Google Maps user discovers giant meteorite crater in Quebec

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.