Look at a map of Quebec. How did that giant circle get there? | 24CA News

I like it when folks say, “Once you see it, you can never unsee it.”

One instance is what’s been known as the “Eye of Quebec.” You might need by no means seen it when taking a look at a satellite tv for pc picture of the province. Look north, close to the border with Labrador. Do you see it? What the heck is that?

It’s the Manicouagan Reservoir, believed to be attributable to a crater shaped a full 214 million years in the past, (wow) when an asteroid hit the Earth within the Late Triassic interval. How large was the area rock that hit Earth about 315 kilometres north of Baie-Comeau?

Oh not that large, actually, only a full six kilometres in diameter.

The passing of glaciers and erosion wore away the 100-kilometre-diameter crater, however trying down on it from a hen’s eye view, the “eye” is unattainable to unsee. There’s mainly this round lake that makes the centre island seem dry, form of as if there is a moat surrounding the influence space.

And scientists imagine it was not the one crater shaped on the time of influence.

The Manicouagan crater might have been a part of a multiple-impact occasion which additionally shaped the Rochechouart influence construction in France, the Saint Martin crater in Manitoba, the Obolon crater in Ukraine and the Red Wing crater in North Dakota.

David Rowley, a geophysicist with the University of Chicago, working with John Spray of the University of New Brunswick and Simon Kelley of the Open University found that the 5 craters appeared to type a series, indicating the breakup and subsequent influence of an asteroid or comet, much like the well-observed string of impacts of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994.

Are you interested by visiting the Eye of Quebec? I definitely am.

There are just a few little settlements of constructions alongside the japanese fringe of the lake that type the attention, for instance Relais-Gabriel. You’ll discover the odd clothing store alongside Lac Manicougan — and when you preserve driving alongside Highway 389 for one more 270 kilometres, you may hit the bustling metropolis of Labrador City, simply to present you an thought of how rural we’re speaking right here.

Be certain to cease in on the Pourvoirie Relais-Gabriel, which Google Maps tells me is a relaxation cease and restaurant the place you will get a pleasant burger. The itemizing says you may dine in or take out, however no supply is out there, ha!

While this explicit crater and corresponding reservoir had been shaped hundreds of thousands of years in the past, completely different sorts of meteor-type issues are coming into our environment on a regular basis. The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum not too long ago made large news throughout the Maritimes by providing $25,000 US to anybody who can produce components of no matter “space rock” got here to Earth on the mile-wide “strewn field” that stretches from simply north of Waite, Maine, to Canoose, N.B. And the mineral museum is encouraging folks to go exploring.

It has created a little bit of a space-rock rush within the japanese portion of New Brunswick, not in contrast to the Klondike Gold Rush that took the Yukon by storm.

OK, I jest. But $25,000 US is nothing to shake a stick at! Anyway, I like it. Do we’ve got the following Eye of Quebec forming someday quickly? Perhaps an Eye of Ontario or Eye of Nova Scotia? That may be fairly thrilling, however it could be equally catastrophic. So whereas it is not one thing to hope for, preserve your eyes on the sky!

This story was produced by John Batt as a part of the CBC Creator Network. Learn extra concerning the Creator Network right here.