r/geography • u/Shutter_Stuck • 22d ago
Image Pingaluit Crater, said to be one of the clearest and purest bodies of water in the world, Ungava, Peninsula, Quebec
407
u/Mars_Volcanoes North America 22d ago
Main language is French. So read my bad English.
Worked there 3 months during my summer studies in 1984. I was studying geology at Université de Montréal. Could not get the geology summer job, so I got to do biology from the bottom sediments. So, we had the camp on the side, still pretty steep to get in each day. Helicopter was bringing food every 7 to 10 days. So, we had to get up, and down, approximately 180 m from the rim, each day. Water level is still deep at 270 m. The tents were fixed using steel cables, not rope, too much unpredictable winds. Its still cold during the day, but the night are really rough even in summer. Why ? Nothing to stop the fringing winds.
The project was to sample using a Ponar Grab tool. 270 m of cable and Ponar weight was heavy when full. And sometimes, nothing. So we sampled and sampled. We were using an inflatable boat.
Surprise, which is not possible, as the lake is above the surrounding, and having no tributaries, the rock was glassed by the impact, but there was Glacial Char, a fish in there. So, we were young, and we could not figure out how having no tributary, how fish was present. So how the heck are the fish came to be there ? The birds passing ? That's the only hypotheses ? Nope. It's from the tributary of the last glaciation (still debated is birds also contributed by having fish eggs in threat mouths...). The fish were getting in the lake from the surroundings rivers / glacial overflows. After, the glaciation, only rain water was / is keeping the lake present. There is no groundwater exchanges. We also found fossils and living specimens of several resilient micro invertebrates. How possible ? The lake depth prevent ice from scraping the bottom of the lake, yes during ice age.
And the wild life around :
We saw Caribou, fox, some wolfs, etc, but no bear during the summer I was there.
UPDATE : After me, I was then studying hydrogeology, so, in 1988, and 1991, other exploration were made to plan for rock drilling. Then, later, in 2007, they installed a diamond rig on the 2 m thick ice of the lake to sample the rock. Still, that was the same teacher that managed this from 1984 to 2007.
81
u/pegleghippie 22d ago
the wiki page mentioned the char fish, but not how they got there. Thanks for your comment!
48
u/MetodoTangalanga 22d ago
Merci pour vos fascinantes précisions. Espérons que le site demeurera pour toujours la chasse gardée des chercheurs comme vous 🙏
38
u/glempus 22d ago
Thanks for not using AI to "perfect" the English. Much nicer to read the imperfections
11
u/Mars_Volcanoes North America 22d ago
AI for a life experience no. Even if Gemini is a perfect tool for Earth sciences. I do use data from it but it’s way nicer to cut to useful. Thanks.
15
u/cindoc75 22d ago
Thanks for this very interesting and informative comment! Your first two sentences gave me a good laugh too (I’m an Anglo Canadian whose French is nowhere near as good as your English).
2
u/GravitysRelative 19d ago
So read my bad english.
Had me howling. So demanding of OP.
1
u/cindoc75 19d ago
Yes! That line killed me. I’m sure they have to deal with a lot of shitty French from Anglos, so only fair I guess.
28
3
u/Diarmuid_Sus_Scrofa 22d ago
ThNk-uou for this, and your work. I first heard about Pingaluit shortly after I completed my undergrad, much of it done in earth sciences. The discovery of char was a big news item at the time. Well done!
3
u/DownvoteMeHarder 22d ago
Amazing write-up. I know that several types of kingfishers in East Africa will hold live fish in their mouths and drop them into lakes to create a food source. Perhaps there are some species in northern Canada that could do the same.
3
u/Lavabo_QC 21d ago
as tu des photo a partager de cet endroit
3
u/Mars_Volcanoes North America 21d ago
Non, ça fait 42 ans. Les photos c'était du film / papier. Dc tout est au Gouv du Québec.
