellite feature, Lapointe noticed a peculiar pit.
Intrigued by the unusual pit, Lapointe decided to investigate further. He contacted a French geophysicist named Pierre Rochette, who believed it could be a rare find.
“Looking at the topography, it’s highly suggestive of an impact,” Rochette told CBC News.
Rochette later received samples from the site and found that at least one contained zircon, a mineral that undergoes transformation during a meteor impact.
Further research is underway to gather more definitive answers about the crater.
“It could tell us about when it formed,” Tara Hayden, a postdoctoral associate at Western University’s department of Earth sciences, told CBC. “That’s the amazing aspect of impact craters. We get to see this connection between Earth and the outer universe.”
Studying impact craters helps scientists better understand “the past, present and future of collisions” across the solar system, according to the American Museum of Natural History.
So far, 200 impact craters have been confirmed, with 31 discovered in Canada, Gordon Osinski, an Earth sciences professor at Western University, told CBC.
He added that many geologists are on the hunt for such discoveries, but true ones are rare.
“It’s easy with Google Earth to find structures that are circular or semicircular. But nine times out of ten, they aren’t craters,” Osinski said.
The next step is for Osinski and his team to possibly visit the site to learn more.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” Osinski told CBC. “It doesn’t happen often.”