“Crater discovered with Google Earth” stories are among my favorites, and we’ve got a nice one today, right on my birthday:-) Via Australia’s ScienceAlert:

Satellite image reveals new crater
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
By Michelle Ridley

[…] Dr Hickman, from the Geological Survey of Western Australia, was using Google Earth to look for iron ore when he noticed an unusually circular structure.

He sent a Google Earth picture of the structure to his colleague Dr Andrew Glickson at the Australian National University, who later visited the area and confirmed that Dr Hickman had found a particularly well preserved meteorite crater.

There is no placemark included in the story (a pet peeve) but the directions are clear: “just 35km north of Newman”. Go looking there and the crater pops out at you — once you know that you’re looking for it, of course.

Here is the link in Google Earth, or check it out on the map:

View Larger Map

Yet another example of what happens when you democratize access to geodata:-)