Mysterious arctic crater: a treasure hunt scene and a source of scientific knowledge

announced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage gemAnd the Quebec Is a friendly Canadian city, with uncompromising security, that Invites to explore on foot. Its cobbled streets remind of other times and customs. as a city It keeps some exclusive secrets, like being the only walled city in northern Mexico. But this is not the only dazzling curiosity that characterizes him. The secret of a moving beauty lies next to her.

The meteorite is about 400 feet in diameter It fell through the atmosphere in a flash. Traveling at 20 miles per second, it hit the Earth, sending boulders flying in all directions and carving a hole in the planet’s crust. The Pengoloite Crater, It is located inside the tundra on a peninsula Ungava In the far north of Quebec, it is famous for its A complete circular crater formed as a result of the fall of a meteorite that occurred on Earth more than a million years ago. a amazing eye What the Earth looks like when you fly over it.

It was discovered by a Toronto newspaper reporter 1950’s expedition broadcast for the first time. I called him “Eighth Wonders of the World”. The Inuit kanjiksuguaqwhich she knew before, describes the pit as “nunavingmi pikkuminartuq”, meaning “the place where one is energized.” Currently, it is the main attraction in The province’s newest national park, Parc national des Pingualuit, which was established in 2007.

Most of the lakes in the Arctic are of glacial origin and allow backward predictions that go back only to the last dissolution several thousand years ago, due to glacial erosion to fill in the sediments.

The edges of the Pingualuit rise 160 meters and a lake is formed insidebecause of the snow and rain that has arrived depths of 400 meters. Pingualuit with It is more than 3 km in diameter, and has no visible entrances or exits. So the water that accumulates is rain water that is lost only by evaporation. In addition to being One of the deepest lakes in North America, it is also considered one of the most transparent and pure lakes in the world, with a visibility of more than 35 meters.

This huge aquarium was first identified by the crew of a USAF aircraft. In June 1943, but His photos were published only in 1950. Before that, the crater was known only to the local Inuit, who He had named it Crystal Eye of NunavikThis is for the purity of its pure and crystalline water.

The place offers a unique opportunity to The study of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate not only during the post-glacial period, but also potentially for several hundred thousand years, Since it is deeply filled with sediment It promises to produce an uninterrupted record of the ancient Arctic climate covering many interglacial cycles.

The name of the lake has changed over the years. It was originally called Chubb Crater By a diamond hunter and the first person to organize an expedition there: Frederick W. Chubb. Chub He predicted that the crater was from a dormant volcano, in which case the area might contain diamond deposits similar to those in South Africa. So, along with the geologist Ben Min of the Royal Ontario Museum, He made a short air bridge to the crater in 1950. During this trip Maine suggested the names Cetter of Chubb and Museum Lake The unusual body of water about two miles north of the crater, known today as Laflamme Lake.

when he comes back Organized an expedition Specialized in cooperation with National Geographic Society and Royal Ontario Museum. They arrived at the site in a Catalina PBY seaplane in July 1951Landing at the nearby Museums Lake. Explorers tried to find fragments of Nickel and iron from meteorites using mine detectorss on loan from the US Army, but this search was unsuccessful because The granite in the area contains a lot of magnetite.

However, a magnetic survey found a magnetic anomaly just below the northern edge of the crater, which Indicates that a large amount of metal-bearing materials are buried under the surface.

Then take out Min A second expedition to the crater in 1954. In the same year, its name was changed to Cratère du Nouveau-Quebec (“Quebec’s New Hole) at the request of the Department of Geography based in Quebec. Only in 1999 was its name changed to Pingualuit, which can be translated as “where the earth rises.”

the teacher Reinhard Benites from Laval University He led an expedition in 2007 to the crater and retrieved sediment samples from the lake bed filled with fossilized pollen, fossilized algae, and insect larvae. It is expected that these results will be presented Climate change information return to 120 thousand years ago. Preliminary results show that the 8.5 m upper sedimentary core contains records from two successive periods.

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