He is a born search engine.
A Canadian man researching an upcoming camping trip via Google Maps has discovered a massive crater that experts believe is much larger. left by an ancient space rock,
Joel LaPointeof Quebec, was scanning the true north Côte-Nord Region When he spotted the mysterious, nearly nine-mile-wide crater while using the app's satellite image setting.
Curious, he reported his findings to geophysicist Pierre Rochette, who told the Canadian Broadcasting Company This crater — which is surrounded by a small mountain ring — “is very suggestive of an impact.”
After analyzing samples from the site, Rochette discovered a mineral called zircon, which changes its appearance after events such as meteorite impacts.
Though more work needs to be done, Rochette was quick to say Lapointe may have uncovered something “big.”
Tara Hayden, from Western University's Department of Earth Sciences, told the TV channel that if confirmed, the site has the potential to show “a connection between Earth and the outer universe.”
“This could tell us when it was brought to Earth,” Hayden said, adding that the debris could be material from an ancient planet or solar system.
His colleague Gordon Osinski said modern mapping sites is proving useful to both amateur and professional detectives.
lots of geologists [are] “I look around and do discoveries like this sometimes,” he said.
“It's very easy to go these days… [online] And find structures that are basically spherical or semi-spherical. You know, nine times out of 10 they're not spherical [craters]” Osinski said.
To learn more, Osinski and his team hope to eventually visit the remote location themselves.
“It's very exciting,” Osinski said, noting that only about 200 craters have been discovered so far, 31 of which are in Canada.
“This doesn't happen often.”
