René-Levasseur Island: The Giant Crater Island of Quebec

The Eye of Quebec: How a Meteor Created This Strange Island

Nestled in the heart of northern Quebec, far from the bustling cities and tourist-saturated hotspots, lies a surreal and strangely perfect circle visible even from space. Meet René-Levasseur Island—a vast landmass that sits like a bullseye in the middle of the Manicouagan Reservoir, a striking ring-shaped lake often dubbed “The Eye of Quebec.”

To the untrained eye scanning Google Maps, it might look like a man-made landscape or even a map glitch. But this is no digital oddity—this is the legacy of a celestial cataclysm over 215 million years ago.

🚀 A Meteorite Changed Everything

Roughly in the late Triassic period, a 5-kilometer-wide asteroid came screaming into Earth’s atmosphere, crashing into what is now the Canadian Shield. The impact was so immense it created a crater over 100 kilometers in diameter, making it one of the largest impact craters on the planet. Over millennia, erosion softened the original features, but the underlying structure remained—a depression with a central uplift that would eventually become René-Levasseur Island.

Scientists call this a complex impact crater, where the earth rebounds upward at the center after the pressure of impact. Think of a drop of water falling into a pond and the way it briefly splashes upward at the center—that’s exactly what happened here, only on a planetary scale.

💧 From Crater to Reservoir

The iconic circular lake seen today didn’t always look this way. In 1970, the Manicouagan crater was flooded during the creation of the Manic-5 Dam, part of a massive hydroelectric development project. As the waters rose, they filled the outer ring of the crater, transforming it into a massive artificial reservoir—the Manicouagan Reservoir—and turning the central uplift into a massive island.

At 2,020 square kilometers, René-Levasseur Island is larger than many entire countries. In fact, it’s the second-largest island in a lake in the world, only beaten by Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. But here's the fun twist: the island is so big that it’s often described as being larger than the lake surrounding it.

🏞 The Wilderness Within

Despite its dramatic origins, René-Levasseur Island is anything but desolate. The island and surrounding reservoir are part of an expansive boreal ecosystem teeming with wildlife. Moose, black bears, wolves, and the elusive Arctic char inhabit this remote corner of Quebec.

The entire region is rich in geological history and ecological diversity. The island itself has an alpine-like plateau known as Mount Babel, rising 952 meters above sea level and offering dramatic views of the surrounding lake. It’s the island’s highest point and another legacy of that ancient rebound effect.

This ecosystem is so pristine that the Arctic char, usually found in cold, glacial waters, thrives here in what is often called some of the purest freshwater in North America.

📡 Space-Age Appeal

What makes the Manicouagan Reservoir truly unforgettable is how perfectly round it appears from above. It’s a favorite of astronauts on the International Space Station, who have dubbed it a “landmark crater.” The surreal, sci-fi appearance of the lake—with its circular outline and massive island bullseye—is so unmistakable that it’s visible in nearly every satellite image of Quebec.

🧭 Visiting the Eye of Quebec

Getting to René-Levasseur Island isn't as easy as hopping on a ferry—it remains largely undeveloped and uninhabited, accessible mainly by helicopter, floatplane, or overland expeditions involving logging roads and rugged wilderness trekking. But for adventurous island chasers, that’s part of the appeal.

There are limited tourism opportunities in the surrounding areas, like Baie-Comeau and Rimouski, which serve as jump-off points for wilderness tours and educational trips. Occasionally, scientific expeditions and documentaries (like the one available on Kanopy) explore the reservoir, shedding light on its past and present.

🌀 A Living Crater, A Natural Wonder

The beauty of René-Levasseur Island lies not only in its size or rarity but in its story. It's a place where geology, climate, and time have conspired to create something truly rare—a reminder of Earth’s violent cosmic past, now blanketed in serene forest and icy waters. It’s Canada’s very own alien landscape, and it’s as real as it gets.

So next time you're scrolling through maps and stumble upon what looks like a digital artifact or a sci-fi terrain—zoom in. You might just be looking at the Eye of Quebec.