Amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe identified a 390-million-year-old meteor-impact crater in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec using Google Maps [1].
The discovery highlights how accessible satellite imagery can assist in geological research and uncover ancient planetary events that remain hidden from ground observation.
Lapointe spotted the unusual formation while browsing the digital maps of Canada [2]. Following the initial observation, scientists said that the pit was the result of a massive meteor impact [3]. The event occurred during the Late Devonian period [1].
The crater is estimated to be 390 million years old [1]. This timeframe places the impact in a period of significant evolutionary change on Earth. The site is located in the remote Côte-Nord region, where the geological signature of the impact had previously gone unnoticed by professional surveys [1].
Geological formations of this age provide critical data regarding the frequency of asteroid impacts, and the composition of early celestial bodies. The confirmation of the site validates the use of crowdsourced observation and amateur exploration in identifying planetary scars, a process that often precedes formal field expeditions.
While the crater has existed for millions of years, it only became a subject of scientific confirmation after Lapointe's digital discovery [2]. The site now serves as a point of study for the Devonian period's environmental conditions [3].
“Amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe identified a 390-million-year-old meteor-impact crater”
This discovery demonstrates the increasing role of 'citizen science' in geology. By leveraging high-resolution global mapping tools, amateurs can identify anomalies that professional geologists may overlook due to the sheer scale of the terrain. The confirmation of a Devonian-era crater provides a new data point for mapping the history of impacts in North America.
