00:00You'd be surprised to find out the life-changing discoveries a person can make just by browsing
00:05Google Maps.
00:07Like this guy, who found a suspicious crater and might've made a major scientific discovery.
00:14In 2024, Canadian Joël Lupon was planning a casual camping trip in his homeland.
00:20He opened Google Earth and zoomed in Quebec's Côte-Nord region.
00:23That's when he saw it, this unusual rounded structure.
00:27The measurement was impressive, 9.3 miles from one point to another, and there seemed
00:32to be a lake next to it.
00:34He was quick to print the screen and sent the image to a French geophysicist to see
00:39if he knew anything about it.
00:41Most times, these images turn out to be nothing, or simply Google Earth watermarks.
00:46But he was surprised when he opened his email and saw the scientist's reply.
00:50The geophysicist said that, judging by the looks of the topography, Lupon could have
00:55discovered a meteor impact area.
00:59Impact areas are really hard to identify.
01:01Since they've been around for millions of years, most of their shapes have been heavily
01:05changed by erosion.
01:07Scientists call these areas impact structures.
01:09They're usually circular, or crater-like, and are made up of deformed bedrock.
01:14It happens when a meteor falls into the surface of the Earth.
01:18Here's the thing.
01:19Since the crater has huge walls around it, these areas are usually mistaken for mountain
01:24ranges.
01:25That's what left the Canadian explorer confused.
01:27But the French geophysicist that analyzed the case gave him hope.
01:32That weird formation in Quebec had been classified as a type of volcanic formation.
01:38After Lupon brought this subject back to the agenda, scientists had to dig a little deeper
01:43to find the truth.
01:45Until this recent discovery, scientists thought the area looked like that due to some volcanic
01:49formation.
01:51This is actually normal, since other things, such as volcanism and sinkholes, can be mistaken
01:56for impact craters.
01:57To verify, they asked for some samples of the site.
02:01This is a more reliable way to fact-check whether a meteor landed there or not.
02:06When the meteor hits the Earth, it brings different types of minerals from outer space.
02:10That's the wonderful thing about impact craters – they reveal a link between Earth
02:15and the outside universe.
02:17By now, scientists have catalogued most of the minerals that are native to our planet.
02:22When they're searching for an impact structure, they usually look for things such as tenite
02:27and chemicite, which can only be found in meteors.
02:30The biggest known impact crater in the world is the Vredefort crater, located in South
02:35Africa.
02:36This big thing was formed some 4 billion years ago.
02:39The asteroid that made it is estimated to have been one of the largest ever to strike
02:43planet Earth.
02:45When the researchers got the results of the site back in Canada, they did confirm that
02:49it contained zircon, a mineral that tends to show areas of impact.
02:54There's no way to guarantee that Laplante really found an impact crater, but scientists
02:59are organizing a research mission over to the area just to make sure.
03:04If it turns out that it really is an impact crater, that's pretty huge news, since the
03:09last discovery was made in 2013.
03:13Another one of these mesmerizing discoveries came from a 15-year-old boy.
03:18William Goddery was also a Canadian and, for some reason, loved looking for long-lost Mayan
03:24cities.
03:25Different from the previous story, William had an intention and a research methodology.
03:30He had studied many books on Mayan civilizations.
03:34He believed that Mayans built their cities in relation to the stars in the sky.
03:38So he opened a book and mapped all the cities that have already been unearthed.
03:43And that's when he noticed something important.
03:46There is an area in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico where archaeologists have unearthed
03:51two Mayan cities.
03:53But on the constellation map, there are three stars.
03:56He thought to himself, could this mean there is a lost city waiting to be discovered nearby?
04:03William Goddery is known to be a science genius and has even won an award for this
04:08constellation theory.
04:10When he noticed that a third city was missing from the 23rd constellation he was examining,
04:15he began to search Google Earth for satellite pictures that could help him solve this mystery.
04:21Advances in satellite tech have shed new light on long-lost Mayan cities such as Tikal.
04:27Located in the heart of the Guatemalan jungle, Tikal is believed to have been the capital
04:32of the ancient Mayan Empire.
04:34He had hopes.
04:35So he reached out to a friend inside the Canadian Space Agency to verify what he had found.
04:41Since he had already won awards for his research, he had friends in high places.
04:46And that's when things got interesting.
04:48According to the images, there was a large square area on the border of Mexico and Belize
04:54that looked like the remains of a city.
04:56William took the images to a remote sensing expert.
04:59They studied the images thoroughly and concluded that the area could be housing 30 buildings
05:05and even a large pyramid.
05:08William named the new city he discovered as Mouth of Fire.
05:12However, his theory was very much contested inside the archaeological community, and many
05:17Mayan experts worked to debunk William's findings.
05:22Experts say that constellation theories are too unscientific.
05:25Renowned anthropologists and astronomers said William's methodology was an act of
05:30creative imagination.
05:32Still, a 15-year-old teen almost found a long-lost Mayan city, which is pretty exciting if you
05:38ask me.
05:41What about these tiny dots that appeared on images of Google Earth?
05:45These strange spotted circles were found in the middle of the Algerian desert.
05:49A YouTuber browsing on Google Earth found these circles and discovered that people have
05:54been debating over their origin for years.
05:57He thought they were a glitch from satellite images.
06:00There are dozens of them, stretching for miles and miles in a straight line.
06:05They're far away from any town, road, or human activity, making it hard to understand if
06:10it was man-made or just a natural phenomenon.
06:14To settle this mystery, he interviewed the people who took Google Earth's pictures.
06:19He found out they were 100% true.
06:22The circles were there in real life.
06:24They appear in multiple pictures from multiple years.
06:28At first, he guessed they were the result of oil activity.
06:32Algeria is a rich area for natural resources, so this made sense.
06:36To find out if the area is worth extracting, companies usually undertake seismic surveys.
06:42They're a way of analyzing the Earth's surface by sending shock waves into the ground.
06:47Depending on how these waves bounce back, you'll know what is located underground.
06:52There was another possibility.
06:55The Sahara is a very dry area of the planet.
06:58The average high temperatures in summer are over 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
07:03To survive there, people need to find ways of accessing water.
07:07So, his second guess was that the circles were a kind of ruin or leftover from ancient
07:12water wells.
07:14But when he talked to an expert, he found out they weren't ancient water wells.
07:18You can see some of these traditional constructions in other cities on Google Earth.
07:23And they look really different from the mysterious circles.
07:26He decided to travel over to Algeria to find out the truth.
07:30He drove 99 miles into the heart of the desert.
07:33And when he gets there, he sees it.
07:36A huge crater dug on the sand, surrounded by 12 smaller holes.
07:41It kind of looked like the ancestor of a modern clock.
07:44There, he found something he couldn't spot on Google Earth – thin metal wires.
07:50When the curious YouTuber and his teams started to dig in the sand, they found old dynamite
07:56and some sardine cans.
07:57Apparently, they were hiding the truth.
08:00The Sahara circles, as they were famously called, were not the historical leftovers
08:05of seismic surveying.
08:07Back at the time when these circles were made, this technology didn't even exist.
08:12But they were sure related to oil exploration.
08:15The dynamite holes were an ancient method of oil searching.
08:18And the sardine cans?
08:20Well, they were left by the workers who were exploring the region.
08:24Another Google Earth mystery solved!
08:27That's it for today!
08:30So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:34friends.
08:35Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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