If you see something unusual, don’t overlook it. It could just be an ancient discovery.
Joël Lapointe from Quebec, Canada, was investigating the Côte-Nord region ahead of a camping trip using Google Maps when he found what could be a crater left behind by an ancient space rock.
While using Google Map’s satellite feature, Lapointe came across a pit he found unusual.
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After seeing this strange pit, Lapointe decided to investigate it further. He contacted a French geophysicist named Pierre Rochette, who believed the find could be a rare discovery.
“Looking at the topography, it’s very suggestive of impact,” Rochette told CBC News.
Rochette later received samples from the site in question, and found that at least one contained zircon, a mineral that undergoes transformation in the event of a meteor impact.
More research is being done to find more definitive answers about the potentially rare discovery.
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“It could tell us about when it was delivered to Earth,” Tara Hayden, postdoctoral associate at Western University’s department of Earth sciences, told CBC. “That’s the wonderful thing about impact craters. We get to have this link between Earth and the outside universe.”
The study of impact craters allows scientists to better understand “the past, present and future of collisions” across the solar system, per the American Museum of Natural History.
So far, there have been 200 total confirmed impact craters found, 31 of which have been discovered in Canada, Gordon Osinski, an Earth sciences professor at Western University, told CBC.
He added that there are many geologists hunting down a find like this one, but true discoveries are very rare.
“It’s quite easy with Google Earth these days to go on and find structures that are circular or semicircular in origin. You know, nine times out of 10 they’re not [craters],” Osinski said.
The next order of business is for Osinski and his team to potentially head on location to find out more about the find.
“It’s super exciting,” Osinski told CBC. “It doesn’t happen too often.”