January 15, 2022 - Lake Manicouagan

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Lake Manicouagan
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Once nominated as one of the “Seven Wonders of Canada”, the curiously
circular Lake Manicouagan draws attention both from land-bound tourists
and from space. Tourists and fishermen adore the lake for spectacular
scenery and excellent salmon fishing. And the striking appearance of
the “eye of Quebec” allows rapid orientation to astronauts and
satellites, confirming that there is no other place on Earth quite like
this striking structure. In fact, it was an astronaut, Marc Garneau,
who nominated this reservoir for the Seven Wonders of Canada
competition.

Lake Manicouagan spans an area of 750 square miles (1,942 sq. km) in
central Quebec, Canada and has a volume of 33.5 cubic miles (139.8 cu
km), making the reservoir the fifth largest in the world by volume. The
large island in the center of the lake is called René-Levasseur Island
and helps give the lake it’s eye-like appearance.

The lake’s peculiar appearance comes from its creation. Lake
Manicouagan sits in an ancient and heavily eroded impact crater
(astrobleme) from an asteroid which struck the Earth about 214 million
years ago. The original diameter of the impact has been estimated to
have been about 60 miles (100 km), and the size of the asteroid at
about 3 miles (5 km) in diameter. Glaciation and other erosional
processes reduced the extent of the crater, leaving the visible
diameter at only 45 miles (72 km).

Manicouagan Reservoir lies within the remnant of an ancient eroded
impact crater (astrobleme). The crater was formed following the impact
of a 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) diameter asteroid which excavated a crater
originally about 100 km (62 mi) wide although erosion and deposition of
sediments have since reduced the visible diameter to about 72 km (45
mi). It is the sixth-largest confirmed impact crater known on earth.
Mount Babel is interpreted as the central peak of the crater, formed by
post-impact uplift. Lake Manicouagan is the sixth-largest confirmed
impact crater on Earth.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this stunning false-color image of
frozen Lake Manicouagan on January 11, 2022. In this type of image,
using MODIS bands 7-2-1, vegetation appears green and snow or ice
appears electric blue. Frigid weather has frozen Lake Manicouagan as
well as other lakes and rivers in the region, while light snowfall sits
on the surrounding landscape, colored by the vegetation beneath.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 1/11/2022
Resolutions: 1km (472.6 KB), 500m (1.3 MB), 250m (844.9 KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-01-15

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