Hike-driven Google Maps find reveals 390-million-year-old meteor crater in Canada

A ~25 km-wide pit spotted on Google Maps in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region has been confirmed as a 390-million-year-old meteor impact crater, named Uhaachatik Crater. Evidence includes visible shatter cones and cliffs of impact melt rock; zircon alone wasn’t proof, so scientists dated the rocks on site. Discovered by amateur Joël Lapointe in 2024, the crater was investigated by Western University’s Gordon Osinski and Pierre Rochette, with the Indigenous community naming it after local people. It’s a rare, sizable Canadian crater, adding to Earth’s known impacts, and researchers plan further study of the samples.