This Could Be the First Meteor Crater Found by an Amateur

Planning a camping trip on Google Maps turned into a deep-time discovery for an amateur astronomer in Quebec. While scouting locations in 2024, Joël Lapointe noticed what looked like an odd depression in the Côte-Nord region—now confirmed as a previously unknown, 15-mile-wide impact crater roughly 390 million years old. Western University planetary geologist Gordon Osinski, one of four researchers who visited and dated the site in 2025, believes this is the first time a presumed impact crater reported by a member of the public has been confirmed, per ABC News. "I encourage everyone to not ignore intuition or an observation, even if it isn't part of your field of expertise," Lapointe says, per the CBC.

Lapointe reported his findings to France's Aix-Marseille University, which helped launch the 2025 expedition. The four researchers reached the remote site by float plane, then waded ashore and trekked through dense terrain on what Osinski called "one of the hardest field expeditions I've ever done." There they found classic impact evidence: cliffs of "impact melt" rock and rare shatter cones, features linked only to asteroid strikes or nuclear tests. "I'm still quite blown away," Osinski says, noting that there are only about 200 known meteor craters around the globe—and just 27 in Canada, per Gizmodo. The Quebec crater, named Uhackatik in consultation with the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, will be formally presented to the Meteoritical Society next month.