WebProNews

Australian Geologist Arthur Hickman accidentally discovered a meteorite crater while using Google Earth looking for iron ore.

Dr. Hickman, from the Geological Survey of Western Australia sent the Google Earth picture to a colleague who was able to confirm that it was an undiscovered meteorite crater. The crater is now named Hickman crater.

The crater is believed to be between 10,000 and 100,000 years old and is 885 feet across.

Frank Taylor writes on the Google Earth Blog," If you want to start searching for craters in Google Earth, you might want to load this super-collection showing placemarks of known and suspected meteor craters on Earth." 

"There are several folders which show various datasets of craters and some show the size of the craters as well. Also, be aware that not all things that look like meteor craters are. Besides the obvious volcano craters, there are other geological objects which appear as meteor craters but are not."

Dr. Hickman said anyone can use Google Earth to find craters created by meteorites. "Large meteorites hit every few thousand years, so when you consider that the landscape is millions of years old, there's a lot of potential for meteorite craters out there," he told ScienceAlert.