Amateur Astronomer Finds Ancient Meteorite Crater in Quebec Using Google Maps

What started as a routine search for vacation routes on a laptop turned into a major geological confirmation. Amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe was browsing Google Maps in 2024 to plan a camping and road trip through Quebec’s Côte-Nord region when he noticed a massive, near-perfect circular depression centered around Lake Marsal (Gizmodo). The ring-shaped indentation spanned roughly 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) across (Livescience). Intrigued by the unusual terrain, Lapointe searched existing impact databases and found nothing recorded for that location (NDTV). Recognizing that the formation looked like a cosmic scar, he reached out to scientific researchers (Smithsonian Magazine).

How Scientists Verified the Remote Quebec Crater

When the coordinates and satellite imagery reached Gordon Osinski, a planetary geology professor at Western University who manages the Impact Earth crater database, he initially approached the tip with healthy skepticism (CBC). Osinski receives numerous emails from the public alleging new crater discoveries that ultimately turn out to be volcanic structures, glacial erosion, or ordinary geological formations (Discover Magazine). However, the unique circular topography and preliminary satellite data for the Lake Marsal site prompted a closer look (USA Today).

In October 2025, Osinski teamed up with researchers to mount a field expedition (Gizmodo). Reaching the destination proved extraordinarily difficult. Rugged, overgrown terrain prevented float planes from landing directly on the shore, forcing the research team to wade over 160 feet through water while carrying their equipment (Petapixel).

The arduous journey paid off. On the second day of fieldwork, the team located unambiguous proof of an extraterrestrial impact: shatter cones, which are distinctive cone-shaped fractures induced in bedrock by massive shock waves (Space). They also discovered extensive cliffs of impact melt rock, formed when the immense heat and pressure of a meteorite collision liquefies large volumes of the Earth’s crust before cooling and crystallizing (Gizmodo).

Amateur Astronomer Finds Massive Ancient Impact Crater in Quebec via Google Maps

Naming Uhackatik and Placing It in Global Context

Following laboratory analysis of the retrieved rock samples in Canada and France, researchers formally dated the impact to approximately 390 million years ago (NDTV). At that time, life on Earth was dominated by primitive amphibians, long before the rise of dinosaurs, mammals, or humans (CTV News). Researchers consulted with the local Indigenous community, naming the site Uhackatik in agreement with the Ekuanitshit Innu Council, on whose traditional lands the crater rests (Gizmodo).

Earth currently lists only about 200 confirmed impact structures in global databases (Gizmodo).

Osinski noted that outside of smaller routine findings, Uhackatik stands out as one of the largest impact structures discovered globally in recent years (USA Today). To his knowledge, the last discovery of a comparable 25-to-31 kilometer scale was the potential Hiawatha structure spotted in Greenland in 2018 (Space).

Presentation Plans and the Value of Public Intuition

The research team will present their formal findings and abstract at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Frankfurt, Germany, scheduled for August 9 through 14 (Gizmodo).

For Lapointe, the confirmation serves as an extraordinary validation of an ordinary map search. He hopes his experience inspires others not to dismiss anomalies they spot online (Gizmodo).

“It’s not every day that an ordinary citizen finds a 390-million-year-old crater. I encourage everyone to not ignore intuition or an observation, even if it isn’t part of your field of expertise.”

Joël Lapointe, amateur astronomer, via Radio-Canada and Gizmodo

His discovery demonstrates that curiosity and a keen eye can lead to significant scientific breakthroughs, regardless of a person’s formal professional background or specific academic training.