A Camper’s Google Maps Hunch Revealed a 390-Million-Year-Old Meteorite Crater
An amateur astronomer discovered a 390-million-year-old meteorite crater in Quebec using Google Maps satellite imagery. Geologists confirmed the site's authenticity after an arduous expedition to the remote location.
Why it matters
This discovery highlights the role of public participation and modern digital tools in advancing geological and planetary science.
Joël Lapointe was planning a camping route when a strange feature on Google Maps caught his eye.
The amateur astronomer had spotted a near-perfect ring around Lake Marsal in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region. It looked too large, too clean and too odd to ignore. Scientists now say he was right: The 25-kilometer-wide structure is an impact crater formed about 390 million years ago, one of the largest such discoveries in recent years. Only about 200 meteorite craters have been identified around the world, in total.
Lapointe was scrolling through satellite images in 2024 when he noticed the indentation in northeastern Canada. The feature did not appear in crater databases, so he sent his suspicion to researchers through Impact Earth , a crater-reporting project run by Western University in Ontario.
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