Few other meteor impact craters have as much preserved beauty as the New Quebec Crater in Canada. This almost circular and impressive feature is located in a very desolate part of the northern Quebec tundra. In fact, as this crater is in such a remote area, this will probably help to explain why it was not properly discovered until as late as 1950.
Today, the New Quebec crater has been filled by 250m worth of some of the purest water you are likely to find on the planet. This makes this lake exceptionally deep. In terms of salinity, this lake contains only 3 parts per million and this is 497 ppm less that the Great Lakes. The water has accrued here over the centuries through snow melt and rainwater and only evaporation diminishes the lake level.
The statistics for the New Quebec Crater are pretty impressive, although unfortunately, so much more research desperately needs to be undertaken to fill in the blanks of knowledge that we have for this awe-inspiring crater. This is a big crater and it actually measures around 3.44 km in diameter (2.14 miles). From the crater floor to the top of the rim, it is estimated to have a total depth of 400m (1300 feet).
The New Quebec crater was photographed and known before, but it was mainly acknowledged properly in 1950 by a Frederick W. Chubb. In the crater’s earliest days after discovery, it actually went by the name of the “Chubb crater”. It then became known as the “New Quebec Crater”, until finally adopting its Inuit name of “Pingaluit Crater” in 1999. This newest title hardly rolls off the tongue?
Upon discovery, Frederick Chubb became fixated on the fact that he thought the topography of the feature was highly indicative of previous volcanic activity in the area. This theory was soon eliminated and the New Quebec crater was quickly known to have been the result of a devastating meteor impact.
Disappointingly, no meteor fragments have actually been retrieved from this area, although there are significant iron readings from the rocks at the top of the crater’s rim. This is further proof that this crater was as a result of a catastrophic meteor crash.
Of course, the local Inuit people were well aware of the New Quebec crater well before it became known to the Western World. In fact they even had a specific term for it; that being the “Crystal eye of Nunavik” and this was apportioned in recognition of the crystal clear lake water.
Whatever size of meteor carved out this amount of strata from the Canadian tundra, it must have been of an immense mass. The resulting impact explosion would have been equivalent to hundreds of Hiroshima atom bombs. One thing is for certain, plenty more research is needed and fast. The New Quebec crater has plenty of secrets that it is managing to keep from us and we need to organize more expeditions to this area to ensure that these are uncovered.
Christopher L. Shelby, M.D.