A large pit discovered by an amateur astronomer on Google Maps in 2024 is actually a 390 million-year-old meteor impact crater, scientists have confirmed.

Joël Lapointe was planning a camping trail through Quebec's Côte-Nord region when he stumbled upon a large indentation in the terrain, CBC reported at the time. The pit, centered around Lake Marsal, was about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) in diameter and a near-perfect ring — it didn't seem like a normal ditch. Lapointe eventually got in touch with French geophysicist Pierre Rochette, who said that the surrounding topography was "very suggestive" of an impact crater.

Initial testing of samples retrieved from the site contained a mineral called zircon often formed during meteor impacts. However, zircon's presence alone was not enough to prove the crater's extraterrestrial origin story. So a team of scientists had visited the pit in person.

"One of the key things we look for is evidence for shock metamorphism, which can only occur due to the immense pressures created by asteroid or cometary impacts — or nuclear explosions," Gordon Osinski, a professor of planetary geology at Western University, told Live Science in an email. "Most of these features are microscopic, so you can only confirm in the lab with samples."

But there is one feature Osinski said can be seen with the naked eye: grooves or lines in the rock's surface called shatter cones, which are caused by shockwaves passing through the ground.

In October 2025, Osinski and a team of geologists visited the site to investigate whether any of these features were present. "This was one of the most arduous expeditions I’ve ever done — and I’ve done 25 expeditions to the Arctic and 6 continents," he said. "The terrain was incredibly rough and rugged, plus [there were] lots of bugs."

But they eventually found what they were looking for — shatter cones. They also discovered big cliffs of impact melt rock, created by the intense temperatures and pressures produced by a meteor impact. "You can melt literally tens of cubic kilometres of the Earth's crust when you get a big enough asteroid hitting," Osinski told CBC.

Taking samples from the rocks, the team dated the crater at 390 million years old.

Osinski, who runs a website called Impact Earth dedicated to verifying meteor impact sites, is used to getting emails about strange looking satellite images. "I get lots of messages from the public thinking they have found a crater and 99/100 turn out not to be the case," he told Live Science. "This is one of those rare examples that shows this is possible."

So far, we know of roughly 200 impact craters on Earth, 31 of which have been found in Canada. "Typically about 1 or 2 craters are discovered per year, but these are typically less than 5-10 km [3 to 6 miles] in size," Osinski said. "[A crater of this size] is pretty rare."

The last meteor crater confirmed in Canada was in 2010.

After the new investigation confirmed the pit was punched out by a meteor impact, Osinski, Rochette and their team named it Uhaachatik Crater following discussions with the Ekuanitshit Innu council, a council representing the indigenous people in the area. The researchers will present their work at the Annual Meeting of the Meteorological Society in Germany next month.

Speaking to Radio-Canada, Lapointe said that he was very happy to hear his discovery had been confirmed as a genuine meteor crater. "It's not every day that an ordinary citizen finds a 390-million-year-old crater," he said. “I encourage everyone to not ignore intuition or an observation, even if it isn’t part of your field of expertise.”

Osinski and the team will continue their work on the collected samples to learn more about the impact site. "Any crater discovered offers us insight into how craters form and the effects that they can have on Earth’s geology, biology, and climate," he told Live Science.

At least 20 people across 17 states have been hospitalized due to severe gastrointestinal illness as more than 1,000 cases of the parasitic infection cyclosporiasis have been reported across the country, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.

The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are investigating several clusters of the illness in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to CNN. However, the worst-hit state so far is Michigan, with 1,251 cases reported as of July 9, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reported. According to the Associated Press (AP), this marks the biggest cyclosporiasis outbreak in the state's history.

Cyclosporiasis is a gastrointestinal illness caused by the protozoan parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, which can enter the body when someone consumes food or water contaminated with the parasite. It then infects the small intestines, invading epithelial cells that line the gut, causing inflammation and leading to watery and often "explosive" diarrhea, according to the CDC. Symptoms usually kick in around a week after infection and can last over a month without antibiotic treatment. While the illness can go away on its own, it is also common for symptoms to disappear for a bit and then return.

Cyclosporiasis is not usually life-threatening, but it can cause severe illness and dehydration, particularly in young children, older adults and people with compromised immune systems. In rare cases, the condition may lead to complications like biliary disease, in which the flow of bile gets blocked and impacts the liver and digestive health, according to the MDHHS.

As of July 1, there was no evidence of a single, multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis, but the CDC is investigating several clusters. According to an email from the health agency, many of the clusters appear to be linked to Mexican-style restaurants, a chain of grocery stores and a catered event, CNN reported. The FDA is conducting trace-back investigations on white and green onions, cucumbers and cilantro, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, the MDHHS warned that, while the source of the current outbreak is still uncertain, previous Cyclospora outbreaks have been linked to contaminated fresh produce, including raspberries, basil and bagged salad.

Cyclosporiasis cases tend to rise during the spring and summer, with May 1 to Aug. 31 considered "cyclosporiasis season," according to the CDC. However, there have been more cases than usual this year: Whereas Michigan typically reports 50 cases over a whole year, the state has seen over 1,000 cases in just a few weeks, the AP reported.

