In 2002, Landsat captured this image of the pingualit crater – the almost perfectly round lake up to the upper part of the left of the center. Credit: NASA/Jesse Allen/Landsat/University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility
On June 20, 1943, the Pingualuit crater (previously known as Chubb Crater and as a new Quebec crater) was photographed for the first time by a crew of the Air Force of the American Army during a methodological flight on the northern Quebec. Formed about 1.4 million years ago by a meteor impact, the 2.1 miles wide crater (3.4 kilometers) has an unusual circular form deriving from an almost vertical strike. The subsequent geological expeditions and studies of impactful from the edge of the crater revealed the metamorphism of the shocks (changes to rocks due to the extreme pressure and temperature of the impact) and the planar deformation characteristics (microscopic layers inside minerals, formed due to impact shock) and indicated the presence of iron, nickel, cobalt and chrono from meteorite. These intuitions have led to the identification of over 20 other craters in Eastern Canada, improving the understanding of impact events. Conservation and young Pingualuit comparatives also provide a significant record of environmental history.
