Pingualuit Crater

Pingualuit National Park, Quebec, Canada

Diameter: 3.4 kilometres (2.1 miles) Depth: 400 metres (1,300 feet) Age: 1.4 million years

Pingualuit National Park is situated in the heart of the Ungava Peninsula and is home to the impressive Pingualuit Crater. Under the arctic sky, the crater is filled with pristine rainwater, cut off from inflows from other lakes. This unique underwater environment provides scientists with a window into the geological past. Sediments of the lake were untouched during the Pleistocene Ice Age – a time period that began about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago. While other sediments in surrounding water bodies do not extend further back than the last ice age, those found in the Pingualuit Crater have preserved a far longer record.

The crater was first observed from the air in 1943, when the crew of a United States Air Force plane flew over the impact site, though expeditions didn’t commence until the 1950s due to the remoteness of the crater. However, there is evidence that the crater site has long been known to the local Nunamiuts – nomadic Inuits who lived off the resources of the interior Ungava lands. There are traces of rock shelters and stones arranged in a circular pattern – evidence of where old tents would have been erected. The traces suggest the Nunamiuts once set up camps on the ridges of the Pingualuit Crater while scouting for promising hunting grounds.