Earth from Space: Manicouagan crater

This week, Earth from Space features a wintery image: a red and white sphere that, if seen from a distance, resembles a festive decoration.

The ‘bauble’ in question is actually the Manicouagan crater in the Canadian province of Quebec. Visible from space, this round structure was formed by a giant asteroid impact some 214 million years ago.

The annular reservoir, with René-Levasseur Island at its centre, is some 700 km north-east of Quebec City. Sometimes referred to as the ‘eye of Quebec’, it spans 72 km from east to west, while the asteroid that caused the impact is thought to have been 5 km in diameter.

The reservoir, also known as Manicouagan lake, was created in the 1960s as part of a hydroelectric project to provide hydropower across the province. The Manicouagan river is visible at the bottom of the image as it leaves the reservoir.

Click below to enlarge and download the image:

Manicouagan crater

This false-colour image was captured by Copernicus Sentinel-2. The instruments on board the Sentinel-2 satellites are high-resolution multispectral imagers with 13 spectral bands. They provide high-resolution images to within 10 m.

In this image, the white is actually snow. Frozen lake water – visible across the image if you zoom in, particularly on René-Levasseur Island – is shown in blue. The area’s thick vegetation, shown in red, includes boreal forest and tundra that are part of a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve.