Man makes potentially 'major' discovery after noticing suspicious pit on Google Earth

A man stumbled upon something strange while browsing Google Maps and it caught the attention of a lot of people online.

Joël Lapointe was mapping out his camping route in Quebec’s Côte-Nord area in Canada when he noticed something unusual.

On Google's satellite imagery, he noticed a suspicious pit in the ground that appeared in a different colour and shape than its surroundings.

In the middle was a small pool of water, with another curving around the edge, close to a range of mountains.

And it was precisely this curving which caught Lapointe's attention while he was browsing through maps.

The circular formation, about eight kilometres across and near Marsal Lake, intrigued Lapointe so much he decided to send his findings to French geophysicist Pierre Rochette.

Rochette had some interesting theories on unusual geography.

Google Earth

Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Rochette said: "Looking at the topography, it's very suggestive of impact."

Rochette said that the evidence could be suggestive of a meteor impact at some point in the distant past.

However, he clarified that further scientific tests would need to be carried out in order to confirm whether this was the case.

Nonetheless, he added that it would be a 'major' discovery if the site did turn out to be the remains of an impact crater - the last similar find was in 2013.

Even impacts from millions of years ago can leave lasting traces, often beyond just a visible crater.

There are other ways to determine if an impact has occurred.

One way is to look at the chemical makeup of the ground as it could contain certain minerals.

Postdoctoral associate at Western University, Tara Hayden explained that examining the chemical makeup of the ground could reveal specific minerals left by the impact and even estimate when it occurred.

NASA/Unsplash

She told the CBC: "It could tell us about when it was delivered to Earth.

"That's the wonderful thing about impact craters. We get to have this link between Earth and the outside universe."

Gordon Osinski, an Earth sciences professor at Western University, pointed out that there are nearly 200 confirmed impact craters worldwide. 31 of these are in Canada.

Many of these are found in older rock formations with almost a third in Quebec.

With high levels of mining and mineral exploration in the province, Osinski says there are a "lot of geologists looking around and occasionally making discoveries like this."

He added: "It's quite easy with Google Earth these days to go on and find structures that are circular or semi-circular in origin. You know, nine times out of 10 they're not [craters]."