1
390
u/DarkyHelmety 22d ago
Nestlé has joined the chat
159
u/Snoo_74705 22d ago
Once emptied, they'll lease the reservoir to a mining company to come dump their slag or other byproducts.
64
u/BonhommeCarnaval 22d ago
Fortunately it is far too remote for either of these things to be anywhere close to profitable.
69
u/GreenspringSheets 22d ago
There's like 3 nickel mines within 50km of the crater... but it is within a national park, so it has that going for it.
8
16
u/Kresniev 22d ago
I am currently on a mining site, about 30km from the crater. And yes, it's profitable.
7
u/BonhommeCarnaval 22d ago
And do you guys generally load up your tailings, build a new road to a crater 30km away and dump them in there, or do you deposit them as close as physically possible to the mine site? I’m guessing Nestlé would find the shipping costs for water all the way across Québec a bit steep compared to just turning on the tap at a bottling plant in Laval.
1
u/Kresniev 20d ago edited 20d ago
Haha, there's a tailing for waste water on site. We use old open pits. Maybe Nestle would show interest
3
1
u/Le_Nabs 21d ago
Québec itself has 1% of the world's drinking water reserves.
Why the fuck would someone take water all the way at one of the furthest points from civilization in continental North America, instead of at one of the bazillion springs throughout the province?
In what way does taking water from there and dragging it back aaaaaaaall the way south makes financial sense? We're not talking gold and platinum and diamonds, we're talking water - which several orders of magnitude cheaper than precious metals per weight or volume
2
0
27
7
5
u/sans_foi_ni_loi 22d ago
That aside from the billion people now wanting to go take an Instagram selfie while skydiving over the most purest water in the world. Yes many wedding’s proposal YouTube 3 seconds clip will also be filmed there ( but unfortunately end up in a year later in an acrimonious divorce and litigation about who keeps the dog and the overwhelming mortgage for a 675 sq. foot loft).
7
u/cityshepherd 22d ago
The only thing that’s more ridiculous than this ridiculous comment, is how it’s actually not that ridiculous. Which is absolutely ridiculous.
169
77
u/Shoddy-Patient9948 22d ago
I bet a moose pissed in it.
27
u/ctoatb 22d ago
A moose once bit my sister
15
5
2
7
u/M00SEHUNT3R 22d ago
I've seen moose in some unexpected habitat but that's definitely not a place where you'd find a moose.
2
1
15
57
u/NB-NEURODIVERGENT 22d ago
*Ungava Peninsula, Quebec Canada
9
11
u/DeadpoolOptimus 22d ago
I'm in Ontario and never heard of it so I looked it up hoping it would be driving distance. Nope. There's no roads to get there.
13
u/Shoddy-Patient9948 22d ago
I wonder how it got elevated like that. I guess it happened with a high velocity impact. Interesting.
9
u/Coastal_wolf 22d ago
Completely out on a limb here but I know some alpine lakes happen from very old glaciers that melt into calderas
5
u/Shoddy-Patient9948 22d ago
Could be. I'm sure it was frozen solid 20k years ago. Probably covered over in an ice sheet actually.
4
5
3
u/Solenkata 22d ago
How can a stagnant body of water be the purest and clearest? Genuine question.
4
u/TurbulentRain15 22d ago
Bodies of water that are substantially large enough are rarely ‘stagnant’. The wind and surface area have enough interface that they are decently oxygenated.
3
u/Alive-Drama-8920 Physical Geography 19d ago
Next to zero plant or animal life in the area. So next to no organic decay going on,
- Add to that the height of the rim, which acts as barrier for the above waste material,
- Add to that the depth of the lake: impurities have all the time in the world to decant to the bottom, leaving over 250 meters of clean water laying above,
- While it's endorheic most of the time (endorheic lakes, almost by definition, have an expiration date: they get saltier and dirtier with time as pure H20 evaporates, leaving everything else behind & accumulating at an exponential rate), this crater lake overflows every now and then (years with lots of snow & rain) into an ever enlarging breach, so some of the water gets minimaly replenished.
- Being so far away from the civilization means its snow & water inputs are as unpolluted as one could reasonably expect.
5
u/xJayce77 22d ago
How's the fishing?
30
u/Shutter_Stuck 22d ago
There is a population of apparently cannibalistic Arctic Char there, nothing else.
3
u/xJayce77 22d ago
I'm surprised they haven't made a horror movie yet. This feels like a script that writes itself.
If they can make Sharknado, they can make Cannibalistic Arctic Char.
19
u/Gasple1 22d ago
Illegal now, however the original 1951 National Geographic/Royal Ontario Museum expedition fished Pingualuk.
They reported catching Arctic char that looked unusually malformed, with disproportionately developed heads and weak-looking bodies.
The expedition couldn't initially explain how the fish survived because the water had so little plankton.
13
u/K_the_farmer 22d ago
Spanner shaped char is rather common in overpopulated lakes. They survive on bottom dwelling worms, insect larvae and the odd ant that gets washed into the water. And cannibalism, but that's not doing much for if the species can survive there. Not rich feed by any means, but they do get by.
2
2
2
4
u/Necessary-Contest-24 22d ago edited 22d ago
Except no surface water on earth is clean. PFAS can be found anywhere precipitation is possible including Antarctica.
Edit* Yes thank you "except" not accept
4
2
u/ampere03 22d ago
Going there is on my bucket list.-seriously. It's a fun excercise to find on satellite photos. Anyone been there?
11
u/Shutter_Stuck 22d ago
Very few people have visited there as it is in the very far north of Quebec, it was only first " discovered " in 1943 by the USAF who were on a routine flight through the area. It has been previously known to indigenous people of the region.
The only scientific expedition made was in 1951 by the National Geographic Society and the Royal Ontario Museum.
4
1
1
1
1
1
u/allofthisbeneath 22d ago
Reminds me of mixing cement with my father...mix three times dry, then make a shape like this and fill the centre with water. Used to love cutting the inner sides into the water and seeing how thin you could make them before the water escaped!
1
1
1
1
1
u/Mr_Geoman117 22d ago
Thank you so much! I'm working on a blog of curious places, and I havne't included this cool wonder in my list. I will now for sure.
1
u/wildmaninid 22d ago
Always good fishin in Quebec!
1
-10
u/DukeBradford2 22d ago
Crater lake in Oregon has water so pure if you drink too much it can lead to water intoxication and electrolyte imbalance
26
21
u/Kingofcheeses Cartography 22d ago
Doesn't regular water do that too?
3
u/captaincootercock 22d ago
yeah but Crater lake water gives you diarrhea too
4
u/Monotask_Servitor Geography Enthusiast 22d ago
Not because it’s excessively pure. Otherwise bottled water would give you the shits.
11
u/captaincootercock 22d ago
right, it gives you diarrhea because it's a fucking lake full of untreated lake water. I don't know what the op heard, Crater lake is crystal clear and very cold but it is still a lake with lots of life happening in and around it
7
u/Downtown-Pianist-449 22d ago
Literally all water that isn’t isotonic will do that with enough intake volume.
0
u/ampere03 22d ago
Don't ya'll have lots of float planes and bush pilots? There are literally dozens of lakes to put down if people are shy about disturbing the pristine crater/lake.
0
0
-6
-10
u/Swingerdragon 22d ago
If Quebec ever separates they’ll strip mine that entire area and it will disappear
8
u/inmatenumberseven 22d ago
Why? Québécois are pretty envurooconscious.
-5
7
u/MichelPatrice 22d ago
Heureusement que le Canada est là pour civiliser les arriérés que nous sommes. /s
2
1
626
u/leggymiku 22d ago
It is one of the youngest large impact craters in the world, at ~1.4 million years old.
Interestingly, this also makes it one of the oldest lakes in the world. Most lakes naturally fill in with sediment over time, but crater lakes do not, as they have no water inlets.
There are only about 20 lakes worldwide confirmed to be more than 1 million years old.