# Google Maps user discovers giant meteorite crater in Quebec 2026-08-16T04:51:26+00:00 | World & Diplomacy | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Joël Lapointe, an amateur astronomer in Canada, spotted a near-perfect circular scar on Google Maps in 2024 while planning a hiking trip in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region. The feature, about 25 km across, was not listed in any known crater database. Lapointe reported it to Impact Earth, a crowdsourced registry run by Western University in Ontario. Planetary geologist Gordon Osinski co-led an expedition in October 2025 that confirmed the structure, now named Uhackatik, is a meteorite impact crater. The team found shatter cones and impact melt rock, along with traces of zircon, indicating a strike roughly 390 million years ago, long before dinosaurs existed. Osinski says it is one of the largest finds in years, comparable to the disputed Hiawatha structure under Greenland. The Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, on whose traditional lands the crater sits, was consulted for the name. The findings will be presented at the Meteoritical Society’s annual meeting in Frankfurt this month, ahead of peer review. Lapointe commented that ordinary citizens do not find such craters every day. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Google Maps, Gordon Osinski, Joël Lapointe Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/google-maps-user-discovers-giant-meteorite-crater-in-quebec/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/google-maps-user-discovers-giant-meteorite-crater-in-quebec/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/