The Slate Islands came from violent origins. Over 500 million years ago a large meteorite impacted here. At the centre of a 32 km wide underwater crater, the islands were formed when the earth's surface rebounded from the cosmic collision. Intense heat and pressure altered the geology of the Canadian Shield forming triangular rock structures called shatter cones. Shatter cones are only formed during meteorite collisions and nuclear explosions. Most are very small at several centimeters in size. A shatter cone in the Slates towers over the shoreline at 10 meters in height - one of the largest examples in the world.
The Slate Islands as seen from Terrace Bay, Ontario, along the north shore of Lake Superior 
" It all looks like rocks to me"
"Ah, now I see it"
One of the largest shatter cones in the world. A local MNR Conservation Officer who accompanied some NASA scientists to the site described them as "nearly delirious with excitement" when they first spotted it.
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