Compared with outbreaks of E. coli and Salmonella, clusters of Cyclospora are much harder to trace back to their source. This is because the parasite can reproduce sexually, meaning its genetic material is mixed up with each generation, according to Charles River Laboratories. However, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, told the AP that "there is clearly a linked outbreak happening right now."

To minimize your risk of becoming infected with Cyclospora, wash all fruits and vegetables thoroughly before eating them; cut away any bruised or damaged areas; and refrigerate cut, peeled or cooked produce as soon as possible, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development recommends. If you are experiencing sudden gastrointestinal issues, health officials suggest you visit your local health care provider.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

June global sea surface temperatures have climbed to record highs, prompting concerns over extreme weather, flooding, sea level rise and stress to global ocean ecosystems.

The record, announced by the European Union's Copernicus Earth observation program on July 1, surpassed the previous record set in June 2024, with experts warning that more temperature records will likely be set over the coming months.

"Current conditions could indicate the beginning of a new phase, leading, once more, to uncharted territory," Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said in a statement. "With ocean temperatures at these levels and El Niño on the horizon, we are likely to see more temperature records fall in the coming months.”

The record temperature was set on June 21, when the Copernicus Climate Change Service recorded global ocean surface temperatures of 20.86 degrees Celsius (69.55 degrees Fahrenheit), beating the record temperature of 20.83 C (69.49 F) set in 2023 and 2024. This measurement was corroborated by the Copernicus Marine Service, an independent dataset that reported temperatures of 21.0 C (69.8 F).

The recent sea surface heating did not occur evenly across the globe. In some areas, such as the Mediterranean, temperatures in June were up to 8 C (14.4 F) higher than average for the period from 1990 to 2020, as per data recorded on June 29, according to the European Space Agency.

The most significant rises in temperature were set in the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, bands across the Pacific and off the coasts of Northern Canada.

Warmer ocean temperatures have wide-ranging impacts. "Higher ocean temperatures keep the atmosphere warm for longer, provide extra energy to storms and increase evaporation, thus enhancing the potential for extreme precipitation and flooding," Copernicus Climate Change Service representatives said in the statement. "Ocean warming also contributes to sea level rise and ice melt, and stresses marine ecosystems."

According to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the newly declared El Niño in the Pacific Ocean — the warm phase of a natural climate cycle. This El Niño is likely to reach levels that have not been seen in decades, with more temperature records expected to be set over the coming months as this Pacific heat is injected into an already warming world.

The service added that it remains to be seen whether these temperature spikes are temporary or indicative of longer term trends.

An 11-year-old boy in Ontario, Canada, has died after being bitten by a rabid bat that was resting on his face as he slept. The boy had no obvious bite or scratch marks and didn't show symptoms for the first 19 days after the incident, his doctors report.

While on vacation with his parents at a cottage in northern Ontario in 2024, the boy was woken up in the night by a bat on his nose and mouth, according to a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on June 29. His father caught the bat in a cooking pot and released it outside, and because the child had no visible injuries and the bat did not seem to be particularly aggressive, his parents decided not to seek a medical assessment, the report noted.

A few weeks later, the child began to experience tingling, numbness and swelling on the right side of his face. When he was examined at his local hospital his vital signs appeared to be normal, aside from an elevated heart rate and white blood cell count.

The next day, the boy's symptoms worsened: he lost feeling in the right side of his face and his speech was beginning to slur. While waiting in hospital, he developed a fever, confusion, hallucinations and difficulty swallowing, followed by excessive production of saliva.

After four days in intensive care at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, the child tested positive for rabies, and after five days his brain stem reflexes were absent, indicating a total loss of brain stem function. Seventeen days after admission, following a consultation between his family and medical experts, he was taken off life support and died.

Rabies is a viral disease that primarily affects the central nervous system, according to the CDC. It is mainly spread through bites and scratches from infected animals, with bats accounting for the majority of cases in North America, according to the boy's doctors.

"Bats pose a particular risk because bites or scratches may be small and are easily overlooked, and patients may not recollect or recognize a bat exposure," the medical team wrote in their report.

According to a report in the Journal of Virology in 2013, silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans), are responsible for the majority of rabies cases in Canada. Skunks, foxes and raccoons also often carry the disease.

The rabies virus must travel to the brain before symptoms can occur, but once a patient develops symptoms the infection is almost 100% fatal, with most deaths occurring within one to two weeks of symptom development. However, prompt treatment after exposure — including wound cleaning, antibody administration and a series of vaccines — is nearly always effective at preventing the disease, according to the CDC.

Rabies in humans is very rare in North America, with fewer than 10 deaths reported in the U.S. every year, according to the CDC. In Canada, only 28 human fatalities have been reported since 1924, according to the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. Even so, the boy's doctors have emphasized the importance of prompt medical attention following exposure to bats and other animals that could carry the disease.

"Early recognition of exposure and timely PEP [postexposure prophylaxis] remain the only effective means of rabies prevention," they wrote. "Any direct human contact with a bat, even in the absence of a visible bite or scratch, is an indication for PEP."

They added that rabid bats do not always display the classic symptoms commonly associated with rabies, such as aggressive behavior and frothing at the mouth. "Any direct human contact with [a] bat is considered high risk," they added.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.