A camping search on satellite maps led to the discovery of a massive 390-million-year-old impact crater hidden in the Quebec wilderness.
An amateur astronomer searching satellite imagery for possible camping spots in Quebec ended up noticing something far more unusual: a previously unrecognized impact crater.
Only about 200 impact structures have been confirmed worldwide, although geologists believe hundreds more may still be waiting to be found. One of the newest additions to the confirmed bin is also a substantial one, and its discovery began with an amateur astronomer preparing for a camping trip.
A Strange Circle on a Satellite Map
In 2024, Joël Lapointe was looking over online maps while planning a trip to Quebec’s remote Côte Nord region when a circular feature near Lake Marsal caught his attention. He wondered whether the depression might have been created by an impact and reached out to specialists in Europe and North America.
That inquiry eventually prompted French researchers to identify the lake area at a 2024 meeting of the Meteoritical Society as the possible center of Quebec’s 11th known impact structure. The lead eventually reached Gordon Osinski, a planetary geologist at Western University who directs the Impact Earth database.
At first, Osinski was doubtful. Still, the possibility was intriguing enough that he organized an expedition to the isolated location in October 2025.
Reaching the Crater Was a Challenge
Osinski and his colleagues traveled to the area by floatplane, but even getting onto land proved difficult. The aircraft was unable to reach the shoreline, forcing the team to carry their equipment through 50 meters (165 feet) of water.
Conditions did not improve once they reached solid ground. The landscape was swampy, rough, filled with insects, and covered in what Osinski called “deep, twisty, gnarly vegetation.” Although he had previously conducted fieldwork on six continents, he said this was among the toughest environments he had encountered.
Earlier geological surveys had interpreted the local breccia rocks as evidence of a diatreme, a funnel-shaped volcanic structure produced when explosive magma fragments surrounding rock.
By the expedition’s second day, however, the team began finding something that pointed to a very different origin. Numerous rock exposures contained shatter cones, distinctive structures produced by the immense pressures associated with impacts.
“It’s the only unequivocal evidence of an impact event that you can see in the field with the naked eye,” Osinski said.
A 25 Kilometer Scar From an Ancient Collision
The object responsible for the impact was powerful enough to produce a complex crater structure measuring 25 kilometers (16 miles) across. The crater includes a central uplift as well as high cliffs displaying columnar jointing.
An impact of comparable magnitude in Quebec today would be catastrophic. Osinski said it would cause “regional devastation on a scale that would wipe out major cities and have global climate impacts.”
Analysis of collected rocks suggests the crater formed roughly 390 million years ago. That places the event about 100 million years before a major increase in impact cratering on Earth that researchers have suggested could be connected to collisions within the asteroid belt.
The Newly Named Uhackatik Crater
Following discussions with the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, the researchers are calling the newly identified structure Uhackatik.
The team regards its impact origin as essentially confirmed, although a Meteoritical Society committee is expected to formally recognize the structure when it next convenes.
Uhackatik is the largest impact crater discovered since the 31-kilometer Hiawatha structure was identified in 2018.
Osinski is also part of NASA’s first Artemis Geology Team and helps train astronauts in geology. Even so, he does not expect Uhackatik to become an astronaut training destination anytime soon because reaching it is so difficult.
A younger and much more accessible impact site exists in Labrador, Kameshtashtan (also called Mistastin Lake), where astronauts have previously completed geology training in the past, he said.
An Amateur Observation Leads to a Major Find
For Lapointe, seeing his initial observation develop into a confirmed scientific discovery was unforgettable. He told CityNews that he was “over the Moon” when researchers determined that the structure really was an impact crater.
“I encourage everyone to not ignore intuition or an observation, even if it isn’t part of your field of expertise,” he told another outlet.
The discovery also shows how members of the public can contribute to scientific research. NASA offers plenty of opportunities for people interested in citizen science.
Through the Daily Minor Planet project, participants can search for asteroids and comets that could potentially threaten Earth. The Impact Flash project asks volunteers to examine dark regions of the Moon for brief flashes produced by meteoroid strikes. Meanwhile, Exoasteroids lets participants search for evidence of asteroids beyond our Solar System.
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